He is the author of the Bryant and May mysteries, in which the two detectives, Arthur Bryant and John May, are members of the fictional Peculiar Crimes Unit. The series includes: Full Dark House, The Water Room, Seventy-Seven Clocks, Ten Second Staircase, and White Corridor. Seventy-Seven Clocks contains references to Gilbert and Sullivan throughout the narrative. The sixth Bryant & May novel, The Victoria Vanishes, pays homage to The Moving Toyshop by Edmund Crispin. The seventh Bryant and May novel, Bryant and May on the Loose, was published in July 2009. The eighth Bryant and May novel, "Bryant and May Off the Rails" was released in hardback in the UK in June of 2010.

His book Rune shows remarkable similarities to the later Japanese novel & film Ringu/The Ring. It also features Bryant, May, and several character from that series.

His story "The Master Builder" was filmed as Through the Eyes of a Killer, starring Richard Dean Anderson, Marg Helgenberger and Tippi Hedren. His tenth short story collection, Old Devil Moon, won the Edge Hill Audience Prize 2008.

His novella Breathe, published by Telos Publishing Ltd., won the British Fantasy Society Award for best novella in 2005.