Slater and Norman Mystery Books in Order
Part ofPF Ford Books in OrderSee the Slater and Norman Mystery series by P F Ford in order, with books listed, quick plot summaries, series background, and pointers on where to start reading.
Last updated: January 14, 2026
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Publication Order
14 books
The Invisible Man
by PF Ford
2019
A grieving mother receives a text message apparently sent from the phone her daughter was using when she died in a car crash two years earlier. As Slater and Norman follow the digital trail, they uncover obsession, blackmail and a shadowy figure using technology to stay one step ahead.
Wrongly Convicted
by PF Ford
2018
Ten years after Julie Harris was beaten to death at a Welsh caravan park, her husband is still serving life for the crime. New evidence suggests the jury may have got it wrong, and Slater and Norman must re-open the case, retracing old statements and tracking down witnesses who would rather forget.
Deceptive Appearances
by PF Ford
2018
Business is slow at Slater and Norman Investigations until a man asks them to find his missing sister, a keen jogger last seen in bright red running gear. What should be a straight missing-person enquiry soon tangles with false identities, compromising photos and a body that nobody wants to claim.
What's In A Name?
by PF Ford
2017
Now working as private investigators, Slater and Norman are hired to look into the quiet death of pensioner Joe Dalgetty, a case the police were happy to close. Following odd details in his past, they stumble into a web of stolen identities, buried scandals and one woman’s mysterious fall from grace.
A Puzzle Of Old Bones
by PF Ford
2017
When long-buried skeletal remains are uncovered, Slater finds himself back among archaeologists, grieving families and secrets that should have stayed in the ground. The trail leads to a missing son, a fractured household and the kind of old bitterness that can still provoke murder years later.
A Fatal Deception
by PF Ford
2017
With Slater away, Norman steps into the spotlight and is called to identify a woman on a mortuary slab. Seeing the face of Slater’s former girlfriend staring back at him, he is pulled into a case where personal history, hidden affairs and a very current killer all collide.
The Secret of Wild Boar Woods
by PF Ford
2016
An eight-year-old girl vanishes, the kind of call every officer dreads. When Chrissy’s body is found curled up in Wild Boar Woods, Slater and the team must dig back through local history, old feuds and buried scandals to explain why this stretch of woodland keeps claiming children.
The Kidney Donor
by PF Ford
2016
A homeless man is found burned to death in a rubbish skip, apparently a tragic accident. Returning from a break in France, former detective Dave Slater is not so sure, especially when he learns the victim recently had a kidney removed and another rough sleeper has gone missing.
A Skeleton In The Closet
by PF Ford
2016
A bomb explodes in Tinton police station’s forensic lab, killing a colleague who should have gone home hours earlier. As Slater and Norman search for answers, a decades-old death in the river resurfaces, and the investigation forces them to confront uncomfortable truths about someone they thought they knew.
The Wrong Man
by PF Ford
2015
When Diana Woods is stabbed to death in her kitchen, suspicion falls on her abusive estranged husband. As Slater digs deeper, a new suspect appears and the evidence starts to look almost too neat. He and Norman must decide who is lying and who is being carefully framed.
The Red Telephone Box
by PF Ford
2015
Roused from sleep by news that Norman’s flat is on fire, Slater rushes to the scene only to find his partner missing. With a new DI watching his every move and whispers of a dangerous Russian connection, he races against time to work out what Norman stumbled into before it is too late.
Florence
by PF Ford
2015
An elderly man is found dead at home and Slater initially writes it off as a sad accident. Then the house is ransacked and talk surfaces of a ghost-like woman seen on the streets at night. Chasing the elusive Florence leads Slater and Norman into hidden guilt and long-protected lies.
Just A Coincidence
by PF Ford
2014
Life in Tinton seems dull until a dog walker finds a battered body near Haunted Copse and two more sets of remains turn up close by. Slater and Norman must untangle old family secrets, a dodgy counterfeiting scheme and simmering tensions inside their own team to find the killer.
Death Of A Temptress
by PF Ford
2014
Suspended after taking the blame for a botched joint operation, DS Dave Slater is quietly told to re-examine a closed missing-person case. With fellow scapegoat Norman Norman at his side, he uncovers escorts, corrupt officers and a murder someone will kill to keep buried.
Series background & context
The Slater and Norman Mystery series follows DS Dave Slater, a thoughtful detective who never quite fits the mould, and Norman Norman, a shambolic but sharp colleague who ends up being exactly the partner he needs. The books begin in the fictional Hampshire town of Tinton, where big-city ambitions collide with small-town politics and limited resources.
It all starts when Slater is made the scapegoat for a disastrous joint operation and is quietly handed a “discreet” cold case in Death Of A Temptress. The missing-woman enquiry pulls him into escort agencies, crooked officers and a ruthless cover up, and introduces Norman as a fellow scapegoat who refuses to walk away. From that point on, the series becomes as much about their growing partnership as it is about the crimes they solve.
Case by case, the books mix classic puzzle plotting with a steady drip of character change. In Just A Coincidence a battered body near Haunted Copse leads to two older sets of remains and a tangle of family secrets stretching back fifteen years. Florence turns what looks like a lonely old man’s accident into a hunt for whatever someone is desperate to find in his ransacked house, while a mysterious woman seen only at night hovers at the edge of the story.
Ford regularly raises the stakes for the wider team. The Red Telephone Box opens with Norman’s flat on fire and Norman missing, forcing Slater to work against the clock while adjusting to a new, no-nonsense DI. The Secret of Wild Boar Woods deals with the nightmare of a missing eight-year-old girl and the discovery of her body in local woodland, pushing the detectives back into local history to understand what the woods are hiding. In A Skeleton In The Closet a bombing at Tinton police station kills a colleague and exposes secrets from long ago, blurring the line between professional duty and personal grief.
As the series moves on, Slater and Norman’s careers shift. The fallout from difficult bosses and messy investigations eventually nudges them out of the force and into life as private investigators. Books like The Kidney Donor, What’s In A Name? and Wrongly Convicted follow them as they take on cases the police cannot or will not prioritise, from a burned homeless man with a missing kidney to a pensioner’s suspicious death and an old conviction that may have put the wrong person behind bars.
Later entries such as Deceptive Appearances and The Invisible Man lean fully into this new role. The pair chase missing joggers, anonymous threats and messages sent from phones that should have died with their owners, often tripping over conspiracies, hidden identities and uncomfortable truths about the people of Tinton. Through it all, the tone stays grounded. There is danger and sadness, but also pub gossip, awkward dates, and running jokes about doughnuts and diets.
Across the series, readers see Slater grow from a defensive, slightly prickly sergeant into someone more settled in his own skin, while Norman reveals a quiet resilience under his rumpled exterior. Each mystery stands alone, but long-running threads about career choices, friendships and small-town change make the books especially satisfying in order. If you like British mysteries that sit between cozy and procedural, with plenty of banter and not much blood, Slater and Norman are easy company to keep.
Edited by
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