How to Read the Detective Maddie Ives Series
If you love police procedurals that combine raw realism with breathless suspense, Charlie Gallagher's Detective Maddie Ives series is a must-add to your bookshelf. Written by a former UK police officer with thirteen years of frontline experience, the books follow Detective Sergeant Maddie Ives and Detective Inspector Harry Blaker through the grittiest investigations in England's Major Crimes Unit.
To get the most out of these books, we highly recommend reading them in publication order. While each novel centers on a primary, self-contained mystery, the character arcs, team dynamics, and personal lives of the detectives develop continuously from book to book. Starting from the beginning allows you to watch the partnership between Maddie, Harry, and colleagues like Vince Arnold grow organically.
Detective Maddie Ives Books in Order
Here is the complete order of the Detective Maddie Ives novels by publication (which also functions as their chronological timeline):
- He Is Watching You (2018)
- He Will Kill You (2019)
- He Will Find You (2019)
- He Knows Your Secrets (2019)
- He Will Get You (2020)
- The Deadly Houses (2020)
- Last One Alive (2022)
- The Girl Under the Floor (2022)
- The Girls Upstairs (2024)
A Closer Look at the Cases
1. He Is Watching You (2018)
The series begins with two seemingly separate cases that collide in a terrifying race against time. Newly assigned Detective Maddie Ives takes on a routine-looking missing person report for a young woman, while DI Harry Blaker looks into a suspicious hit-and-run involving an elderly man. The investigations lead them to a sadistic predator who has locked a living victim inside a remote container, monitoring her every move via a camera feed on his smartphone.
2. He Will Kill You (2019)
Maddie works alongside a specialist team helping victims of severe domestic abuse. She connects with Grace Hughes, a woman trapped under the coercive control of a violent partner. As Maddie helps Grace collect evidence to secure a conviction, the stakes rise with the discovery of a deceased boy in a bathtub, a car bomb threat, and the return of Harry Blaker to active duty.
3. He Will Find You (2019)
This entry starts with a shocking scene: a traumatized, blood-covered ten-year-old boy wanders into traffic. At the same time, the police find a brutally murdered man dragged behind a vehicle. Maddie and Harry attempt to trace the connection between the crimes, but the mystery takes an agonizingly personal turn when their team member Rhiannon Davies vanishes.
4. He Knows Your Secrets (2019)
A fatal vehicle crash initially appears to be a tragic murder-suicide. However, as Maddie digs deeper, she exposes links to a ruthless local crime syndicate. The investigation quickly becomes a dangerous cat-and-mouse game with a gang boss who knows exactly how to target the police.
5. He Will Get You (2020)
Organized crime and individual depravity merge when a gangster hires a sadistic hitman to target a police officer. The killer takes pride in the physical and psychological torment he inflicts, arranging victims in grotesque displays for their loved ones and the Major Crimes Unit to discover. Maddie is forced to push procedural boundaries to protect one of her own.
6. The Deadly Houses (2020)
A group of domestic abusers band together to seek bloody revenge on the social workers and police officers who helped their families escape. When a key social worker is murdered, a suspect quickly confesses—but Maddie suspects he is a proxy covering for a much larger, coordinated threat targeting the unit.
7. Last One Alive (2022)
A young woman named Daisy-Mae awakens trapped in a building covered in "DON'T WAKE UP" graffiti. When her friend disappears the following day, Maddie realizes they are dealing with the copycat signature of an unsolved double homicide committed on New Year's Eve twenty-two years ago. The team must race against a ticking clock before the killer claims his next target.
8. The Girl Under the Floor (2022)
A home invasion turns fatal, leaving a single mother dead. Tucked away under the floorboards is her young daughter, Jade, who witnessed the crime but is left completely traumatized and mute. While colleague Vince works to keep the young witness safe, Maddie discovers that the attack was part of a targeted campaign of torture. They must find the killer before he returns to silence the only witness.
9. The Girls Upstairs (2024)
A terrifying hostage situation unfolds in a quiet family kitchen. An intruder holds a knife to a mother's throat while forcing the father to balance kitchen plates on his back, warning that any noise waking the young daughters asleep upstairs will result in their immediate deaths. When Maddie is called to investigate, she uncovers a direct, harrowing connection to a cop killer.
What to Know Before You Start
Charlie Gallagher spent more than a decade in UK law enforcement as a frontline response officer, tactical team member, and detective. This background shines through on every page. Unlike many mysteries that rely on exaggerated Hollywood tropes, the Maddie Ives series is celebrated for its authentic procedural detail, depicting the realistic frustrations, paperwork, legal hurdles, and forensic constraints of modern British policing.
The tone of the series is dark, tense, and gritty, tackling heavy topics such as coercive control, domestic violence, human trafficking, and organized crime. However, the dark subject matter is balanced by the compelling, human partnership between the sharp, rule-bending Maddie Ives and the seasoned, old-school Harry Blaker.
Are There Crossovers or Spin-Offs?
Charlie Gallagher is also well-known for his Langthorne Police / George Elms series. Although both series are gritty UK procedurals written by Gallagher, they remain independent tracks. There is no official crossover book that requires you to read the George Elms novels to understand the Maddie Ives books. You can enjoy the Detective Maddie Ives series completely on its own without missing any critical plot points.