detective inspector simon wise
"I didn't think anything could rival Mark Billingham's Tom Thorne — but this is it."
“I would put Michael Dylan in the same category as Lee Child and Michael Connelly.”
The Metropolitan Police never have it easy, but DI Simon Wise has to deal with the very worst crimes in London. Someone is murdering billionaires every three days, another hunts society’s most vulnerable, and then there’s the killer hiding behind the most charming of smiles
If you enjoy gripping police procedurals with shocking twists, authentic London settings, and an overarching story that builds from book to book, them it’s time to meet DI Wise today.
It all begins with Rich Men, Dead Men.
RICH MEN, DEAD MEN
It doesn't matter how rich you are when death knocks at your door.
A billionaire is murdered in London. Three days later, another. Then another. No witnesses. No motive. No clues — only bodies.
Detective Inspector Simon Wise should be the man to stop the killer. But Wise watched his partner and best friend die just weeks ago, and the questions around that night haven't stopped following him. Now, with the city's wealthiest elite in a panic and the clock counting down to the next kill, Wise must hold his fractured team — and himself — together long enough to catch a killer who's always three steps ahead.
Because the murders won't stop until Wise works out the one thing nobody can answer: why?
RICH MEN, DEAD MEN is the first book in the DI Simon Wise series.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "In the same category as Lee Child and Michael Connelly"
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "I was out of breath by the end"
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "My new favourite author"
THE KILLING GAME
A serial killer at large. A detective pushed to his limits. Who will win the killing game?
A homeless teenager is found under a railway bridge in Camden, his throat cut. Then the Murder Investigation Team makes a chilling discovery: he isn't the first. Someone has been hunting the city's lost souls for years — patient, invisible, and far from finished.
DI Simon Wise is barely holding himself together. Three months after watching his best friend die on a Peckham rooftop, the nightmares haven't stopped — and neither have the questions about who was really behind Andy's betrayal. Now, with a stretched team and victims the world would rather forget, Wise takes on the case nobody else wants.
But this killer doesn't want to hide. He wants to play. And in the killing game, only the winner survives.
THE KILLING GAME is the second book in the six-book DI Simon Wise series.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "So much better than the first one — I could not put it down."
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "Read it in a day... Exciting, devious and brilliant."
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "I was glued to the book and it refused to let me go."
TALKING OF THE DEAD
Sometimes, ambition can be a dangerous thing.
When a wannabe gangster murders a rival dealer and walks away with his drugs, he thinks he's finally made the big time. Instead, he's just become the most wanted man in London — and the police are the least of his problems. Someone wants those drugs back, and they don’t care who they kill to get them.
For DI Simon Wise, a dead dealer should be a simple case. But London doesn't do simple — and Wise has a far bigger problem. The man carving up the capital's underworld, the man waging a one-sided war to control it all, has a face Wise knows better than anyone's.
His own.
Because London's newest crime lord is Wise's identical twin — and Tom has just made his first threat against Wise's family.
The hunt is on. But who's hunting who?
TALKING OF THE DEAD is the third book in the DI Simon Wise series.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "Very much in the mould of Roy Grace — and that is a huge compliment"
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "They get better each time"
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "A roller coaster ride from start to finish"
INTO THE RIVER DEAD
He's searching for the perfect woman and he'll kill as as necessary to find her.
He's handsome. Charming. Cooks like a dream. The kind of man you'd introduce to your mother. But he has standards — impossibly high ones — and no woman has ever survived failing them.
When a young woman's body is found on the banks of the Thames, DI Simon Wise suspects she won't be the last. His team is at half strength, still carrying the scars of the last case, and this killer doesn't leave clues — because in his world, mess is unforgivable.
And while Wise hunts a murderer nobody knows exists, his twin brother is tightening his grip on London's underworld. Tom's war is escalating — and it's about to cost lives far closer to home.
A killer without mercy. A brother without limits. A detective caught between them.
INTO THE RIVER DEAD is the fourth book in the DI Simon Wise series.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "Terrific book — best yet!"
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "From the first chapter you are hooked"
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "These books should be made into films"
DROP DOWN DEAD
No matter how bad things are, they can always get worse.
London thought it could finally breathe after DI Simon Wise brought down a serial killer. But when a woman is found murdered on the Old Kent Road, he’s thrust into another nightmare—one that will test every instinct he has.
As the hours tick by, Wise and his team uncover a web of secrets and lies leading toward something far darker than a single killing. Somewhere in the city, a tragedy is about to unfold—and unless they can stop it, countless lives will be shattered.
Meanwhile, Wise's twin brother Tom — Britain's most wanted man — is about to show the police exactly how dangerous he can be. And this time, the war between the brothers won't stay in the shadows.
Twenty-four hours. One impossible case. No room for error.
DROP DOWN DEAD is the fifth book in the DI Simon Wise series.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "The best in the DI Simon Wise thriller books"
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "A book set in just 24 hours, read in 24 hours"
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "Best so far in the series — a very clever ending"
DEAD AND BURIED
Some secrets won’t stay buried no matter how hard you try.
Twenty years ago, Suzy Latimer went for a morning run on Wimbledon Common and never came home. No body. No suspect. No answers. In time, her disappearance became just another cold case gathering dust.
Until now.
When DI Simon Wise finally puts a serial killer behind bars, his team uncovers a link between their prisoner and Suzy's disappearance — and a cold case that haunted the city for two decades explodes back into the headlines.
But the deeper Wise digs, the less certain the truth becomes. Because whoever killed Suzy Latimer has been one step ahead from the very beginning.
And they're not finished yet.
DEAD AND BURIED is the sixth book in the DI Simon Wise series.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "I didn't think anything could rival Mark Billingham's Tom Thorne — but this is it"
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "I've read all the Simon Wise books and this one is the best yet"
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "Another masterclass"