Book One
Collecting the Dead
2016
The debut that introduced Steps Craig — and put a real crime analyst's fingerprints on the modern serial-killer thriller.
A Series in Four Parts
The Special Tracking Unit
FBI tracker Magnus “Steps” Craig has a secret: a rare form of synesthesia lets him see “shine” — the residual glow a person leaves on everything they touch. It's made him the best tracker alive. It's also made him a target. Read in order for the full arc, or start wherever a title catches your eye.
Book Two
Whispers of the Dead
2018
A killer whose victims are made to disappear twice over — and a trail only Steps can still see.
Book Three
Shadows of the Dead
2020
The world's best tracker, a secret he can't outrun, and a case that gets closer to home than he'd like.
Book Four
Echoes of the Dead
2021
The latest entry in the series — Steps Craig, back in the fog, following light no one else can see.
Critical Praise
What Readers Are Saying
“Will leave you breathless! Fascinating and compelling! The twists and turns will leave you breathless!”
Lisa Gardner, New York Times bestselling author of Find Her
“Mark my words — ‘Steps’ Craig is poised to take his place among our most popular and cherished thriller heroes. I can't wait for the next book.”
Chelsea Cain, bestselling author of Heartsick and One Kick
“Kope brings a refreshing authenticity to his work … crammed with characters who will capture readers' attention, and writing that leaves much of the field in the dust.”
Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
“A heart-thumping yarn from a real-life crime analyst.”
The Boston Globe
“Altogether believable … thrillingly original.”
Toronto Star
“Endlessly frightening, occasionally funny — Collecting the Dead portends a great future for author and hero.”
Richmond Times-Dispatch
“Kope, a working crime analyst for a county sheriff in Washington State, avoids the histrionic low road of serial murder fiction, using his experience to enliven the plot with the intricacies of profiling and detection.”
Chicago Tribune
Barry Award Nominee, Best Thriller
Kirkus Prize contender · Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction of 2016
The Man Behind Steps Craig
Every trail leads somewhere.
Spencer Kope was born and raised in Bellingham, Washington, where he read voraciously as a kid — The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia chief among his favorites. In middle school he met Wilson Rawls, author of Where the Red Fern Grows, and still owns the signed copy, worn soft and missing its dust jacket after too many readings.
After graduating from Meridian High School in 1982, Spencer shipped off to Navy boot camp in San Diego, then to the Defense Language Institute at the Presidio of Monterey, where he spent a year learning Russian. What followed was a blur: two deployments to the Persian Gulf aboard the USS LaSalle — the “Great White Ghost of the Arabian Coast” — and intelligence work aboard fast attack submarines in the Mediterranean as tensions flared across Libya, Beirut, and Syria. It was there, far from home, that he first decided he wanted to be a writer.
The adventures kept coming: two safaris in Africa, a horseback ride to the ruins of Petra, a search for — and discovery of — a hidden passage beneath Boyabot Castle in Turkey, the markets of Bahrain, an evening drinking with the French Foreign Legion in Djibouti, and a rickshaw ride through Karachi that he still calls the most dangerous thing he's ever done.
Discharged in 1987, Spencer spent the next decade as an Intelligence Operations Specialist supporting the Office of Naval Intelligence, eventually running projects for its Foreign Materiel Exploitation division. In 1989 he married Lea Ann Fidler; together they have three daughters. In 2004 he became the Crime Analyst for the Whatcom County Sheriff's Office, a role he still holds today — identifying suspects and vehicles for detectives by day, and, evidently, taking notes.
He's the author of nine books, including the acclaimed Special Tracking Unit series, which has earned numerous starred reviews, a Barry Award nomination for Best Thriller, and a place in the running for the Kirkus Prize. He collects first-edition books, enjoys movies and gaming, and is always chasing the next new thing to learn — his most recent adventure was a return trip to Ireland, hawking, where he finally found the cave believed to have inspired Tolkien's Gollum.
Beyond the Series
Other Books
Before Steps Craig, and alongside him, Spencer has written across genres — from ghost stories to reference guides for fellow collectors and hobbyists.
Perception
Novel
Last Ride in the Bumble Bee Jacket
Novel
When the Drummer Falls
A Gettysburg Ghost Story
Everything Civil War
Reference & Collecting Guide
Everything Outer Space
The Products, Places & People Directory
