Inspector Alun Ryga Books in Order

The Inspector Alun Ryga novels are historical mysteries set on Britain’s coast in the years just after the Second World War. They follow a thoughtful Scotland Yard detective who is sent out from London to tackle baffling deaths in small port towns and island communities.

Alun Ryga served in the Merchant Navy during the war and spent years as a prisoner in a German camp after his ship was captured. That experience has left him reserved, observant and determined to get justice for people who have been ignored or silenced. He notices small details, listens more than he talks and is wary of easy answers.

Each book places Ryga and former war photographer Eva Paisley in a different coastal setting. In Death in the Cove he travels to Portland Island in Dorset, where a man dressed in a pinstripe suit is found stabbed in a secluded bay. Death in the Harbour takes him to Newhaven in East Sussex to look into the apparent drowning of a local constable and the disappearance of the man's wife.

In Death In The Nets the pair visit Brixham in Devon after a young boy insists he has seen a body tangled in fishing gear on the shore. Death in the Dunes moves to the shingle and shacks of Dungeness in Kent, where a former pilot is found strangled among the sand and marram grass. Death On Board carries Ryga to Cornwall when an eminent Harley Street dermatologist is discovered dead on his yacht under suspicious circumstances.

Rowson uses these cases to explore rationing, post-war shortages and the nervous early years of the Cold War. There are no mobile phones or computer databases to lean on, so Ryga works with paper files, telegrams, local gossip and old-fashioned legwork, often clashing politely with provincial officers who resent interference from London.

The sea and weather shape the mood of the series. Fog, winter storms, dangerous tidal races and lonely harbours all contribute to an atmosphere where secrets can be hidden but not forever. Readers who enjoy classic-style detection with a strong sense of time and place, and without graphic violence, tend to be drawn to Inspector Ryga's world.