Steve Mosby Books in Order
Browse Steve Mosby books in order, including his Alex North titles, with short summaries, series background, reading guidance, and help on where to start.
Last updated: June 30, 2026
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Publication Order
16 books
The Third Person
by Steve Mosby
2003
When Amy vanishes leaving only a note, Jason starts digging into her secret life online. What begins as a desperate search turns into a dark thriller about trauma, obsession, and the dangerous gap between virtual selves and real ones.
The Cutting Crew
by Steve Mosby
2006
Former police officer Martin investigates a brutal murder after a horrific video surfaces and his partner disappears. As he follows the trail through the city's darker corners, old corruption and personal obsession close in.
The 50/50 Killer
by Steve Mosby
2007
Young cop Mark Nelson joins legendary detective John Mercer just as a sadistic killer targets couples. One victim always dies, one may live, and the case becomes a brutal test of memory, love, and survival.
Cry for Help
by Steve Mosby
2008
Magician Dave Lewis has spent years trying to outrun his brother's murder and his family's grief. When Detective Sam Currie hunts a killer who taunts victims' families by text and email, Dave is dragged back into the darkness.
Still Bleeding
by Steve Mosby
2009
Alex Connor comes home to say goodbye to a dead friend, only to learn her body has vanished before burial. At the same time, Detective Paul Kearney hunts a killer whose crimes lead into a sinister trade in death souvenirs.
Black Flowers
by Steve Mosby
2011
A little girl appears on a seaside promenade with a black flower and a terrifying story. As writer Neil Dawson mourns his father's suicide, a strange manuscript and a police investigation pull several lives toward a buried secret.
Dark Room / The Murder Code
by Steve Mosby
2012
DI Andrew Hicks thinks a murdered woman's ex-husband is the obvious suspect, until a second near-identical killing blows the case open. Soon he is chasing a serial killer who seems to revel in chaos, and in Hicks's blind spots.
The Nightmare Place
by Steve Mosby
2014
DI Zoe Dalton is haunted by dreams of the wasteland where she grew up while a violent predator stalks women across the city. When a helpline volunteer passes on a chilling confession, Zoe steps into a waking nightmare.
I Know Who Did It
by Steve Mosby
2015
Two years after Charlie Matheson died in a car crash, a woman claiming to be Charlie turns up alive and terrified. Detectives Mark Nelson and David Groves are drawn into a brutal story of loss, revenge, and long-buried evil.
The Reckoning on Cane Hill
by Steve Mosby
2016
Two years after Charlie Matheson died, a scarred woman claiming to be her reappears. Detectives Mark Nelson and David Groves are pulled into a grim case of grief, vengeance, and old crimes that refuse to stay buried.
You Can Run
by Steve Mosby
2017
A car crash reveals a woman imprisoned in a garage and the remains of the Red River Killer's victims. As suspect John Blythe disappears, DI Will Turner hunts the truth while hiding his own dangerous connection to the case.
The Whisper Man
by Steve Mosby
2019
After his wife's death, Tom Kennedy moves with his young son Jake to Featherbank for a fresh start. Then another boy vanishes, old fears wake up again, and Jake starts hearing whispers at his window.
The Shadows / The Shadow Friend / The Shadow Killer
by Steve Mosby
2020
Paul Adams returns home to help his ailing mother and finds the old Charlie Crabtree murder stirring again. A copycat killing, lucid dreaming, and a vanished friend turn his past into a fresh nightmare.
The Angel Maker / The Half Burnt House
by Steve Mosby
2023
Katie Shaw has never forgiven herself for failing to protect her little brother. When he disappears and a philosophy professor is murdered, the case opens onto a serial killer legend, family guilt, and the question of whether fate can change.
Dark Room
by Steve Mosby
2025
When a young woman's murder points to the simplest answer, DI Andrew Hicks is ready to close in fast. Then more bodies appear, the pattern falls apart, and he faces a killer whose logic may be no logic at all.
The Man Made of Smoke
by Steve Mosby
2025
As a child, Dan Garvie watched a lost boy slip toward a notorious killer and did nothing. Years later, now a criminal psychiatrist, he returns to his island home after his father's disappearance and finds the past waiting for him.
Where should I start?
If you want the best-known entry point: The Whisper Man → The Shadows → The Angel Maker
If you want dark police thrillers: The 50/50 Killer → I Know Who Did It → You Can Run
If you want eerie standalones with a horror edge: Black Flowers → Dark Room → The Nightmare Place
If you want to start at the beginning: The Third Person → The Cutting Crew
Author bio
Steve Mosby was born in Horsforth, near Leeds, in 1976, and he has stayed close to that part of England for much of his life. He studied philosophy at the University of Leeds, later worked there in the Department of Sociology and Social Policy, and eventually made the move into full-time writing. He still lives in Leeds with his wife and son.
Writing seems to have been the long game for him. Before readers knew him as a novelist, he was fitting work around the more ordinary parts of life, then slowly building a career book by book. His debut novel, The Third Person, appeared in 2003, and it already showed the things that would keep turning up in his later work: damaged people, creeping dread, and stories that feel like crime fiction with one foot in something darker.
He did not arrive all at once.
Over the next decade he built a steady run of standalones under the name Steve Mosby, including The Cutting Crew, The 50/50 Killer, Cry for Help, Still Bleeding, and Black Flowers. Readers who click with those books usually like the same mix of ingredients: police work, emotional fallout, nasty surprises, and a mood that can turn from realistic to deeply unsettling in a page or two. In 2012 he won the CWA Dagger in the Library, an award that says a lot about the consistency of that stretch of work.
He kept pushing that approach in books like Dark Room, The Nightmare Place, I Know Who Did It, and You Can Run. Even though these novels are standalones, they share a family resemblance. Mosby likes detectives who are carrying too much, families shaken by grief, and ordinary English settings that start to feel strange and unsafe once the past begins leaking through.
He writes as if home is where the trouble starts.
A big turning point came in 2019, when he began publishing as Alex North. That name brought him to a wider international audience through The Whisper Man, followed by The Shadow Friend/The Shadows, The Half Burnt House/The Angel Maker, and The Man Made of Smoke. The Whisper Man became a Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller, was translated into more than 30 languages, and is being adapted for film. Under the Alex North name, he leaned even harder into the overlap between crime, horror, and family drama, which turned out to suit him very well.
What makes his books easy to pick out is not a single detective or a shared universe so much as a shared feeling. The stories tend to ask what grief does to people, what childhood leaves behind, and how much darkness can sit inside an ordinary life before everything gives way. He is still writing from Leeds, still working both sides of the line between thriller and horror, and still very good at making readers feel that something is wrong long before they know exactly what it is.
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