DI Sarah Lynch Books in Order
The complete DI Sarah Lynch series by Phillip Strang — all 18 Scottish Highlands crime thrillers in reading order
Detective Inspector Sarah Lynch works the wild, unforgiving landscapes of the Scottish Highlands — remote communities where ancient grudges run deep, everyone knows everyone, and secrets can survive for generations. A sharp, determined detective navigating tight-knit villages where the land itself seems to hold its breath, Lynch uncovers murders rooted in the dark soil of Highland life. Perfect for fans of Ann Cleeves's Vera, Peter May's Lewis Trilogy, and Stuart MacBride.
1. The Dark Loch
A body surfaces in a remote Highland loch — but in a community this isolated, everyone is a suspect and no one will talk. DI Sarah Lynch arrives from the outside, bringing fresh eyes to a landscape where loyalties run older and deeper than any law. The loch has given up its secret. The village intends to keep its own.
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2. The Burning Moor
A fire on the moor — and a body at the centre of it. Arson, or something older and more deliberate? Lynch investigates in a landscape where the land itself holds memory, and where the local community's silence speaks louder than any witness statement. The moor has burned before. This time, someone made sure it wasn't an accident.
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3. The Silent Glen
A glen that locals refuse to name, a death that the community refuses to acknowledge. Lynch finds herself drawn into a case where the geography conspires with the witnesses — every path leads back to silence. What happened in the glen, and why is everyone who knows determined to take the knowledge to their grave?
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4. The Frozen Peaks
High on the winter peaks, a climber is found dead in conditions that shouldn't have killed an experienced mountaineer. Accident, exposure — or something else entirely? Lynch must climb into a world of extreme sport and extreme personalities, where the line between recklessness and murder is as thin as ice. The mountains don't forgive mistakes — and neither does the killer.
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5. The Raven's Cry
Ravens circle above an abandoned croft — and below them, a discovery that has clearly been waiting to be found. The Highland superstition around ravens is as old as the hills. Lynch doesn't believe in omens, but she believes in evidence — and the evidence suggests this death was a very long time in the making, rooted in a feud that the locals insist ended decades ago.
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6. The Last Cairn
A cairn marks a summit — and beneath one of them, something that was never meant to be found. The Highlands are full of cairns: memorials, waymarkers, tributes to the dead. This one is different. Lynch must work out who built it, when, and what they were trying to hide. The answer takes her into the history of a family whose past is as bleak as the ridge above them.
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7. The Whisky Grave
A distillery worker found dead amongst the barrels — the smell of whisky heavy in the air, the circumstances anything but clear. In a community where the distillery is the livelihood of almost everyone, Lynch faces a wall of solidarity she must break through carefully. The whisky trade has always had its dark side in the Highlands. This time, it has a body to go with it.
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8. The Forester's Fall
The old forester knew every tree, every path, every secret of the woodland he tended for forty years. Now he's dead — and the woodland is giving up none of its secrets willingly. Lynch investigates in a case that stretches back through decades of land ownership, old disputes, and a community still raw from changes that were imposed rather than chosen. The forest always remembers.
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9. The Frozen Descent
A winter descent that should have been routine ends in death on the lower slopes. The victim was experienced, the conditions manageable. Someone made sure they didn't reach the bottom. Lynch works a case in a landscape locked in ice, where the cold slows everything — except the urgency of finding a killer before another Highland winter claims another life.
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10. Ferry Crossing
The island ferry is the only way in and the only way out — which means the killer is still on board, or never left. A confined investigation in the most literal sense: Lynch must work a case where the suspects are trapped with her, and where island life has created loyalties and enmities that she is only beginning to understand. The water keeps its own counsel.
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11. The Shepherd's Stone
An ancient standing stone on the hillside — and a shepherd dead beside it. The stone has stood for four thousand years. The community has its own interpretations of what it means, and its own ideas about what happened here. Lynch respects the landscape but she trusts the evidence, and the evidence points to a very modern motive beneath the ancient superstition.
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12. The Winter's Lodge
A shooting lodge, a gathering of wealthy guests, and a death that the estate would very much prefer to classify as an accident. Lynch is not welcome — not by the estate manager, not by the guests, and not by the local landowner whose influence reaches further than it should. In the Highlands, money and land still talk. Lynch talks back.
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13. The Stalker's Path
A deer stalker's path through the estate — and a body left on it like a message. The stalking season brings outsiders to the Highlands every year, and with them, tensions that the community endures rather than welcomes. Lynch investigates a death that sits at the fault line between the old Highland way of life and the money that now owns it. Someone has been watching. Someone has been waiting.
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14. The Quiet House
When Dr Neil Carver is found drowned in two feet of water at a holiday cottage on Loch Eil, everyone assumes an accident — too much wine, a stumble in the dark. DCI Sarah Lynch sees the bruising on his wrists. Someone held him under. Five friends, five suspects, and every one of them lying. Neil was about to expose a secret one of them had kept for twenty years — and the quiet ones are always the most dangerous.
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15. The Narrow Ridge
An experienced mountaineer doesn't fall from a ridge he's climbed dozens of times. Dr Alistair Hendry is found dead at the foot of Aonach Eagach, his equipment intact, the conditions good — and his climbing partner vanished. When the partner is run to ground sixty miles away, he swears he didn't do it. But toxicology finds a drug in Alistair's blood that points somewhere else entirely. The mountain was the weapon. Someone else loaded it.
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16. The Sea Lock
A canal worker is found drowned at the bottom of the Corpach sea lock — the chamber drained, the safety systems intact, and thirty-one years of experience that should have kept him alive. DCI Sarah Lynch finds a death that doesn't fit: an interlock overridden from inside, sluices opened deliberately, a check-in call made from the dead man's own phone. Someone who knew this lock inside out — and a secret, twenty-three years drowned, that has been waiting patiently to surface.
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17. The Farm
Alec Drummond had run the salmon farm on Loch Creran for sixteen years. He knew every pen, every pump, every walkway. He was not a man who fell into the water. When he's found face down in the loch on a cold February morning, it reads as an industrial accident — until the pathologist finds bruising that fits a shove, not a fall. Eleven staff, a closed site, no obvious enemies. The answer lies buried under eleven years of silence.
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18. The Smelter
A building surveyor is found dead on the old furnace floor of the Ice Factor at Kinlochleven — nine metres down, the railing above intact, the alarm log showing no breach. Six people had access overnight, and the scene shows nothing, which is exactly why DCI Sarah Lynch takes it. Douglas Reith had come to survey a Victorian smelter turned climbing venue, and left having found a gap in an archive, a name struck from a roster, a death record quietly corrected. He sent one email on the Sunday. By Tuesday he was dead.
Buy on Amazon →If You Enjoy DI Sarah Lynch, Try These
Love Lynch's atmospheric Highland investigations? These series share the same remote landscapes, tight-knit communities, and slow-burning tension.
Vera — Ann Cleeves
DCI Vera Stanhope works the wild Northumberland moorlands — an eccentric, brilliant detective in a landscape as unforgiving as any Highland glen. If you love Lynch's atmospheric rural investigations, Vera is essential reading. 11 novels, plus the long-running ITV series.
Read the Series Guide →
DI Tremayne — Phillip Strang
The same rural isolation and community secrets, transplanted to the ancient landscapes of Wiltshire. Where Lynch has the Highlands, Tremayne has Salisbury Plain, Stonehenge, and the quiet English countryside that conceals its darkness just as effectively. 10 novels.
Read the Series Guide →
DCI Isaac Cook — Phillip Strang
If you want to stay with Phillip Strang but swap the Highland air for London's streets, DCI Isaac Cook is your next series. 19 novels set across the city's most atmospheric neighbourhoods — from Little Venice to Notting Hill and Hyde Park.
Read the Series Guide →More Crime Series Worth Reading
Frequently Asked Questions
How many DI Sarah Lynch books are there?
There are 18 DI Sarah Lynch novels. The series is set in the Scottish Highlands and follows Lynch — who rises from Detective Inspector to Detective Chief Inspector across the series — as she investigates murders in some of Britain's most remote and atmospheric communities. All books are available in Kindle, paperback, and audiobook formats.
Should you read the DI Sarah Lynch books in order?
Yes — reading in order is recommended. While each novel is a self-contained investigation, Lynch develops as a character across the series, and the recurring cast of Highland locals and colleagues deepens considerably as the books progress. Start with The Dark Loch.
What is the best DI Sarah Lynch book to start with?
Begin with The Dark Loch (Book 1), which introduces Lynch and establishes the series' tone and setting. If you're drawn in by the whisky distillery setting, The Whisky Grave (Book 7) is a fan favourite and works well as a standalone entry point — though you'll want to go back to the beginning afterwards.
Where are the DI Sarah Lynch books set?
The series is set in the Scottish Highlands — remote glens, frozen peaks, island ferries, ancient standing stones, and shooting estates, with the later books ranging out to Loch Eil, Glencoe, the Corpach sea lock, Loch Creran, and Kinlochleven. Each book uses a specific Highland landscape as an integral part of the mystery, making the setting as much a character as Lynch herself.
Is DI Sarah Lynch similar to Ann Cleeves or Peter May?
Yes — readers who enjoy Ann Cleeves's Vera and Shetland series, or Peter May's Lewis Trilogy, tend to find DI Sarah Lynch a natural fit. The series shares their love of remote British landscapes, small communities with long memories, and detective protagonists who are outsiders trying to understand a world that doesn't give up its secrets easily.