Hi! I’m Alex Smith, the author of the DCI Robert Kett novels, which to date include Paper Girls, Bad Dog, Three Little Pigs, Whip Crack, Run Rabbit Run, Stone Cold Dead, Every Mother’s Son, Sweet Briar Rose, Jaw Breaker, Knock Knock, King Rat, Knuckle Bones, Lucky Number Seven, Unholy Saints, Truly Madly Deadly, Every Last Devil and Red Line—as well as the free novella Cry Baby. I’m also the author of the Softley Softley books and Six Days, Six Hours, Six Minutes, which are all set in the Robert Kett universe.
My brand-new series, starring DI Harrison Baird, begins this May with A Long-Dead Thing! Find out more here.
I also write books for children and teenagers under the name Alexander Gordon Smith, and you can check out my other site here!
If you’d like to know anything about my books, feel free to get in touch, or sign up to my mailing list.
And whatever you do, don’t let DI Porter make the tea…
THE DCI ROBERT KETT THRILLERS
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The DI Harrison Baird Thrillers
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Latest News
19th March 2025
Meet DI Harrison Baird!
This May, I am launching a brand-new series starring DI Harrison Baird. The first book is called A Long-Dead Thing, and you can read the blurb here!
It may be heaven on earth, but now hell has broken loose...
When a botched raid on a gang of people smugglers in Aberdeen goes wrong, impulsive Police Scotland detective DI Harrison Baird faces the worst punishment imaginable: relocation to England.
Posted in the sleepy seaside town of Southwold, and partnered with the apparently hapless DC Connie Connell, Baird finds himself in a world that’s totally different to the gritty Scottish streets he’s used to. Here, the biggest problem seems to be what topping to put on his ice cream, and how to avoid eating DI Henry Crump’s awful fish pie.
But beneath the surface, the Suffolk coast hides a terrifying darkness. One night, a body is washed ashore—a long-dead thing—and in its eye is a silver coin.
When more bodies follow, each murdered more brutally than the last, Baird realises that he’s arrived just in time to face a ruthless serial killer—one who seems to be targeting members of a powerful local crime family.
It’s clear that things down south are not always what they seem. And sometimes, even in the most peaceful of places, you need to play hardball.
The first in a brand new series from multi-million copy bestseller Alex Smith, author of the DCI Kett books, A Long-Dead Thing has all the compulsive mystery, gripping action and hilarious comedy readers have come to love. Welcome to Southwold!
I am so excited to share this with you. Preorders are hugely important for new series, so if you’re interested in meeting DI Baird, please check out the official Amazon page here! Thank you! :-)
1st March 2025
Cold Iron Kills…
The new Kett book has been announced, and will be out in the summer!
Here’s a taste of what Kett and the team will be up to…
He is master of them all.
After years of searching, DCI Kett and the extreme crime task force have finally found Joseph Maynard—one of the last members of Hollenbeck. A psychopath of the highest order, Maynard’s violent and coercive nature has reared its head too many times in recent cases.
It’s time to end his reign of terror once and for all.
But the raid on Maynard’s lair goes wrong. By capturing him, Kett sets in motion a horrific chain of kidnappings—five innocent victims snatched from their homes in the same night.
Only Maynard knows how to save them, but it’s not just freedom he’s asking for in return. It’s something unthinkable.
Kett and the team must find Maynard’s victims before time runs out, because it’s not just their lives on the line.
It is Kett’s too.
Click the button below to find out more!
9th December 2024
ARE YOU READY TO CROSS THE RED LINE?
Red Line, the 17th DCI Kett case, is out now!
Some lines should never be crossed…
On a cold November morning, the body of a teenage boy is discovered in a remote playground—not just murdered, but butchered.
For DCI Kett and the Extreme Crime Task Force, it looks like an open and shut case. The boy was connected to a County Lines drug operation notorious for its violence and brutality, and all evidence points to him being the latest in a long line of unfortunate victims.
But the deeper they look into his death, the more disturbing the case becomes. And as the bloodshed continues, Kett and his team find themselves pulled into the dark heart of one of the country’s most terrifying urban legends: the Red Line.
Here, Kett begins to understand that the price of crossing some lines is death.
And the price of crossing others is far worse.
A free kett novella
DCI Robert Kett is about to have the worst day of his life.
The city is a Furnace, nine million people losing their minds in an unprecedented heatwave. Somebody is strangling young men on London's buses and trains, and Kett must find the killer before the capital descends into chaos.
But that’s not all he has to worry about. An old enemy is out for revenge, and with a price on his head, danger is everywhere.
London is burning, but if Kett’s not careful then it’s his life—and the lives of those he loves most—that's about to go up in flames…
Discover the events that led to PAPER GIRLS in this official DCI Kett Novella, free to read on BookFunnel.