One of his earlier works is the 1999 book Westsiders: Stories of the Boys in the Hood,[1] which chronicles the attempts of a group of Los Angelenos to become successful hip hop artists.
For Details he spent a month in the Utah desert living with Stone Age survivalists, went undercover at cross burnings with the neo-Nazi Christian Identity Movement in Idaho, shot AK-47s with Zionist fundamentalists in upper New York State and spent a week staying at the Church of Scientology Celebrity Center in Hollywood.
That was followed in 1994 by Spying in Guru Land, an account of a year spent as a member of several British religious cults.
His book, Small Ads, based on his Observer column, appeared in 2005 as A Superhero for Hire.
Shaw's police novel Salt Lane (May 2018) is the first in a new series which features DS Alexandra Cupidi.