DS Breen & WPC Tozer Books In Order

Publication Order of Breen and Tozer Books

The DS Breen and WPC Tozer series is a mystery, thriller, and crime fiction book series written by one of the popular Scottish authors named William Shaw. It is comprised of a total of 3 books, which were released between the years 2013 and 2015. Author Shaw has also completed the 4th book of the crime fiction series, which is expected to be published soon. The plots of each of the books feature the lead characters as a Detective Sergeant named Cathal Breen and the WPC named Tozer, who are based in London during the time of 1960s. All the novels of the series are highly successful in all the places where they were published.

One of the initial books written in the Breen and Tozer series by author William Shaw was published under the title ‘A House of Knives’. The Quercus publication released this book in the year 2015, after it was first released in 2014. Once again, author Shaw has introduced Tozer and Cathal Breen as the primary characters. At the beginning of the book, author Shaw has shown that the sixties’ decade is nearing its last phase. In the Marylebone CID, a number of suspects are known to get beaten by the police officers in the prison cells. At the same time, the only woman in the police force resigns from her post. Detective Breen is depicted as working on the double murder case of the burned bodies. He faces death threats for his involvement in solving the case. The fact that he is not like the other corrupt detectives makes the criminals even more fearful of him. They try to threaten him by giving death warnings. But, he does not seem to get affected by the bogus threats at all. During his investigation, Breen finds out that one of the burned dead bodies was of an unarmored and unidentified vagrant while the other was of the wayward kid of one of the rising politicians.

As the number of officials in the police officials has depleted, the first case does not find any takers to investigate. And for the second one, the PR conscious politician gets it obstructed as he is more concerned about his image in the Home Office. Later, the politician is found talking to Robert Fraser, also called as Groovy Bob. Robert is famous for throwing glamorous parties of Pop Art themes, where heroin is supplied secretly, which seems to have been causing addiction among the young and beautiful youths of London. A squat is not tempted by the heroin and decides to expose Robert Fraser’s true acts in the parties. As the story moves ahead, the perpetrator who was giving death threats to Breen is found murdered, which makes Breen the prime suspect in the murder. This makes Breen cornered and banished from the mercilessly changing and extremely corrupt system. As Breen is forced to move out in the cold all alone, he decides to tackle fire with fire in an attempt to clear his name of the murder that he knows he has not committed, and while doing so, he also intends to expose the corrupt CID of Marylebone. With the plot described in the book, author Shaw has painted a realistic portrait of the swinging sixties London. The powerful, poignant, and authentic plot has revealed the shadow behind the spotlight and the criminal activities committed in liberation’s name.

The next book published in the thriller series by author Shaw is titled as ‘A Book of Scars’. This book too was published in the year 205 by the Quercus publishers. In the starting sequence of the book, author Shaw has depicted the time of the year 1969. The book features the chief characters as Alexandra Tozer, Cathal Breen, and Helen Tozer. Around 5 years back, a teenager named Alexandra Tozer was killed brutally on the farm of her family. Since then, her sister, Helen Tzoer, has been searching the murderer as she has not been able to forget Alexandra’s murder. She used to serve in the Met Police force as a WPC, but because of the growing corruption in the system, Helen decided to quit. While returning back to her home, she brings along Detective Cathal Breen with her. When he comes to know about the case of her sister’s murder, he becomes possessed by it slowly. Breen wonders why the case was not solved for so long and then decides to work on it to find the killer. Later in his investigation, he becomes successful in finding out that the family of Helen, including her, never told him the full truth about the murder of Alexandra Tozer. Alexandra was actually tortured brutally for around 24 hours before she was killed. Detective Breen goes on to track down the sergeant who was originally investigating the case, but the man disappears after some time. Following his disappearance, Helen too goes missing. Breen begins to suspect her as her activities do not seem to be helpful at all in solving the case. Cathal Breen’s trail of the killer seems to be going far beyond the killing of a schoolgirl.

Later, it is learned that the two men who were connected in the murder case of Alexandra Toxer met with each other in Kenya at the time of the uprising of Mau Mau. Due to this, it appears that the history from which England has turned away his face has returned again to haunt everyone. Soon, one more woman gets abducted and seeing the similarity of the kidnapping with Alexandra’s murder, Breen knows that he only has 24 hours to save the woman. He has to find her before time runs out, or else she will meet the same fate as Alexandra. This plot described by William Shaw forms the third book of the action-thriller series. It displays the powerful deconstruction of the last phase of the sixties. Author Shaw has given information about the Kenya Emergency, the Drug Squad, and the society’s upheaval as the world knows it now. The story has laid bare the forgotten crimes and tells the history of all the losers. By describing all this, author Shaw has developed a realistic era of the sixties, however, he has not romanticized or glorified the era. Initially, William Shaw had decided to develop the series in the form of a trilogy. But, after seeing the immense success and wide appreciation from the critics and readers, he decided a few more books as a part of the series. In fact, he has finished writing the next book, which he will be publishing in the days to come.