Unfinished Business Books in Order
Part ofHeather Atkinson Books in OrderFind the Unfinished Business series by Heather Atkinson in order, with plot summaries, character overviews and reading tips for this Glasgow-set private investigator saga.
Last updated: 4 new books added
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Unfinished Business books in publication order
11 books
Face in the Frame
by Heather Atkinson
2015
When homeless people begin vanishing from Glasgow, Brodie’s suspicions fall on Lucas Thorne, an artist exhibiting disturbingly lifelike faces, and sending his colleague Cass undercover entangles her emotionally with a man Brodie believes is a monster.
Unfinished Business
by Heather Atkinson
2015
Ex-cop turned private investigator Brodie MacBride takes on the Creegan family, whose polished lives hide lethal secrets linked to a serial killer called The Carver, and discovers that some cases will never stay closed.
The Secret Keeper
by Heather Atkinson
2016
In The Secret Keeper, Brodie and his team investigate a client whose carefully managed life hides devastating truths, forcing them to decide what justice looks like when exposing a secret could destroy innocent people.
In The Shadows
by Heather Atkinson
2018
Brodie and Cass are finally together but keeping it secret, even as imprisoned killers and vengeful enemies manipulate events from the darkness, weaving a web that threatens to destroy their business and everyone they care about.
Pound of Flesh
by Heather Atkinson
2018
Pound of Flesh sees Brodie MacBride’s agency take on a case where a debtor’s brutal punishment sends ripples through Glasgow’s underworld, testing how far Brodie will go when the people seeking justice are far from innocent.
The Devil Inside
by Heather Atkinson
2019
In The Devil Inside, Brodie MacBride faces an enemy who delights in pushing people to reveal their worst selves, and the case forces him to confront just how thin the line is between justice and revenge.
Ghosts of the Past
by Heather Atkinson
2020
Brodie and Cass head to the Lancashire village where she grew up to break the news of their marriage, only to find the community terrorised by the bully who once tried to rape her and secrets her family has buried for years.
Nest of Vipers
by Heather Atkinson
2021
Brodie and Cass investigate the murder of a television soap star in Glasgow. Their inquiries draw them among celebrities and gangsters, while an old enemy’s revenge and uncomfortable questions about a crime boss’s lover complicate the case.
The Hydra's Head
by Heather Atkinson
2023
Returning from holiday, Brodie and Cass discover that a dangerous cult has reappeared under a new name. Its leader’s alliance with a killer Brodie helped imprison turns the investigation into a personal threat to their lives in Glasgow.
Puppet Master
by Heather Atkinson
2025
Brodie and Cass are enjoying life with their baby when a writer begins turning his scripts into real crimes. Framed for murder and forced to flee, Brodie must resist a manipulator determined to control what happens next.
Unfinished Business books in chronological order
Series background & context
Unfinished Business is Heather Atkinson’s long-running Glasgow crime series centred on Brodie MacBride, an ex-police officer who has reinvented himself as a private investigator. Brodie’s speciality is exactly what the series title suggests – cases the system has failed, victims who were denied justice and the loose ends that will not stay buried.
In the opening novel, Unfinished Business, we meet both Brodie and the Creegan family. Mark Creegan appears to have everything – money, a successful business and a loving family – but he is being stalked by reminders of a very dark past. Brodie’s investigation into that past tangles with a serial killer known as The Carver, and the case quickly becomes personal for everyone involved.
Subsequent books deepen Brodie’s world. Face in the Frame sees him and his second-in-command Cass up against Lucas Thorne, an artist whose disturbingly realistic sculptures may be linked to a series of disappearances among Glasgow’s homeless community. At the same time, the powerful McVay crime family keep dragging Brodie into their own internal wars, forcing him to walk a line between upholding the law and surviving.
As the series progresses through titles like The Secret Keeper, Pound of Flesh and In The Shadows, Brodie and Cass’s relationship shifts from professional to romantic, something they must keep hidden so enemies cannot use it as a weapon. They face vengeful killers they once helped jail, corrupt officials and enemies who operate just as effectively in the courts as on the street. Later books such as Ghosts of the Past even send them back to the village where Cass grew up, showing how trauma can follow you home.
What sets Unfinished Business apart is the mix of procedural grit and emotional investment. Brodie is tough but far from invincible, Cass is capable and flawed, and their team feel like people who have lived in the city all their lives. Glasgow itself is present in every bar, back lane and tenement stairwell. If you enjoy crime fiction that balances twisty plots with the cost of violence on those who fight it, this series is worth reading in order.
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