Martyn Waites Books in Order

Journalist Stephen Larkin returns reluctantly to Newcastle to cover a gangland funeral. When former lover Charlotte asks him to investigate her friend Mary's apparent suicide, the assignment pulls him toward painful memories and the city's criminal world.

Back in Newcastle, Stephen Larkin seeks purpose beyond exposing corrupt politicians. Investigating a child abuser with influential connections draws his attention to a charismatic youth campaigner, whose public ambitions may conceal something far more dangerous.

Stephen Larkin searches for a friend's missing sixteen-year-old daughter in London. Competing drug dealers, child exploitation, and religious gangsters complicate the investigation, while other pursuers are interested in finding the girl regardless of whether she survives.

The 1984 miners' strike links a struggling miner, a young journalist, a footballer, a debt collector, and a woman stalked by her past. Their intertwined lives reveal how its consequences continue shaping Newcastle years later.

Returning to Newcastle in 1946, traumatized veteran Jack Smeaton embraces T. Dan Smith's socialist vision for rebuilding the city. Meanwhile, abused Monica encounters Brian Mooney, whose charm conceals violence that shadows decades of civic transformation.

Reclusive journalist Joe Donovan is approached by teenage Jamal, whose mysterious possession may connect to Donovan's missing son. Their search draws together an unconventional team while a relentless killer pursues them through a world of buried secrets.

Hired to establish a murder suspect's alibi, Joe Donovan investigates a young woman's mutilated body. Further deaths lead him beyond trafficking and prostitution toward a serial killer whose clues draw on Newcastle's disturbing history.

A Muslim student's murder initially points toward Newcastle's rising far right, but the evidence is less straightforward. Joe Donovan's investigation intersects with a former radical's return and a killer intent on protecting a decades-old secret.

Anne Marie returns home decades after killing a child and tells journalist Joe Donovan her story. When a teenager is murdered and she finds blood on her hands, terrifying memory gaps make her fear renewed involvement.

During the 1940 Blitz, teacher Eve Parkins escorts evacuated children to isolated Eel Marsh House. Haunted by her own loss, she soon realizes their refuge contains a threatening presence that places the children in fresh danger.

Former undercover officer Tom Killgannon lives quietly under witness protection in Cornwall until troubled runaway Lila enters his life. Protecting her and recovering his identity papers draws him toward a dangerous local community and its hidden plans.

Tom Killgannon goes undercover in prison to obtain information from a child killer about missing victims. Encountering a gangster imprisoned through Tom's earlier testimony endangers his cover, while unresponsive handlers leave him increasingly isolated.

After surviving his family's murder, teenager Simon West is placed temporarily with former undercover officer Tom Killgannon. Threats follow him to Tom's Cornish cottage, while local political extremism creates another danger for the vulnerable survivor.

Ten strangers awaken in a locked country house with no memory of arriving. Solving a missing woman’s disappearance appears to be their only escape, but a killer moves among them, forcing desperate questions about their identities and why they were chosen.

A vanished novelist’s final manuscript resurfaces as an unexpectedly conventional spy thriller. His best friend, asked to annotate it, discovers references to their shared past and begins treating the story as a coded explanation for a disappearance that remains dangerous.