Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Falling More Slowly | 2010 | Peter Helton | Buy |
| 2 | Four Below | 2011 | Peter Helton | Buy |
| 3 | A Good Way to Go | 2015 | Peter Helton | Buy |
| 4 | Soft Summer Blood | 2016 | Peter Helton | Buy |
Liam McLusky is not a comfortable character. He arrives in Bristol in Falling More Slowly (2010) fresh off an injury and carrying personal history that makes him difficult to work with and impossible to ignore. The city’s crime gives him somewhere to put his energy, and Helton uses the Bristol setting well — its geography and social texture come through clearly across the four books.
The McLusky series ran alongside the Chris Honeysett books from 2010 to 2016, with Soft Summer Blood closing out the sequence. The two series show different sides of Helton’s writing: Honeysett is warmer and more eccentric, while McLusky is direct, procedural, and harder-edged. Both are worth reading, but the McLusky books will suit readers who prefer their crime fiction with less humor and more weight.