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, Red Line and Cold Iron Kills, which is out now—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, is out now! You can find out more about A Long-Dead Thing 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
1st July 2025
Cold Iron Kills is out now!
The 18th Kett book is out today!
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.
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.
19th March 2025
Meet DI Harrison Baird!
My brand new series is out now! Join DI Harrison Baird in Southwold.
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!
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.