Simon Beckett Books in Order

Simon Beckett is a British crime writer best known for the David Hunter series. Hunter is a forensic anthropologist who examines decomposed, burned, and buried human remains, often in isolated places where he is treated as an outsider. Beckett found the idea for the series and began developing it after reporting from Tennessee’s Body Farm in 2002.

Simon Beckett is a No. 1 international bestselling author whose books have sold 12 million copies worldwide and haven been translated into 29 languages. He has also written the Jonah Colley series and standalone thrillers. The first two Hunter novels were adapted for the six-part television series The Chemistry of Death.

This page lists all Simon Beckett books in order, including the David Hunter novels, the optional Hunter short stories, the Jonah Colley series, and his standalone novels. The German editions need a little care. Some appeared before their British editions, and a few stories have never been published in English. The notes below make those differences clear so they are not mistaken for additional books.

Where to Start with Simon Beckett

• For the David Hunter series, start with The Chemistry of Death. It introduces Hunter and the forensic work that runs through the series.
• If you watched the television adaptation first, read The Chemistry of Death followed by Written in Bone. The six-part series draws on both books, although it changes some characters and parts of the stories.
• The Lost is the starting point for Jonah Colley. Colley is a Metropolitan Police firearms officer, so these books move away from David Hunter’s forensic investigations.
• For a standalone, try Stone Bruises. The story takes place in rural France and has no connection to either series.

The David Hunter and Jonah Colley series are independent, so you can begin with either one.

David Hunter Series (Books in Order)

When The Chemistry of Death opens, David Hunter is working as a village doctor in Norfolk. He left forensic anthropology after the deaths of his wife and daughter and wants nothing more to do with his former career. Then a local murder pulls him back into it. In the books that follow, Hunter travels to different parts of Britain and beyond, usually brought in for his forensic expertise.

The main case is resolved in each novel, so the books can be followed individually. Publication order is still the best because there is a background arc on Hunter’s career and personal life that is present in the whole series. That continuity becomes especially important between The Restless Dead and The Scent of Death.

1. The Chemistry of Death, 2006
2. Written in Bone, 2007
3. Whispers of the Dead, 2009
4. The Calling of the Grave, 2010
5. The Restless Dead, 2017
6. The Scent of Death, 2019
7. The Bone Garden, 2026

Reading notes:

• The Calling of the Grave begins with an investigation eight years earlier before returning to Hunter’s present. It is not a prequel and belongs fourth in the series.
• Part of Hunter’s story continues directly from The Restless Dead into The Scent of Death, so books five and six are best read in order.

German edition note: Books five through seven appeared in Germany before their British editions: The Restless Dead as Totenfang in 2016, The Scent of Death as Die ewigen Toten in 2019, and The Bone Garden as Knochenkälte in 2025. These are the same novels under their German titles, not additional David Hunter books.

David Hunter Short Stories

The David Hunter short stories are optional and do not have a fixed place between the novels. The first three are available in English as audiobooks, while Der Wendepunkt has only been released in German.

• Snowfall, 2009
• Just Another Day, 2012
• Cat and Mouse, 2013
• Der Wendepunkt, 2025

Publication note: Snowfall and Just Another Day first appeared in German Christmas anthologies in 2009 and 2012. They were later published together in Germany as Schneefall & Ein ganz normaler Tag in 2016. English audiobook editions of both stories were released together as Snowfall & Just Another Day in 2023, while Cat and Mouse got a separate English audiobook the same year.

Der Wendepunkt was released in Germany as an ebook and audiobook in 2025. So far there is no English title published.

Jonah Colley Series

Jonah Colley is a firearms officer with the Metropolitan Police. Ten years after his young son disappears, an estranged friend calls and asks him to come to Slaughter Quay. Jonah finds himself caught up in a violent attack, and the police begin to suspect that he knows more than he is saying. He also has to go back over the events surrounding his son’s disappearance.

Unlike David Hunter, Jonah does not work in forensics. Beckett uses this series for a more direct police thriller, with Jonah personally caught inside the investigation.

1. The Lost, 2021

The Lost was published as the first Jonah Colley novel and is currently the only book in the series. You do not need to read the David Hunter books first.

German edition note: Die Verlorenen appeared before the British edition of The Lost. It is the same novel, not a second Jonah Colley book.

Standalone Novels

1. Fine Lines, 1994
2. Animals, 1995
3. Where There’s Smoke, 1997
4. Owning Jacob, 1998
5. Stone Bruises, 2014

German edition note: Obsession is the German title of Owning Jacob. Despite its English-looking title, it is the same novel.

Short Story Collections

• Versteckt: Dunkle Geschichten, 2020 (only German edition)

Publication note: Versteckt contains three standalone crime stories and was published exclusively for the German-language market. It is not a David Hunter collection, and no English-language edition has been published.

About Simon Beckett

Simon Beckett is a British crime writer who worked as a freelance journalist before creating the David Hunter series. His earlier jobs were rather varied: he taught English in Spain, installed cavity-wall insulation, and played percussion in several bands.

Official website: simonbeckett.com

He published his first novel, Fine Lines, in 1994. Animals, Where There’s Smoke, and Owning Jacob followed next. After Owning Jacob was released in 1998, he did not publish another novel for eight years.

In 2002, The Daily Telegraph Magazine sent Simon Beckett to Tennessee to report on crime-scene training for American police officers. He visited the Anthropological Research Facility, better known as the Body Farm, where researchers study what happens to human remains as they decompose. He watched them work and helped recover remains that had been buried for several months.

The visit gave him the starting point for forensic anthropologist David Hunter and The Chemistry of Death, published in 2006. As the series grew, Beckett continued talking to specialists, including forensic anthropologists, police officers, archaeologists, entomologists, and ecologists. While working on The Calling of the Grave, he also attended a body-recovery course run by Teesside and Durham universities. He has always been careful about calling himself a novelist who relies on professional expertise and not a forensic expert. He writes the novels, while the actual forensic knowledge comes from people who do the work.

The Hunter series found an especially large audience in Germany and Scandinavia. Simon Beckett wrote in 2010 that his books had already sold millions of copies in Germany, where his appearances could fill large venues. One reading in Cologne sold 900 tickets at a time when he was hardly known in Britain. Germany has remained an important market for his books, and several novels have appeared there before their British editions.

Simon Beckett returned to standalone novels with Stone Bruises in 2014. In 2021, he introduced Metropolitan Police firearms officer Jonah Colley in The Lost. Its German edition appeared first and was five weeks No. 1 on the German hardback fiction chart. The seventh David Hunter novel, The Bone Garden, was published in 2026. The author lives in Sheffield.

Major Awards and Honors

• European Crime Fiction Star Award, also known as the Ripper Award – joint winner with Arne Dahl (2019)
• Marlowe Award for Best International Crime Novel (1996)
• The Chemistry of Death audiobook – Platinum sales certification in Germany (2016)

Simon Beckett Book Adaptations

• Where There’s Smoke – adapted into the two-part ITV television drama Where There’s Smoke (2000)
• The Chemistry of Death and Written in Bone – adapted together into the television series The Chemistry of Death (2023)

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