Mark Dawson Books in Order: The Complete Atticus Priest Reading Guide

After spending years writing John Milton, I fancied a completely different challenge. Instead of an assassin who solves problems with his fists, I wanted to write about someone who solves them with observation, logic and an extraordinary ability to spot the one detail everyone else has overlooked.

The House in the Woods

Atticus is brilliant, eccentric and not always the easiest person to spend time with. He struggles to understand people, but evidence makes perfect sense to him. That’s why, when a brutal quadruple murder at a remote farmhouse appears to be an open-and-shut case, he almost immediately concludes that everyone has got it wrong.

Working against DCI Mackenzie Jones—someone with whom he shares both a professional history and a complicated personal past—Atticus slowly dismantles the accepted version of events. Every answer leads to another question until what looked like a straightforward investigation becomes anything but.

This is where you’ll meet Mack, Robbie, Francine and the rest of the cast who accompany Atticus throughout the series. The mysteries are important, but for me it’s the characters and their relationships that have become the real heart of these books.

If you enjoy classic detective fiction with a contemporary feel, I think you’re going to have a lot of fun.
 

A Place to Bury Strangers

Having survived his first outing, Atticus discovers that solving one impossible case doesn’t necessarily make life any easier.

Mack has reluctantly accepted that his strange methods actually work, although neither of them would admit they’re becoming a good team just yet. They still argue, they still frustrate one another, and that’s half the fun.

The second mystery begins with a single human bone found on Salisbury Plain. It eventually leads Atticus and Mack to the abandoned village of Imber, where questions about old graves soon become something much bigger than either of them expected. At the same time, Atticus accepts a private case involving a missing young woman, and naturally the two investigations refuse to stay separate.

One of the things I enjoyed most about writing this book was widening Atticus’s world. He’s no longer simply helping the police solve murders; he’s beginning to establish himself as someone people seek out when nobody else can help 

The Red Room

By now, Atticus and Mack have settled into a partnership of sorts—although “settled” might be stretching the definition.

Everything begins with a man falling to his death from the tower of Salisbury Cathedral. Was it suicide? An accident? Murder? Before Atticus has a chance to answer that question, a compromising video of the victim is sent anonymously to the local press.

Then another body is discovered. Then another.

What I enjoyed about this mystery was the way it constantly shifts beneath Atticus’s feet. Every theory feels convincing until the next revelation arrives, forcing him—and the reader—to rethink everything all over again.

This is also where Salisbury itself really starts to become one of the stars of the series. The cathedral, the city and the surrounding countryside aren’t just backdrops anymore; they become part of the stories.

For me, this is where the books become darker, more ambitious and much more emotionally satisfying.

All the Devils Are Here

By the fourth novel, Atticus has developed quite a reputation. He’s the man people call when the answers refuse to make sense.

This time he’s hired by an estranged husband to investigate his missing wife. It sounds like the kind of private investigation he’s becoming known for, until the woman disappears after swimming in the River Avon and Atticus uncovers a decades-old secret shared by five lifelong friends.

I’ve always liked stories where the crime itself isn’t the real mystery. The interesting question isn’t simply what happened, but how far ordinary people will go to protect the lives they’ve built. In this case, every answer Atticus uncovers threatens to destroy relationships that have survived for years.

By this stage, the books have become as much about the people investigating the crimes as the crimes themselves. Atticus, Mack and the rest of the team carry the history of the previous novels with them, and I think the series is richer because of it.

As Atticus discovers once again, the past has an annoying habit of refusing to stay buried.

 The Inheritance

I’ve always been fascinated by old country houses and the secrets they accumulate over generations, so it was probably inevitable that Atticus would eventually find himself investigating one.

When the owner of the Brookmere estate disappears, Atticus uncovers a family whose problems extend far beyond a missing person. Hidden debts, fractured relationships and decades of resentment have left the Ainsleys clinging to a legacy that’s already beginning to crumble.

What interested me most while writing this book was the idea that people inherit much more than money and property. They inherit rivalries, loyalties, guilt and old injustices too, and sometimes those prove far more dangerous than anything written in a will.

By now you’ll know how Atticus thinks. The challenge was giving him a mystery complicated enough to keep both him—and hopefully you—guessing right to the end.

The Forest

Every detective series eventually needs a case that reaches back into the past. This was mine.

Twenty years ago, a series of horrific murders in the New Forest shocked the country. A man was convicted, the killings stopped, and everyone believed justice had been done.

Then another body is discovered.

When the convicted killer asks to speak—not to the police, but specifically to Atticus—everything that seemed certain begins to unravel. Suddenly Atticus isn’t just investigating a new murder; he’s questioning whether the original investigation got the right answer at all.

I wanted The Forest to feel bigger, darker and more unsettling than anything I’d written before. The New Forest provides a wonderfully atmospheric backdrop, and I loved exploring the idea that the truth can remain hidden for decades before finally demanding to be heard.

This is the most ambitious Atticus novel so far. It brings together everything I enjoy about the series: a knotty mystery, characters who’ve grown together over six books, and a puzzle that I hope keeps you guessing until the very last page.