Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Creep | 2011 | Jennifer Hillier | Buy |
| 2 | Freak | 2012 | Jennifer Hillier | Buy |
| 3 | The Butcher | 2014 | Jennifer Hillier | Buy |
Jennifer Hillier launched her career with this Seattle-set trilogy, and the series established several of the traits that would define her later work: messy, believable characters, a sharp eye for obsession, and plots that escalate in ways you don’t quite see coming. Creep begins with a criminology professor whose affair with a grad student spirals into something much worse, and the series builds from there.
The books move fast and don’t flinch from their darker material. Maddox and Tao make an interesting pair, and Hillier uses the procedural framework loosely enough that the books feel more like character studies with a thriller engine than straightforward police procedurals.