John Carson Books in Order

Seven years ago Brodie led the hunt for a murderer the press dubbed The Embalmer, who killed seven women and posed their bodies like a grotesque exhibition, then vanished. When identical killings start again, he is called back to Fife to face the case that defined his career, only to realise the killer is not just repeating history but rewriting it with Brodie in his sights.

After literary agent Sarah Matthews is murdered in her St Andrews office, DCI James Craig discovers pages from an unpublished manuscript describing her death in exact detail. When further chapters arrive predicting more killings in the publishing world, he must unmask a killer who is using fiction as a script and seems determined to write Craig into the final act.

A series of brutal attacks on serving and former detectives pulls James Craig into a joint investigation with DCI Harry McNeil. As ex members of an elite police unit are picked off with chilling precision, the two teams uncover a buried scandal inside the force and realise that all of them may be on the killer’s list.

In a remote hotel far from help, staff discover a man murdered in a room and a dead woman posed in an armchair watching him, the scene partially burned. Craig’s investigation reveals a killer who carefully stages victims before dousing the flames, leaving him chasing a meticulous planner whose motives are rooted in trauma that refuses to stay buried.

DCI Liam Brodie, celebrated for stopping a notorious Edinburgh serial killer, is reassigned to Fife’s Major Investigation Team and handed a case that hits painfully close to home. Child bones are found under the floorboards of his girlfriend Ruth’s former foster home, forcing him to pull apart decades of secrets, jealousies and half remembered truths in a community that would rather forget the past.

When teenager Heather Ross disappears in rural Fife, whispers about the Shadow Watchers, eerie figures from local folklore, resurface in the hills. As Craig and his team follow leads involving land deals, stolen artefacts and buried grudges, the disappearances turn lethal and the line between old legend and modern violence grows dangerously thin.

Forensic pathologist Annie Keller visits her uncle, retired judge William Hawthorne, who in a moment of clarity claims to know the identity of a killer. When a new body turns up matching his hazy description, DCI James Craig must decide how seriously to take the words of a man with dementia while powerful figures work to keep old decisions hidden.

A well liked man is found bludgeoned to death in his own home, a jigsaw piece clenched in his hand. As DCI James Craig and his new team dig into the victim’s carefully managed life, they uncover a darker alter ego and realise the killer may be working through a list of targets connected to old sins.

Returning to Fife for his wife’s uncle’s funeral, London detective James Craig is uneasy with the tidy explanation that the old man simply fell downstairs. When small details refuse to add up, Craig joins the inquiry and uncovers links to a long ago serial case from his probationer days, forcing him to face a killer he thought he had left in the past.

At the Burntisland carnival, two teenage girls enjoy the rides, unaware one of them is being stalked. The next morning, her body is discovered in a cemetery with a symbol carved into her forehead that Craig recognises from an unsolved case. When more victims appear echoing other investigations from his past, he realises someone is recreating the murders he never quite closed.

A young man’s body is found in an abandoned caravan, and at first it looks like a tragic accident. When his real identity emerges and an ugly crime from his past resurfaces, Harry McNeil is drawn into a revenge plot that the public seems to welcome, even as a hidden accomplice and fresh violence reveal how little anyone really knows about what justice should look like.

When a bestselling author is found dead in what looks like a publicity stunt gone wrong, Harry McNeil quickly realises it is murder and that not everyone admired the victim. While short staffed and under pressure, he chases a killer who understands storytelling, as DCI Angie Fisher in Fife investigates a suspicious family death that refuses to stay off Harry’s radar.

A serial killer Harry McNeil helped cage dies in prison, but the post mortem reveals a final message addressed to him and hints at more victims than anyone knew. As new bodies appear and an apparent protégé continues the dead man’s work, Harry must chase a legacy killer while a separate investigation in the Cairngorms tests one of his colleagues to breaking point.

Settling into a new rhythm at work and at home, Harry McNeil is jolted when a Member of the Scottish Parliament is found slaughtered in an empty house, the scene matching an old murder almost detail for detail. Someone is recreating past killings with insider precision, forcing Harry to revisit earlier investigations before the copycat turns historic crime scenes into a modern hit list.

A respected Edinburgh psychiatrist is beaten to death, and Harry McNeil’s team struggles to find anyone who truly knew the man behind the professional mask. As witnesses close ranks and motives multiply, Harry pushes through a wall of silence, while Frank Miller fights to clear his own name, both men facing enemies who would rather see them ruined than see the truth come out.

When a body is discovered strapped to a carousel horse at a fair in Edinburgh’s Meadows, Harry McNeil recognises the victim as a charismatic politician he arrested years earlier. As he digs into the man’s past threats and buried scandals, Harry’s team is pulled into the sights of a killer whose vendetta is about to change Harry’s own life forever.

Recently retired from Police Scotland, Calvin Stewart joins a tiny private investigation firm with Finbar O'Toole and an old colleague. Hired by a woman whose husband vanished on a golf trip, they follow a trail of bodies, false identities and a killer who treats the case like a game.

Detective Superintendent Calvin Stewart is on his last chance after wrecking a Glasgow crime scene. When pathologist Finbar O'Toole saves his life, the two grudgingly team up to hunt a killer who has been operating unseen for years, no matter who gets in their way.

Back from leave and shunted into a temporary post, DCI Harry McNeil joins Frank Miller on a Major Investigation Team when a mutilated body echoes an old unsolved murder. As new bosses circle and Glasgow detectives weigh in, reopening the case stirs secrets that some people will kill to keep buried.

As Edinburgh prepares for New Year, Harry McNeil juggles single fatherhood, a new Major Investigation Team and the body of a woman pulled from the Water of Leith. The killer’s escalating signature suggests he is not just taunting the police, he is steering the investigation straight toward Harry himself.

At year’s end, DCI Sean Bracken is called to a wintry square near Edinburgh’s Writers’ Museum, where a woman sits dead on a bench clutching a paperback by celebrity psychologist Edwin Hawk. As public suspicion turns toward the visiting author, Bracken must decide whether Hawk is a manipulative killer or another player in a deeper game that is turning deadly.

Sean Bracken is trying to buy a house and keep up with changes in his family when he is dragged into the investigation of a woman beaten and burned in an abandoned building. The attack is viciously personal, and as he traces the victim’s connections, Bracken enters a world of manipulation and obsession where a clever killer seems to anticipate every move the police make.

During summer solstice celebrations on Arthur’s Seat, respected academic Angela Monroe is found dead at the foot of Salisbury Crags. When the pathologist rules out an accident, Sean Bracken’s team uncovers baffling gaps in her life and a second murder, all while someone apparently dead begins stalking Bracken’s girlfriend.

Childhood legend Nightmare was supposed to scare children, until a killer carved his name into three victims and then disappeared. Years later, fresh graffiti and a murdered journalist drag Harry McNeil to the Highlands, where he must untangle superstition from a very real predator.

A young woman with a powerful father is found brutally killed, her death arranged to look like an accident. While Bracken investigates the victim’s double life and a suspicious arson attack on his boss’s house, an old name from his past resurfaces, pushing him onto a tightrope where one wrong move could end his career or his life.

On leave after a personal tragedy, Harry McNeil hides in a half renovated cottage and the local bar, convinced he is done with big cases. When a woman begs him to find her missing brother and a body surfaces in Loch Lomond with the man’s name in its pocket, Harry is dragged into a small town mystery where a killer has been hiding in plain sight.

When a teenager who vanished five years earlier is found freshly murdered near Portobello Beach, DCI Harry McNeil sees disturbing links to two recent abductions. As another young girl is snatched, his team races to stop a predator who keeps victims hidden for years before killing them.

Six years ago, DCI Sean Bracken stopped criminologist Ailsa Connolly just before she could make him her seventh victim, and she has taunted him from a secure hospital ever since. Newly returned to Edinburgh, he faces a copycat killer using Ailsa’s methods to rack up a higher body count, forcing Bracken into an uneasy alliance with the serial killer who wants him dead.

In a Highland town gearing up for its Christmas Land festival, a woman is found hanging in the woods and a hearse crashes into a church carrying the decades old body of a missing girl. With tourists flooding in and Hogmanay approaching, Harry McNeil has only days to catch a killer who is using the celebrations to showcase both old and new victims.

Decades after millionaire Murdo Wolf’s plane vanished over the sea, his remains and aircraft are finally discovered. When one of his grandsons is murdered during a family gathering on the old island estate, Harry McNeil and a Glasgow team must untangle an old disappearance and a present day killing on an isolated island where the murderer may still be moving among the guests.

Harry McNeil barely has time to process his stepfather’s death before he is called to an upscale street where an apparently ordinary man has been stabbed on his own doorstep. When the victim’s widow begins seeing a shadowy stranger near her home, Harry realises the hit may be tied to something closer to his own family than he wants to admit.

Visiting his late father’s dementia stricken former colleague, Harry McNeil is shown unsettling photographs that seem to tie the old detective to a long dormant serial case. When fresh bodies appear in Glasgow and Edinburgh with eerie similarities, Harry is forced to ask whether a once trusted cop is a killer, and why the new murders are circling closer to him.

In the middle of a brutal Edinburgh winter, a woman’s frozen body is found hidden inside a snowman. As Harry McNeil connects the case to an older unsolved killing, he is suddenly accused of misconduct, forcing him to clear his name while tracking a murderer who uses the storm to cover their trail.

A prison transport van explodes and two convicted killers vanish into the Scottish countryside. Pulled back into the job just when he was enjoying time off, Harry McNeil teams with Glasgow detectives to track the escapees as their murderous trail grows longer and the manhunt turns into a race against mounting casualties.

A decomposed body is discovered in an old nuclear bunker being converted into a museum, carrying belongings linked to a woman who vanished six years earlier. As DI Frank Miller reopens the case that sent her husband to prison, he uncovers new victims, buried secrets and a truth someone was desperate to keep sealed underground.

Newly promoted to lead a Major Investigation Team after years chasing corrupt cops, DCI Harry McNeil is tested when a wealthy bride vanishes from a Highland castle on her wedding night. A burned corpse in a wedding dress and echoes of a fifteen year old murder suicide force him to reopen an old case before another ceremony ends in a mass funeral.

On his first day running Edinburgh’s cold case unit, Harry McNeil is faced with a fresh murder in a cemetery that mirrors the decades old killing he has been asked to review. With a film crew underfoot and suspects on all sides, he and Frank Miller must work out whether a gravestone killer has been active for twenty years or if someone new is copying an old crime.

Four years after nearly dying during a hunt for a serial killer in upstate New York, former FBI agent Scott Marshall is dragged back when decomposed victims start reappearing in staged graves. Partnering with Detective Dani Fox, he confronts old guilt and a killer who has decided to make things personal all over again.

When a woman is crushed beneath a toppled gravestone during a TV shoot in a cemetery, DI Frank Miller finds unnerving similarities to a twenty year old murder in the same spot. Working alongside newly promoted DCI Harry McNeil and a visiting detective, Miller has to pick apart old evidence, on set egos and buried grudges before another staged death turns the production into a genuine body count.

DCI Harry McNeil thinks he was right to end a serious relationship, given the danger of his job, until a mutilated female body is dragged from a canal carrying a dead officer’s ID. The victim’s real identity as a software engineer probing classified self driving car projects points Harry toward a web of government secrets, corporate greed and very determined killers.

Edinburgh gangster Adrian Jackson returns home after twenty five years in an American prison, determined to reclaim his old territory. Tasked with overseeing Jackson’s release, DI Frank Miller is caught between rival criminals and a string of executions, as hired killers start erasing anyone with ties to the past and Miller becomes the one obstacle they cannot ignore.

After a devastating strike on the Phoenix Group’s Los Angeles office, two agents vanish and are presumed dead until Max Doyle receives a cryptic text from one of them, Michelle Barragan. Following the signal to a quiet Maine town, he and Jordan Lane uncover a conspiracy that points toward a major attack on New York and betrayal from inside their own organisation.

Imprisoned for killing his commanding officer in Afghanistan, former Army Ranger Max Doyle is offered freedom if he joins a covert unit called the Phoenix Group. Teamed with disgraced Royal Marines commando Nathan Kane, he must track down elusive assassin Rose Arcana while realising the mission is far more complicated than he was told.

Called to the Borders when a woman is found crucified in a graveyard, DI Frank Miller discovers the town is hosting a festival for a long dead poet and wartime agent. As a lost aircraft, missing documents and a vicious snowstorm trap actors and locals together, Miller must unmask a killer determined that buried wartime secrets stay buried.

When a nerve agent attack in Times Square kills a traitorous ex NSA operative’s partner, Max Doyle and Nathan Kane are sent to intercept the man before he can flee. As similar toxins surface in Central Park and an old enemy reappears, Doyle is pushed into a fight that threatens both his team and his city.

A lucrative redevelopment in Edinburgh’s New Town turns deadly when an architect is found dead in an empty office, followed by a senior city official. Miller’s investigation into rival developers and city power brokers shows that some white collar battles are as lethal as gang wars, and someone is willing to kill their way to the top.

In his first month in CID, Frank Miller faces a killer dubbed The Surgeon, who removes organs from victims and leaves their IDs stitched inside them. Balancing the case, a voyeur escalating to murder and girlfriend Carol’s promotion to CID, Miller has to learn fast before the next body falls and someone close to him pays the price.

Years after jailing a notorious serial killer, Frank Miller is horrified to learn the man has escaped a secure hospital and wants to play one final game. Suspended and on the run after being framed, Miller must solve a hidden murder and prove his own innocence while colleagues hunt him like any other fugitive.

After a man kills his boss and jumps from a rooftop and a hotel worker murders colleagues before leaping from North Bridge, Frank Miller is left asking why ordinary people are snapping. An undercover trip to a glossy wellness centre suggests someone is pushing desperate clients into deadly choices, and the mastermind is not finished yet.

A young lawyer is murdered at home and her body removed, leaving only a photograph of the corpse behind. When other women disappear and similar photos are left for police, Frank Miller must link victims that seem unrelated while a priest who holds vital information struggles with what he can reveal.

During the Edinburgh Festival, a killer uses the crowds to make women vanish without a trace, until he chooses a local American instead of a tourist. With a key witness more interested in cashing in than talking to police, Miller chases a predator who is eliminating anyone who might connect him to his last victim.

Two weeks before Christmas, a young woman with expensive earrings is found stabbed on an Edinburgh beach, followed by a local woman killed the same way in a cemetery. As Miller traces the stolen jewellery to a past robbery and helps protect a domestic abuse survivor, he realises the cases are linked in ways nobody expected.

The body of ten year old kidnap victim Terry White is discovered three years after his abduction, reopening the case that left Miller a widower when a ransom drop went wrong. While a violent robbery crew plans one last heist, Miller races to stop them before they disappear with the key to Terry’s murder.

Twenty five years after a woman was murdered on the opening night of a grand hotel and her killer escaped custody, Frank Miller investigates the death of a former detective tied to that old case. As more bodies appear, he uncovers a web of betrayal that suggests the original killer never really left.