Detective Sergeant McAvoy Series

One girl missing. One girl dead. A stunning new novel from one of Britain’s most original crime writers, Dead Pretty finds Detective Sergeant Aector McAvoy and Detective Superintendent Trish Pharaoh grappling with vigilantes, unsolved murders, and a killer far too close to home.

While a colleague struggles to solve the recent killing of a man too vile to have mourners, Aector McAvoy, Detective Sergeant of the Humberside Police’s murder squad, is still haunted by the past. His devotion to his cases is unshakeable, but it’s been nine months since Hannah Kelly disappeared in the quiet English countryside, and it is becoming harder to convince himself that she is just missing instead of dead… especially when another young woman is found brutally murdered.

As McAvoy looks for connections between the women, his boss Trish Pharaoh is preoccupied with troubles of her own. Reuben Hollow–a man convicted of murder with the help of perjured testimony from the Humberside Police–has just been released from prison after a high-profile wrongful conviction suit, putting Pharaoh’s reputation at stake. But when her house is broken into and her children threatened, she soon learns it is not only her good name that’s in danger.

As the cases intertwine and Pharaoh’s behavior becomes more erratic, McAvoy must question who he can trust if he is to uncover Hannah’s fate and find justice for the dead–without joining them himself.

Gritty, atmospheric, and endlessly entertaining, David Mark’s Dead Pretty is an absorbing, twisty ride readers won’t soon forget.

The latest installment in David Mark’s internationally acclaimed Detective Sergeant McAvoy series, Cruel Mercy is McAvoy’s first adventure on American soil.

In the New York Police Department’s 7th Precinct on the Lower East Side, Detective Ronny Alto is investigating a crime that’s left one man dead and the other in a medically induced coma after surviving a shot to the head. One hope is that Brishen Ayres, a boxing coach and legend in the gypsy community in England, will wake up and reveal the person—or people—responsible for the murder of his protégé Shay Helden and his own mutilation. Another hope is Detective Sergeant Aector McAvoy.

Far away from his home in the U.K., from his familiar Hull, and from the guidance of his boss Trish Pharaoh, McAvoy is flown in to assist with the case, but he has his own motives for the trip: find a man named Valentine Teague—another amateur boxer, a rival of the Helden family, and, perhaps most important, his brother-in-law. But every step toward locating Valentine is a step deeper into a sinister underground network of misguided loyalty, faith, and honor that pulses beneath the streets of New York.

The latest installment of the Detective Sergeant McAvoy novels, and the first to be set in the United States, Cruel Mercy finds Hull’s most enigmatic detective treading unfamiliar ground in this wicked stateside thriller.

The New York Times hails David Mark’s work as “in the honorable tradition of Joseph Wambaugh and Ed McBain”; in Taking Pity, Detective Sergeant Aector McAvoy returns for another darkly enthralling installment of this internationally acclaimed series.

It’s been three months since Detective Sergeant Aector McAvoy returned home, or what was left of it after a horrific tragedy. All that remained was charred masonry, broken timbers, and dried blood—a crude reminder of the home invasion and explosion that tore his house and family apart. McAvoy’s wife and daughter are safe, he’s been assured; he just wishes he knew where they were.

            As McAvoy wrestles with his guilt, self-hatred, and helplessness, trouble persists in stormy Hull. Organized crime emerges as the city’s latest threat, with two warring factions leaving plenty of bodies for Detective Superintendent Trish Pharaoh and her unit to clean up. Now more than ever, Pharaoh needs her sergeant to return to work and be a policeman again. She gives McAvoy a case that’s supposed to ease him back into the game: a re-investigation of  a rural  quadruple murder that was put to bed fifty years ago. But what was supposed to be a cut-and-dry job quickly unravels as McAvoy digs up new evidence and witness testimonies, steering him closer to some of the most notorious criminals in northern England.

            Fast-paced, noir-ish and fresh off the heels of Sorrow Bound’s violent finale, Taking Pity is the latest page-turning installment in the gripping Detective McAvoy series. Hailed by The New York Times as being “in the honorable tradition of Joseph Wambaugh and Ed McBain,” David Mark’s police procedurals are smart, dark, and above all, wholly captivating.

The New York Times hails David Mark’s work as “in the honorable tradition of Joseph Wambaugh and Ed McBain.” SORROW BOUND is the third installment of the internationally acclaimed Detective Sergeant Aector McAvoy series.

The sweltering summer heat is pushing Detective Sergeant Aector McAvoy and the Serious and Organized Crime Unit to the brink as a sadistic new boss takes over the local drug trade and violent crime escalates. Then, McAvoy and DS Trish Pharaoh are distracted by something deadlier: a serial murderer with a taste for the macabre. McAvoy comes to suspect these are actually copycat murders, committed as revenge for mishandled police investigations conducted years ago. But when one of McAvoy’s fellow police officers is blackmailed, McAvoy’s life—and that of his wife, Roisin, and the couple’s two young children—is suddenly in jeopardy. As the vicious monsters lurking in the shadows creep closer and closer to home, McAvoy must figure out a way to protect his family at all costs.

David Mark’s latest Detective Sergeant McAvoy novel, CRUEL MERCY, is on-sale February 2017.

The New York Times hails David Mark’s work as “in the honorable tradition of Joseph Wambaugh and Ed McBain.” ORIGINAL SKIN is the second installment of the internationally acclaimed Detective Sergeant Aector McAvoy series.
 
When “swinger” Simon Appleyard is found strung-up and naked in his apartment, the authorities are only too happy to chalk it up to suicide. After all, a new gang has taken over the local drug trade, and Detective Superintendant Trish Pharaoh’s Serious and Organized Crime Unit is run ragged. A murder investigation is the last thing they need.

But more bodies begin to surface, and all are somehow connected to the underground erotic scene. Although Detective Sargeant Aector McAvoy would be perfectly content to stay home with his wife and their newborn baby, he begins to suspect that murder is just the beginning. As his investigation brings him uncomfortably close to the local political elite, McAvoy realizes he is hunting a sadistic killer with a lust that won’t be satisfied until the River Humber runs red.

David Mark’s latest Detective Sergeant McAvoy novel, CRUEL MERCY, is on-sale February 2017.

The New York Times hails David Mark’s work as “in the honorable tradition of Joseph Wambaugh and Ed McBain.” DARK WINTER is the first book in the internationally acclaimed Detective Sergeant Aector McAvoy series.
 
A series of suspicious deaths have rocked Hull, a port city in England as old and mysterious as its bordering sea. They have captured the attention of Detective Sergeant Aector McAvoy. He notices a pattern missed by his fellow officers, who would rather get a quick arrest than bother themselves with finding the true killer. Torn between his police duties and his aching desire to spend more time with his pregnant wife and young son, McAvoy is an unlikely hero: a physically imposing man far more comfortable exploring computer databases than throwing around his muscle. Compelled by his keen sense of justice, he decides to strike out alone—but in the depths of the dark winter, it’s difficult to forget what happened the last time he found himself on the wrong side of a killer’s blade…

David Mark’s latest Detective Sergeant McAvoy novel, CRUEL MERCY, is on-sale February 2017.