Tony J Forder Books in Order
Browse Tony J Forder books in order, with quick summaries, series guides, and easy starting points for DI Bliss, Mike Lynch, Royston Chase, and more.
Last updated: July 2, 2026
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Publication Order
21 books
Bad to the Bone
by Tony J Forder
2017
When human remains are found in woodland and two retired officers are murdered, DI Jimmy Bliss and Penny Chandler uncover signs of a police cover-up. The deeper they dig in Peterborough, the more dangerous the case becomes.
Degrees of Darkness
by Tony J Forder
2017
Ex-detective Frank Rogers learns his daughter has been abducted after his family is attacked by a serial killer. To save her, he must think like the predator and risk losing himself in the process.
Scream Blue Murder
by Tony J Forder
2017
Mike Lynch witnesses a killing at a roadside stop and escapes in the victim's car, only to find a nanny and child hiding in the back. Protecting them drags him into a brutal and fast-moving nightmare.
Cold Winter Sun
by Tony J Forder
2018
When Mike Lynch agrees to help trace a missing young man, the trail pulls him and Terry Cochran from California to New Mexico. Fake cops, shifting loyalties, and a bigger conspiracy make every answer harder to trust.
If Fear Wins
by Tony J Forder
2018
A charred body makes the authorities think terrorism, but Bliss is not convinced. As MI5 circles and organised crime edges into view, he and Chandler race to stop a killer before more lives are lost.
The Scent of Guilt
by Tony J Forder
2018
Twelve years after leaving Peterborough, Jimmy Bliss returns to lead a serial murder case while Penny Chandler investigates linked rapes. A clue pointing to California turns the hunt into a far wider and riskier pursuit.
The Death of Justice
by Tony J Forder
2019
Two shootings, a missing head, and another headless corpse tell Bliss he is hunting a spree killer. With more names on the target list, the Major Crimes Unit has little time and nowhere safe to hide.
The Reach of Shadows
by Tony J Forder
2019
The stabbing of a young woman looks like a stalker's attack, until more suspects crowd the frame. While Bliss fights questions about his own past, his team must solve the murder before the body count climbs.
Bliss Uncovered
by Tony J Forder
2020
Fresh out of uniform, young DC Jimmy Bliss goes undercover with a gang planning a safe job. When the target changes and his cover feels shaky, he must stay alive long enough for help to find him.
Endless Silent Scream
by Tony J Forder
2020
After Bliss stops teenage Molly from jumping off a roof, he learns she is trapped in a drugs network. A second case involving a murdered journalist piles on the pressure as danger closes in from several sides.
Fifteen Coffins
by Tony J Forder
2020
FBI agent Sydney Merlot returns to her northern California hometown to settle her late father's PI affairs and walks into the aftermath of a school shooting. As she asks questions, threats, surveillance, and old loyalties crowd in.
Slow Slicing
by Tony J Forder
2020
Body parts found across the country lead Bliss to an old London murder and a trail of torture, gangland history, and revenge. As the case grows uglier, a leak to the media threatens to wreck the investigation.
The Autumn Tree
by Tony J Forder
2021
A strangled woman is found carrying one of Bliss's old business cards, but she is not who he expects. That small clue opens a disturbing case tied to trafficking, exploitation, and predators with few limits.
The Huntsmen
by Tony J Forder
2021
DS Royston Chase is told to wrap up a fatal crash quietly, until the dead girl's DNA links her to a child missing for twenty years. Chase and Claire Laney soon find powerful people blocking the truth.
Darker Days to Come
by Tony J Forder
2022
An apparent suicide and an abandoned vehicle seem unrelated until Bliss's team uncovers three missing people behind them. As the hours pass, a journalist, a mother, and a child become the center of a desperate search.
The Lightning Rod
by Tony J Forder
2022
Bliss arrives at what looks like a murder-suicide and quickly sees the scene has been staged. With no clear motive and almost no evidence, the Major Crimes Unit faces a killer who keeps striking without warning.
The Predators
by Tony J Forder
2023
A frozen female hiker on the downs gives Royston Chase, Claire Laney, and Alison May a murder case that keeps getting worse. Missing witnesses and linked abductions turn a single death into a far bigger hunt.
What Dies Inside Us
by Tony J Forder
2023
A homeless veteran says he witnessed a murder, but with no body the police cannot act until he turns up dead. As retirement nears, Bliss tackles that case and another grim investigation into a vulnerable family.
Something More to Say
by Tony J Forder
2024
Now retired from the force, Jimmy Bliss returns as a civilian Senior Investigating Officer while also leading an unsolved cases team. A 1999 murder and a violent county lines feud give him two battles at once.
The Honourable Rogue
by Tony J Forder
2025
A violent murder committed by cowboy builders sends Bliss after four men who scatter fast and leave more damage behind them. At the same time, fresh prison intel reopens a cold case with ugly local roots.
The Stonemason's Song
by Tony J Forder
2025
When human remains are found with an antique chisel buried in the skull, Bliss sees echoes of an earlier ritualistic killing. A second thread, a murdered private investigator searching for a missing child, pulls him back to London.
Where should I start?
If you want the core Tony J Forder experience: Bad to the Bone → The Scent of Guilt → If Fear Wins
If you want Bliss from the very beginning: Bliss Uncovered → Bad to the Bone → The Scent of Guilt
If you prefer action-heavy thrillers: Scream Blue Murder → Cold Winter Sun
If you want a newer police duo: The Huntsmen → The Predators
If you'd rather try a standalone first: Degrees of Darkness → Fifteen Coffins
Author bio
Tony J Forder was born in London and spent the first 29 years of his life there before moving to Peterborough. That city later became the backdrop for much of his crime fiction, especially the DI Bliss novels, with their grounded sense of place and working-police feel.
He started writing young. As a child he wrote short stories, and years later a national competition judged by a Pan Books editor gave him his first real break when his story Gino's Bar and Grille was chosen for publication in Dark Voices II. More short fiction followed in Dark Voices IV, FEAR, and A Rattler's Tale.
A conversation with horror writer Brian Lumley helped convince him that he belonged in the writing world. He spent a while working through dark fantasy and horror, learning as he went, before crime fiction gradually became the place where his ideas felt most at home.
For a long time, writing ran alongside ordinary working life. Forder has said he worked as a business manager and business owner, and spent more than twenty years as an IT network engineer and manager in education. Ill health slowed things down for a stretch, and he has spoken openly about living with Meniere's disease.
Then things shifted.
After being made redundant in 2016, and with encouragement from his wife, he returned to his novels in earnest. In 2017 Bad to the Bone introduced DI Jimmy Bliss, while Degrees of Darkness and Scream Blue Murder quickly showed that he was not interested in sticking to just one lane.
Most readers know him best for the long-running Bliss books, which begin in Peterborough and follow a prickly, stubborn detective who keeps pushing at cases other people would rather leave alone. Titles like The Scent of Guilt, The Autumn Tree, and What Dies Inside Us mix hard cases, team banter, and the strain that police work puts on private lives. Readers who click with these books often seem to like that blend of grit and warmth.
But his range is wider than one detective. The Huntsmen opens the DS Royston Chase series in rural Wiltshire, while Cold Winter Sun follows Mike Lynch into a more action-heavy, cross-border thriller. Then there is Fifteen Coffins, which heads to northern California for a tense standalone about grief, local power, and buried truth. Even when the settings change, his fiction keeps returning to pressure, loyalty, and the cost of doing the right thing.
He writes dark books, but they are rarely cold ones.
These days Forder is a full-time author living in West Sussex with his wife and their Yorkie, Reggie. Music still matters, too, he grew up playing guitar and has talked about his love of vinyl, which feels fitting for a writer whose books often move with the rhythm of a good crime drama.
Edited by
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