Dark Truths

by A.J. Cross

Published 30 September 2019

Introducing criminologist Will Traynor in the first of a gripping new forensic mystery series from an expert in the field.

When a headless body is discovered on a popular jogging trail, Detective Inspector Bernard Watts and his team are plunged headlong into a baffling murder investigation. Why would someone stab to death a young woman on her daily run - and take her head? When a close examination of the crime scene results in a shocking discovery linking the present murder to a past crime, criminologist Will Traynor is brought in to assist the police.

Aware of Traynor's troubled past and already having to deal with inexperienced rookie PC Chloe Judd on his team, Watts is sceptical that Traynor will bring anything useful to the investigation. He's about to be proved very wrong ...


Devil in the Detail

by A.J. Cross

Published 26 February 2021

A suspected car-jacking leads to something deeper and darker in the compelling new Will Traynor forensic mystery.

The emergency call comes in the early hours of the morning. A man and a woman found in a car in a rundown part of the city, both of them critically injured. A random, opportune attack by a stranger? Or were the pair deliberately targeted? Is there a connection to series of car-jackings which has been plaguing the area?

Nothing about this case seems to add up. As each theory as to what might have happened leads to yet more questions, Detective Inspector Bernard Watts decides to call on the help of criminologist Dr Will Traynor. Traynor knows that it's the small, easily missed details that will crack the case, but not even he could suspect just where those seemingly insignificant details will lead . . .


A Dark, Divided Self

by A.J. Cross

Published 25 November 2021

When the decomposed remains of a young woman are discovered just outside Birmingham, criminologist Will Traynor is drawn into a baffling investigation.

"Plenty of unexpected twists sure to set pulses racing, leading to a shock ending guaranteed to blindside even the most experienced thriller reader" - Booklist Starred Review

When the badly decomposed remains of a young woman are discovered in an isolated wooded area just outside Birmingham, the victim is quickly identified as Amy Peters, a Manchester University student who disappeared three years earlier. She is one of five young women who vanished from the streets of Manchester within a two-year period.

Called in to assist the police investigation, criminologist Will Traynor believes they are looking for an intelligent, socially confident individual, someone adept at covering his tracks. But why would the killer transport the victim on an eighty-mile journey from Manchester to Birmingham? If he can find the answer to that question, Traynor believes he has the key to cracking the case.

But at every stage of the investigation, the killer seems to be one step ahead of him. If he's going to outsmart him, Will realizes he's going to have to play this twisted individual at his own deadly game.


Reflections of Deviance

by A.J. Cross

Published 7 February 2023

Rich. Successful. Dead . . . The mysterious death of Marion Cane leads criminologist Will Traynor into a deeply challenging and disturbing new case.

Marion Cane swapped a successful city career in New York and London for a quiet retirement in a wealthy village on the outskirts of Birmingham. So why was she found dead in her new home just a few months later?

Marion's death was thought to be due to natural causes, until an anonymous note leads Superintendent John Heritage of West Midlands Police to ask DCI Bernard Watts and PC Chloe Judd to make enquiries. But when they arrive in Newton Heights, one of the villagers mysteriously vanishes. Still reeling from his own devastating news, criminologist Will Traynor is brought in to assist the team with an increasingly complex and disturbing investigation. Can Traynor push his own demons aside to see through distorted versions of reality, dangerous secrets and dark lies in his pursuit of the truth?