Starke & Bell Books in Order

The Starke & Bell series is a dark psychological crime series written by Steph Broadribb under the name Stephanie Marland. It pairs DI Dominic Bell, a detective under professional pressure, with Clementine Starke, an intelligent but guarded young woman whose interest in true crime keeps pulling her near active investigations.

In My Little Eye, a serial killer known as The Lover leaves victims posed with rose petals. Bell is trying to solve the case while dealing with an internal investigation, and the pressure is mounting. Clementine joins an online true-crime group that believes it can identify the killer before the police do. Her knowledge, nerve, and willingness to take risks make her valuable, but she is also hiding a serious secret of her own.

Everyone is watching someone.

The series plays with the uneasy overlap between official policing and online investigation. Clementine's world includes people who study cases from behind screens, compare clues, trade theories, and sometimes push far beyond the limits of sensible involvement. Bell has to work within the system, with all the scrutiny, paperwork, and divided loyalties that brings. Their paths cross because neither can simply walk away from a case once it begins to feel personal.

You Die Next gives the pair another disturbing investigation when urban explorers find a killer's room in a derelict film studio. Soon, one of the group is dead, and the survivors realize they may be targets themselves. Bell needs Clementine's help, but she is carrying her own fears and history into the case. The danger comes not only from identifying the killer, but from deciding who can be trusted and whether anyone is being used.

These books are more unsettling than cozy. They use serial-crime setups, online communities, abandoned spaces, and hidden identities to create a tense, suspicious atmosphere. The cases move quickly, but the heart of the series is the uneasy partnership between Bell and Starke. He is trained to follow evidence and procedure. She is an outsider who sees patterns other people might miss, even when acting on them puts her at risk.

Begin with My Little Eye. It introduces both leads, the pressures surrounding Bell's career, and the secrets that make Clementine such a complicated ally. You Die Next works best after it, because it builds on their shared history while giving readers a fresh case. Expect fast-moving investigations, a modern true-crime angle, and leads who are useful to each other without ever becoming fully comfortable together.