Kim Stone Series Books in Order

The Kim Stone Series is a British psychological crime thriller series written by Angela Marsons, featuring one of contemporary crime fiction's most compelling female detective protagonists. Detective Inspector Kim Stone of the West Midlands Police is defined by a traumatic childhood — the abuse she suffered in the care system left her with a fierce independence, a profound difficulty with trust and intimacy, and an absolute, almost ferocious commitment to protecting victims who cannot protect themselves. Kim is not easy to like in the conventional sense; she is abrasive, rule-resistant, and constitutionally incapable of accepting help. But her intelligence and her commitment to justice are beyond question.

Marsons writes with psychological insight into the specific damage that childhood trauma inflicts on adult behaviour, and Kim's character is rendered with genuine depth rather than as a collection of "difficult detective" genre conventions. The West Midlands setting — the Black Country towns around Birmingham, rendered without glamour or condescension — gives the series a strong regional identity, and the cases Kim investigates tend to involve crimes against the vulnerable: children, women, and people failed by the same systems that failed Kim herself.

Running to 17 novels published from 2014 (this selection covers the early volumes), the Kim Stone series has become one of the most successful British crime franchises of recent years. Best read in order from Evil Games (Book 1) for the full development of Kim's character and the recurring team dynamics. Essential reading alongside Angela Marsons' contemporaries M.J. Arlidge and Robert Bryndza.