Sarah Flint Books In Order

Publication Order of DC Charlotte Stafford Books

Sarah Flint is a British thriller and mystery author best known for the “DC Charlotte Stafford” series of novels. As a forty-three-year-old that had worked for a quarter of a century for London’s Metropolitan Police Service. She was inspired to become an author when she saw her sister’s novel on sale at the local supermarket. Seeing Dee Yate’s novel on the shelves got her so excited that it planted a seed that soon started germinating in her mind. Within four months, she had written the manuscript for her first novel and got hooked into writing. But the manuscript would languish on her shelf for years as she had a lot to learn about punctuation and writing style. Since Sarah worked as a police officer, she did not have the literary skills, even though her job provided a good base for police procedures, settings, and characters that populate her novels. While she often had to deal with aggression, tragedy, crime, and dependency brought about by fragmented and disjointed families, her overriding interest was the need for justice for her victims. Fascinated by the circumstances that bred crime and what made criminals and law enforcement tick, she wrote her first novel “Mummy’s Favourite,” the first of the “DC Charlotte Stafford” series in 2016.

DC Charlie Stafford, the lead protagonist of the series mirrors Sarah Flint in that she also has concern for justice and the plight of her victims too. Even though detective inspector Geoffrey Hunter her boss is a conventional police officer who only wants the law to be enforced, Stafford has more of a human side and is more pragmatic in his approach to policing. Stafford places a high value on friendship and family since she has lived a life plagued with tragedy. As the youngest child in a family of nine siblings, Sarah Flint places a lot of value on family too. While she thinks she was lucky to have a very protective and loving family, she also had to go through the pain of losing a beloved brother and brother in law to cancer. Flint has since retired from the Metropolitan Police and now has a lot more time for her other pursuits such as writing and running marathons. She has also climbed Kilimanjaro, skydived off a skyscraper in Auckland, dived with Great Whites, and faced off with cheetahs and lions. She has also met many people that she considers great friends. Even though she has many interests, Flint now writes full time and by 2020 had five titles in the “DC Charlotte Stafford” series.

“Mummy’s Favourite” the first novel of the series introduces Detective Constable Charlie Stafford. She is a hard-working police officer who is committed to doing her job as she had joined the force for personal reasons. She has a good working relationship with detective inspector Geoffrey Hunter her boss and is always the go-to person for complicated cases. Charlie and her team have been assigned the case of a woman that has disappeared together with one of her sons. At first, the team believed the case has something to do with domestic abuse until another mother and child go missing and their theory no longer fits. They find a mother and child in a woodland grave but as the identify suspects, many of their leads are going cold. Will Charlie be able to catch and stop a sadistic killer or will she find herself a victim of the man? Told from several third person perspectives that include both victims and villains, it is a twisted and dark thriller that is both deeply disturbing and gripping.

“The Trophy Taker” by Sarah Flint opens to DC Charlie Stafford working on the investigation into a series of racist attacks. One of the victims had been an old man that she had become close to, who had been so psychologically scarred by the attacks that he was afraid to leave the house. Charlie has an idea of who the man involved in the attacks could be, but he is a slippery man and they have their work cut out if they are to bring him to justice. While they are working on the case, there is a gruesome murder as a woman’s body is found butchered and abandoned at the local cemetery. It is evident that the man that would do such a thing is a very disturbed and sick individual. A few days later, a gay man is murdered and the team has to find the connection between the murders that hint at a very unhinged killer. It seems the man is spiraling out of control and soon they have a third murder, which now hints at a serial killer. There are several suspects in the killings but it is not until one of the team comes into real mortal danger that they start making progress. The killer seems to be focused and ready to do anything to continue collecting his trophies. Will they be able to catch the man before he kills one of their own?

“Liar Liar” Sarah Flint’s third novel in the “DC Charlotte Stafford” series continues documenting the life and times of DC Charlie and her boss DI Geoffrey Hunter. They are usually the first to be summoned to a scene of a crime to collect evidence, after which they spend the rest of their time learning about the perpetrators and their victims. At the beginning of the novel, Geoff and Charlie are coming off a week of working through the night when they are told that another body has been discovered. They soon learn that the dead man is Brian Ashton a police constable and they immediately get down to work on the case investigating his background. They are also looking for the type of man who could have the motive and drive to kill him in such a brutal manner. Unfortunately, he is not the only police officer to be killed in such a brutal fashion though linking the killings is proving difficult. While they are investigating the case, the IPCC is working on proving that detective inspector Hunter had acted illegally in his last case. Having to deal with the investigation and constant pressure is a huge strain on the entire team and they think someone in the IPCC may be frustrating their investigation.