Tim Sullivan Books in Order

If you want to follow DS George Cross from book one: The Dentist → The Cyclist → The Patient → The Politician.
If you enjoy darker, more reflective cases: The Monk → The Teacher → The Bookseller.
If you just want quick, self contained stories: The Lost Boys → The Ex-Wife → The Hunter.

Tim Sullivan was born in Germany in 1958, where his father was serving with the Royal Air Force. He later moved to England and attended school in Bristol at Clifton College before going on to study English and Law at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. At university he threw himself into student theatre, writing and staging work with friends and realising that stories could be a career as well as a passion.

After Cambridge, Sullivan slipped into television almost by accident. A summer job driving an actor during the filming of a period drama led to an introduction at Granada Television, where he was hired as a researcher and quickly moved behind the camera.

Before long he was directing episodes of shows such as Coronation Street, The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes and Cold Feet, learning how to pace scenes and draw strong performances from an ensemble cast.

Screenwriting grew alongside that directing work. Sullivan adapted A Handful of Dust and Where Angels Fear to Tread for the screen, then wrote and directed the London set romantic comedy Jack and Sarah. Later he contributed to animated projects, including work on Flushed Away and writing for My Little Pony: A New Generation, and he wrote the script for the Verona based romance Letters to Juliet.

Along the way he kept a steady interest in crime fiction, both on the page and on screen. When he finally turned to writing his own crime novels, he brought with him a feel for dialogue, structure and visual detail that came straight out of years on set.

His DS George Cross books grew out of that shift. Set in Bristol and the wider West Country, the series follows an autistic detective sergeant whose blunt manner and careful routines sit alongside a fierce sense of fairness. Cross is often at odds with colleagues and bosses, but he will not walk away from victims who are homeless, addicted, ignored by their families or simply hard to like.

The Dentist, The Cyclist and The Patient first introduced readers to Cross's mix of social awkwardness and razor sharp observation as he reexamines cases other officers think are solved. Later novels such as The Politician, The Monk, The Teacher and The Bookseller widen the canvas to take in local politics, religious communities, small villages and the niche world of rare books, while short pieces like The Lost Boys, The Ex-Wife and The Hunter explore quieter corners of his life.

Sullivan has not treated crime writing as a sideline. In 2023 he completed a Master of Letters in Crime Fiction and Forensic Investigation at the University of Dundee, earning the degree with distinction and receiving a prize for his dissertation. That formal study feeds into his work in small ways, from the way officers talk through a scene to the accuracy of the forensic detail on the page.

Today Sullivan lives in North London with his wife Rachel, a television producer best known for food and lifestyle programmes. He splits his time between screen projects, the next George Cross mystery and visits to festivals, libraries and bookshops where he talks with readers about the characters who have filled so much of his recent life.

For many fans, his work sits at the point where classic, puzzle based detective fiction meets a modern, compassionate look at people who often sit on the edges of the crime story.