Inspector Ramsay Books in Order

This reading order guide provides the complete list of Inspector Ramsay books in order, from the very first to the latest, so you won’t miss anything!

About the Inspector Ramsay Series

Rugged landscapes of Northumberland, England, where it’s easy to find out that even in the quietest of towns there can be big secrets, when watching the Inspector Ramsay series by Ann Cleeves you’re immersed in the misty. Well-known for its bleakness, this series starts with A Lesson in Dying, the first in the series, and right from the beginning you can tell this isn’t going to be a straightforward mystery.

Inspector Ramsay is portrayed as a somewhat isolated and reserved figure, and when he’s summoned to investigate the death of a hated school headmaster in a tight-knit mining village, his career is already in trouble. When the body of the victim is found hanging in his office, still in his academic gown, sends a very unpleasant feeling through the case. Coming from a community where lots of people, in fact most people, loathed the headmaster, his death initially seems like a self-inflicted tragedy, but is later confirmed as a murder, and has the whole village turning against each other.

When Ramsay decides to arrest the headmaster’s wife, he puts himself at the heart of a furious storm, and when she takes her own life, his reputation takes a massive hit, and he’s pushed even further into isolation. When reading the novel that kicks off the Inspector Ramsay series, the emotional engagement can be attributed to the arrival of Jack Robson, a woman’s former lover who won’t buy that she was responsible for the crime, and starts his own investigation aided by his daughter. Coming racing into the scene, this character, along with others, makes us question who’s really behind the crime, as they seem to be more and more suspicious as the story unfolds. Well-known shortcomings of the novel. Undeveloped characters, unexplored motives and the uninspiring Northumberland landscape, are clear, but set the stage for a huge improvement in the next book, Murder in My Backyard, where Ramsay takes on the murder of Alice Parry, a sweet and well-known woman who was killed behind her own house on a freezing winter night. Uncovering village life, concealed animosities, and unpleasant home truths, Ramsay shows that even the kindest people can be complicated, and that a crime can often be a catalyst for the secrets that people kept. The mood in Murder in My Backyard is richer, characters feel more real and the suspense builds steadily to the final pages. Now that we’ve seen the improvement in this second book, the Inspector Ramsay series is getting stronger, with more substantial characters, more engaging stories and more vivid settings, and is perfect for readers who love old-school murder mysteries with real people, moral dilemmas and a deep sense of place.