Stuart MacBride Books in Order (Logan McRae, Ash Henderson)

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Stuart MacBride is a Scottish writer raised in the “Granite City” of Aberdeen where the Logan McRae series is set, a “Tartan Noir” series in the vein of Ian Rankin and Val McDermid’s work. In addition to the Logan McRae series, Stuart MacBride has also written the Ash Henderson series (aka the Oldcastle series), a dark crime series set in the fictitious town of Oldcastle.

As he tells it on its website, “he’s also published standalone novels, novellas, and short stories, as well as a slightly twisted children’s picture book for slightly twisted children.”

How to read Stuart MacBride’s Books in Order?

The Logan McRae Series

Described as “Tartan Noir”, the series is set in the “Granite City” of Aberdeen and follows the murder investigations led by Detective Sergeant Logan McRae and his team-and sometimes with DS Roberta Steel who got her own spin-off stories.

For more information about the books, go to the Logan McRae dedicated page.

  1. Cold Granite (2005)
  2. Dying Light (2006)
  3. Broken Skin (also known as Bloodshot, 2007)
  4. Flesh House (2008)
  5. Blind Eye (2009)
  6. Dark Blood (2010)
  7. Shatter the Bones (2011)
  8. Partners in Crime (2012) – Two Logan and Steel short stories: Bad Heir Day and Stramash. Also collected in 22 Dead Little Bodies and Other Stories.
  9. Close to the Bone (2013)
  10. The 45% Hangover (2014) – A Logan and Steel novella.
  11. The Missing and the Dead (2015)
  12. 22 Dead Little Bodies (2015) – A Logan and Steel short novel.
  13. In the Cold Dark Ground (2016)
  14. Now We Are Dead (2017) – A DS Roberta Steel without Logan McRae.
  15. The Blood Road (2018)
  16. All That’s Dead (2019)

The Oldcastle – Ash Henderson Series

Detective Constable Ash Henderson has a dark secret…

  1. Birthdays for the Dead (2012) – Detective Constable Ash Henderson has a dark secret… Five years ago his daughter, Rebecca, went missing on the eve of her 13th birthday. A year later the first card arrived: homemade, with a Polaroid picture stuck to the front – Rebecca, strapped to a chair, gagged and terrified. Every year another card: each one worse than the last. The tabloids call him The Birthday Boy. He’s been snatching girls for 12 years, always in the run-up to their 13th birthday, sending the families his homemade cards showing their daughters being slowly tortured to death. But Ash hasn’t told anyone about Rebecca’s birthday cards because if anyone finds out, he’ll be taken off the investigation.
  2. A Song for the Dying (2014) – Eight years ago, ‘The Inside Man’ murdered four women and left three more in critical condition – all of them with their stomachs slit open and a plastic doll stitched inside. Ash Henderson was a Detective Inspector on the initial investigation, but a lot can change in eight years. Now a nurse has turned up dead, a plastic doll buried beneath her skin, and it looks as if Ash might finally get a shot at redemption. At earning his freedom.
  3. The Coffinmaker’s Garden (2021) – As a massive storm batters the Scottish coast, Gordon Smith’s home is falling into the sea. The trouble is: that’s where he’s been hiding the bodies. It’s too dangerous to go near the place, so there’s no way of knowing how many people he’s murdered. Or how many more he’ll kill before he’s caught. As more horrors are discovered, ex-detective Ash Henderson is done playing nice. He’s got a killer to catch, and God help anyone who gets in his way.

Other Books by Stuart McBride

  • Sawbones (2008, novella) – They call him Sawbones: a serial killer touring America kidnapping young women. The FBI’s investigating – but getting nowhere. The latest victim is Laura Jones. Sixteen years old. Pretty. Blonde. And the daughter of one of New York’s most notorious gangsters. Laura’s Dad doesn’t care about the law. What he wants is revenge. And he knows just the guys to get it. This time, Sawbones picked on the wrong family…
  • Halfhead (2009) – They call them halfheads: convicted criminals, surgically mutilated and lobotomized by the State, then sent out to do menial jobs in the community so everyone will know what happens when you break the law. There are no appeals, no reprieves, and no one ever comes back. Until now. Dr Fiona Westfield, one of the most prolific serial killers Glasgow has ever seen, is waking up. Surrounded by blood and death and darkness. William Hunter has risen through the ranks since putting Westfield away; now he’s Assistant Network Director, in charge of police actions. But a routine murder investigation is about to embroil him in an appalling conspiracy.
  • Twelve Days of Winter (2011, Short Stories) – Twelve days, twelve stories. Meet Fat Billy Partridge, possibly the worst cat-burglar ever; newbie drug-dealer Brian, who probably shouldn’t be taking advantage of the job’s fringe benefits; Philippe, a chef with anger-management issues and lots of very sharp knives; Mr Unwin, the undertaker with the golden touch; and Lord Peter Forsyth-Leven, MSP, learning the hard way that having it all means you’ve got so much more to lose…
  • A Dark so Deadly (2017) – Welcome to the Misfit Mob – where Police Scotland dumps the officers it can’t get rid of, but wants to. Officers like DC Callum MacGregor, lumbered with all the boring go-nowhere cases. So when an ancient mummy is found at the Oldcastle tip, it’s his job to track down its owner. But then Callum uncovers links between his mummified corpse and three missing young men, and life starts to get a lot more interesting.
  • No Less The Devil (2022) – It’s been seventeen months since the Bloodsmith butchered his first victim and Operation Maypole is still no nearer catching him. The media is whipping up a storm, the top brass are demanding results, but the investigation is sinking fast. Now isn’t the time to get distracted with other cases, but Detective Sergeant Lucy McVeigh doesn’t have much choice. When Benedict Strachan was just eleven, he hunted down and killed a homeless man. No one’s ever figured out why Benedict did it, but now, after sixteen years, he’s back on the streets again – battered, frightened, convinced a shadowy ‘They’ are out to get him, and begging Lucy for help.
  • The Dead of Winter (2023) – All Detective Constable Edward Reekie had to do was pick up a dying prisoner from HMP Grampian and deliver him somewhere to live out his last few months in peace. From the outside, Glenfarach looks like a quaint, sleepy, snow-dusted village, nestled deep in the heart of Cairngorms National Park, but things aren’t what they seem. The place is thick with security cameras and there’s a strict nine o’clock curfew, because Glenfarach is the final sanctuary for people who’ve served their sentences but can’t be safely released into the general population. Edward’s new boss, DI Montgomery-Porter, insists they head back to Aberdeen before the approaching blizzards shut everything down, but when an ex-cop-turned-gangster is discovered tortured to death in his bungalow, someone needs to take charge.
  • In a Place of Darkness (2024) – Detective Constable Angus MacVicar has just landed his dream job – transferred out of uniform and assigned to Oldcastle’s biggest ongoing murder investigation: Operation Telegram, hunting the ‘Fortnight Killer’.Every two weeks another couple is targeted. One victim is left at the scene, their corpse used as a twisted message board. The second body is never seen again. This should be the perfect chance for Angus to prove himself, but instead of working on the investigation’s front line, he’s lumbered with the forensic psychologist from hell. A sarcastic know-it-all American, on loan from the FBI, who seems determined to alienate everyone while dragging Angus into a shadowy world of conspiracies, lies, and violence. It’s been twelve days since the Fortnight Killer last struck, and the investigation’s running out of time. Angus’s shiny new job might just be the death of him…

If you like our article about the Stuart MacBride reading Order, don’t forget to bookmark it! You may also want to see our Val McDermid reading order, or the Inspector Rebus reading order. And don’t hesitate to follow us on Twitter or Facebook to discover more book series.

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