DI Callanach Books in Order: How to read Helen Fields’s series?
The DI Callanach books are a mystery thriller series written by Helen Fields. The series is centered around DI Luc Callanach, a half-French and half-Scottish detective, now working in Edinburgh.
He lived most of his life in France and worked before for Interpol. Luc Callanah is now working for the Major Investigations Team of Police Scotland (based in Edinburgh). He is a broken and tortured soul who has a friendship and professional relationship with his colleague Ava Turner. Together, they solve horrible crimes in Scotland’s capital.
How to read the DI Callanach Series in Order?
Every entry in the DI Callanach book series works as a standalone story, but the lives of the different characters evolve from one novel to the other.
- Perfect Remains – Detective Inspector Luc Callanach has barely set foot in his new office when Elaine Buxton’s missing person case is escalated to a murder investigation. Having left behind a promising career at Interpol, he’s eager to prove himself to his new team. But Edinburgh, he discovers, is a long way from Lyon, and Elaine’s killer has covered his tracks with meticulous care. It’s not long before another successful woman is abducted from her doorstep and Callanach finds himself in a race against the clock. Or so he believes..
- Perfect Prey – In the midst of a rock festival, a charity worker is sliced across the stomach. He dies minutes later. In a crowd of thousands, no one saw his attacker. The following week, the body of a primary school teacher is found in a Dumpster in an Edinburgh alley, strangled with her own woolen scarf. DI Ava Turner and DI Luc Callanach have no motive and no leads – until around the city, graffitied on buildings, words appear describing each victim. It’s only when they realize the words are appearing before rather than after the murders that they understand the killer is announcing his next victim…and the more innocent the better.
- Perfect Death – Unknown to DI Luc Callanach and the newly promoted DCI Ava Turner, a serial killer has Edinburgh firmly in his grip. The killer is taking his victims in the coldest, most calculating way possible – engineering slow and painful deaths by poison, with his victims entirely unaware of the drugs flooding their bloodstream until it’s too late. But how do you catch a killer who hides in the shadows? A killer whose pleasure comes from watching pain from afar? Faced with their most difficult case yet, Callanach and Turner soon realize they face a seemingly impossible task…
- Perfect Silence – The body of a young girl is found dumped on the roadside on the outskirts of Edinburgh. When pathologists examine the remains, they make a gruesome discovery: the outline of a doll carved into the victim’s skin. DCI Ava Turner and DI Luc Callanach are struggling to find leads in the case until a doll made of skin is found nestled beside an abandoned baby. After another young woman is found butchered, Luc and Ava realize the babydoll killer is playing a horrifying game. And it’s only a matter of time before he strikes again. Can they stop another victim from being silenced forever – or is it too late?
- Perfect Crime – Stephen Berry is about to jump off a bridge until a suicide prevention counselor stops him. A week later, Stephen is dead. Found at the bottom of a cliff, DI Luc Callanach and DCI Ava Turner are drafted in to investigate whether he jumped or whether he was pushed…. As they dig deeper, more would-be suicides roll in: a woman found dead in a bath; a man violently electrocuted. But these are carefully curated deaths – nothing like the impulsive suicide attempts they’ve been made out to be. Little do Callanach and Turner know how close their perpetrator is as, across Edinburgh, a violent and psychopathic killer gains more confidence with every life he takes…
- Perfect Kill – Alone, trapped in the darkness and with no way out, Bart Campbell knows that his chances of being found alive are slim. Drugged and kidnapped from his Edinburgh home, the realization soon dawns that he’s been locked inside a shipping container – but what Bart doesn’t know is that he’s now heading for France, where his unspeakable fate is already sealed… DCI Ava Turner and DI Luc Callanach are working on separate cases that soon collide as it becomes clear that the men and women being shipped to France are being traded for women trafficked into Scotland. With so many lives at stake, it seems an impossible task – but there’s no option of failure when Bart and so many others will soon be dead…
- Christmas with Luc & Ava – Short story available on Helen Fields website.
- In Roslin Glen – Short story available on Helen Fields website.
- One for Sorrow – Edinburgh is gripped by the greatest terror it has ever known: a lone bomber is targeting victims across the city, and no one is safe. In their jobs, DCI Ava Turner and DI Luc Callanach deal with death daily. But when it becomes clear that every bomb is a trap designed to kill them too, the possibility of facing it themselves starts to feel all too real. With the body count rising daily and the bomber’s methods becoming ever more horrifying, Ava and Luc must race to find out who is behind the attacks – or pay the ultimate price…
If you like the DI Callanach reading order, you may also want to take a look at the DI Kim Stone series, or Mark Billingham’s Tom Thorne series. Don’t hesitate to follow us on Twitter or Facebook to discover more book series.