Books
8 top crime novels set in Wales
With its temperamental weather, dramatic landscapes and many an isolated community, the winding roads and crumbling cottages of Wales provide the perfect backdrop for dark deeds and mysterious goings on. Crime fiction set in Wales may not be as common as its counterparts from England, Ireland and Scotland – but it packs a punch nonetheless!
If you’re looking for a good book to help immerse yourself in beautiful Wales then look no further. With these gripping crime and thriller reads you can pay a visit to the capital with Belinda Bauer, explore Aberystwyth with Malcolm Pryce and get lost in the Brecon Beacons with Claire Douglas.
Here’s our pick of the best crime fiction set in Wales.
Rubbernecker by Belinda Bauer
Rubbernecker by Belinda Bauer
Life is strange for Patrick Fort – being a medical student with Asperger’s Syndrome doesn’t come without its challenges. And that’s before he is faced with solving a possible murder.
Because the body Patrick is examining in anatomy class is trying to tell him all kinds of things. And now he must stay out of danger long enough to unravel the mystery – while he dissects his own evidence…
Do Not Disturb by Claire Douglas
Do Not Disturb by Claire Douglas
After what happened in London, Kirsty needs a fresh start with her family. And running a guesthouse in the Welsh mountains sounds idyllic.
But then their first guest arrives. Selena is the last person Kirsty wants to see. It’s 17 years since she tore everything apart. Why has she chosen now to walk back into Kirsty’s life? Is Selena running from something too? Or is there an even darker reason for her visit? Because Kirsty knows that once you invite trouble into your home, it can be murder getting rid of it.
The Lie by C L Taylor
The Lie by C L Taylor
Jane Hughes has a loving partner, a job in an animal sanctuary and a tiny cottage in rural Wales. She’s happier than she’s ever been but her life is a lie. Jane Hughes does not really exist. Five years earlier Jane and her then best friends went on holiday but what should have been the trip of a lifetime rapidly descended into a nightmare that claimed the lives of two of the women.
Jane has tried to put the past behind her but someone knows the truth about what happened. Someone who won’t stop until they’ve destroyed Jane and everything she loves.
I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh
I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh
In a split second, Jenna Gray’s world descends into a nightmare. Her only hope of moving on is to walk away from everything she knows to start afresh. Desperate to escape, Jenna moves to a remote cottage on the Welsh coast, but she is haunted by her fears, her grief and her memories of a cruel November night that changed her life forever.
Slowly, Jenna begins to glimpse the potential for happiness in her future. But her past is about to catch up with her, and the consequences will be devastating.
The Bones Beneath by Mark Billingham
The Bones Beneath by Mark Billingham
Stuart Nicklin, the most dangerous psychopath Tom Thorne has ever put behind bars, promises to reveal the whereabouts of a body he buried twenty-five years before. But only if Thorne agrees to escort him. Unable to refuse, Thorne and the team travel to Bardsey island, where they’re at the mercy of the weather and cut off from the mainland.
But Nicklin knows this island well and has had time to plan ahead. Soon, new bodies are added to the old, and Thorne finds himself facing the toughest decision he has ever had to make.
Aberystwyth Mon Amour by Malcolm Pryce
Aberystwyth Mon Amour by Malcolm Pryce
Schoolboys are disappearing all over Aberystwyth and nobody knows why.
Louie Knight, the town’s private investigator, soon realises that it is going to take more than a double ripple from Sospan, the philosopher cum ice-cream seller, to help find out what is happening to these boys and whether or not Lovespoon, the Welsh teacher, Grand Wizard of the Druids and controller of the town, is more than just a sinister bully.
Talking to the Dead by Harry Bingham
Talking to the Dead by Harry Bingham
A woman and her six-year-old daughter are killed with chilling brutality in a dingy flat. The only clue: the platinum bank card of a long-dead tycoon, found amidst the squalor.
DC Fiona Griffiths of the South Wales Major Crimes Unit has a past she prefers to keep hidden. Something to do with a mysterious two-year gap in her CV, her strange inability to cry and a disconcerting familiarity with corpses. She’s desperate to put the past behind her but as more killings follow, the case leads her back into those dark places in her own mind where another dead girl is waiting to be found…
The Missing Hours by Emma Kavanagh
The Missing Hours by Emma Kavanagh
When Dr Selena Cole vanishes without a trace from the playground leaving her daughters stranded, DC Leah Mackay takes the case. Twenty hours later, Selena is found alive but has no memory of where she was or how she got back home.
What took place in those missing hours? And could they be linked to the discovery of a body nearby?
Have you read any great crime fiction set in Wales? Have we missed any of your favourite Welsh crime writers? Let us know in the comments below!
Travel further afield with our recommended reads set in Scotland, Ireland and England.
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Rhys Dylan writes a great series of police/crime novels set in Wales. They are definitely about Wales, the location, geography and even some Welsh language. I liked them mostly because they are well written and the characters are engaging. They are not gory, creepy, disturbing or deliberately shocking. I can read them before I go to sleep and not have nightmares. Wales now seems to be a place that I want to visit now that I have read Rhys Dylan’s novels.
I’d put in a vote for The Gold Detective Series by Gillian Hamer, Crimson Shore, False Lights and Sacred Lake all set on Anglesey and often said to be reminiscent of Camilla Lackberg and Scandinavian noir, brilliant!
Visiting wales this summer so may look at some of these
….and one of my favourites’ The Wrong Boy’ set in the hamlet of Rhosddraig Wales by Welsh writer Cathy Ace
What about Alis Hawkins, None So Blind….the first book in the Teifi Valley Coroner series 😊
What about Conrad Jones? The Angelsey Murders series?
Excellent read.
‘The Welsh Man’ by Dave Lewis
Brilliant book!
Simon McCleaves’ DI Ruth Hunter series is excellent, set in and around Snowdonia.
As serialised on radio 4 this week, the Montgomeryshire based ‘Daf Dafis’ novels by Myfanwy Alexander feature a policeman deeply embedded in a rural Welsh community. Currently, two titles are available in English, ‘Bloody Eisteddfod,’ and ‘Burning Issue’ whereas the Welsh language series runs to 4 titles, ‘A Oes Heddwas,’ ‘Pwc Llosg’, ‘Y Plygain Olaf.’ & ‘Mynd fel Bom.’
I am currently copy-editing my 2nd book “The Notch” based in beautiful Wales & am so thrilled to see such amazing interest in brilliant books based there! I have read a few of these books and loved them x
Harry Bingham highly recommended. I love Fiona Griffiths .
You can’t leave out Ewart Hutton and his character Glynn Capaldi!
Phil Rickman’s “Merrily Watkins” aren’t exactly crime novels, but they are set on the Welsh border snd very, very good.
Some great books – Victoria Jenkins is also great.
DS Kite novels by Jan Newton. Crime series set in mid-Wales. First one is Remember No More ….. newly promoted DS Kite is at a crossroads. Her husband’s desire for a different life takes her away from urban Manchester and it’s inner city problems to tranquil mid-Wales.
Murder at the eisteddfod by John Ellis Williams
Set in North Wales, the Inspector Drake series by Stephen Puleston is excellent
The Inspector Drake series, by Stephen Puleston, set in Wales is excellent. The first book, Brass in Pocket, is particularly good.
What about Stephen Puleston’s Inspector Drake series? Set in North Wales – they are brilliant with a true sense of place. Hugely recommended xx