Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cold Rain | 2010 | Craig Smith | Buy |
| 2 | Every Dark Place | 2012 | Craig Smith | Buy |
| 3 | The Horse Changer | 2015 | Craig Smith | Buy |
Craig Smith’s standalone novels cover a wide range of settings and genres. Cold Rain (2010) is a noir thriller set on and around a Midwestern university campus that was shortlisted for the CWA Ian Fleming Thriller of the Year in 2011. Every Dark Place (2012) is another crime novel with a dark psychological edge, exploring how a terrible crime becomes the catalyst for one man’s redemption and another’s ruin.
The Horse Changer (2015) represents a significant departure, moving from contemporary crime fiction to ancient Rome. The novel follows Quintus Dellius, a real historical figure, through the Roman civil wars of the first century BC. Smith traces Dellius from his early days as a Tuscan warrior under Julius Caesar’s patronage through encounters with Octavian, Mark Antony, Cleopatra, and Herod the Great. The historical epic demonstrates Smith’s range well beyond the thriller genre that defined his earlier work.