A. J. Cross Books in Order – Complete List

AJ Cross is a British forensic psychologist, a frequent court-appointed expert witness, and a crime writer who has written 10 books in three main series to date. Her main book series, Dr. Kate Hanson, has five books, the second series, Will Traynor Forensic Mystery series, includes four novels, and her latest series, Teigan Craft Forensic Mystery series has a first novel published in November 2024 under the title The Loose Ends.

Here are all the A J Cross books in order for her series. The book list is regularly updated.

Dr. Kate Hanson Books in Publication Order

1. The Coldest Case, 2012 (aka Gone in Seconds)
2. The Coldest Clues, 2013 (aka Art of Deception)
3. The Coldest Killer, 2017 (aka A Little Death)
4. The Coldest Motive, 2017 (aka Something Evil Comes)
5. The Coldest Death, 2018 (aka Cold, Cold Heart)

Will Traynor Forensic Mystery in Publication Order

1. Dark Truths, 2019
2. Devil in the Detail, 2021
3. A Dark, Divided Self, 2021
4. Reflections of Deviance, 2023

Teigan Craft Forensic Mystery

1. The Loose Ends, 2024

A J Cross Biography

Ann J Cross is a British crime thriller author who is also a forensic psychologist who often works as an expert witness appointed by the courts in the United Kingdom.

As a child, she loved to read crime fiction novels, as well as true crime novels. It came as no surprise that eventually, she started writing her own crime fiction stories.

A. J. Cross got her degree in psychology, which she continued with a Masters degree in Educational Psychology at the University of Birmingham. Then she got her doctoral degree on the criminal court system using children as witnesses.

After watching a lecture by a professor in forensic psychology about the expectations and pressures on children who have experienced abuse and need to go to court as witnesses, she was so surprised that these kinds of things were happening in real life that later she changed course from educational psychology to forensic psychology and received a PhD on the impact of the Criminal Justice System on child witnesses at the same university in Birmingham. At some point, her professional experience also included doing consultancy work for the Probation Service in the Sexual Offender Unit.

Her debut novel, The Coldest Case, aka Gone in Seconds, was released in 2012 as the first in the Dr. Kate Hanson series. However, she had already thought of becoming a writer back in 2006 when, as a successful forensic psychologist with lots of professional knowledge, she thought that her job could be a good helping point for her writing career, as she could now combine her love for books with her background knowledge.

One day, after her jazz musician husband went to Helsinki for work, she was alone at home thinking of getting rid of some of the many books she had at home, she realized that most were crime fiction books. Then she decided that she could do that too: write her own mystery books. After writing several drafts of her first novel, she put them aside for a few years due to heavy workload at her job.

However, eventually, she did write the final draft which she sent to the publishing houses. She bought the Writers’ Handbook, which includes an alphabetical listing of all agencies and publishers including a description of what they do. She sent the first three chapters of the novel to an agent and eventually Orion bought her book.

Thus Gone in Seconds was born. It became a wonderful debut story by a top forensic psychologist in the United Kingdom.

In an interview, A J Cross mentioned that her novels are inspired by real crimes, which combined with her forensic knowledge and training, make up a lot of the mystery and intrigue of the novels in her three series.

The AJ Cross books in the dr. Kate Hanson series have been republished under different titles by Joffe Books / Severn House. Her debut novel Gone in Seconds was changed to The Coldest Case, Art of Deception to The Coldest Clues, A Little Death to The Coldest Killer, Something Evil Comes to The Coldest Motive, and Cold, Cold Heart to The Coldest Death (see a pattern here?).

A.J. Cross lives with her husband, a professional jazz musician, in Birmingham, her home city, a place that also features most of her books as well.