Daniel Handler Books in Order

Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire lose their parents in a fire and are sent to live with the menacing actor Count Olaf. He plots to seize their fortune through a bizarre marriage scheme, forcing the siblings to rely on their wits.

Banished to grim Prufrock Preparatory School, the Baudelaires endure cruel teachers, endless violin recitals, and a dormitory shack. They finally find friends in the Quagmire triplets, only to uncover a conspiracy that threatens both families and hints at a wider mystery.

In this orchestral mystery, an Inspector questions every section of the orchestra after a composer turns up dead at his desk. The witty interrogation doubles as an introduction to musical instruments, with each group defending its place in the performance.

Young Lemony Snicket begins his apprenticeship in the nearly abandoned town of Stain'd by the Sea, paired with the baffling S. Theodora Markson. Hired to recover a stolen statue, he quickly realizes the case is tangled up with much larger secrets.

Still stuck in Stain'd by the Sea, Snicket investigates the disappearance of a brilliant girl named Cleo Knight. Between suspicious pharmacists, a mysterious substance, and incompetent local authorities, he has to sort truth from rumor before it is too late.

As fires spread through Stain'd by the Sea, Snicket and his friends investigate a plot involving a strange school and a suspicious local newspaper. The questions grow more dangerous, and every clue suggests their enemy Hangfire is several steps ahead.

In the final All the Wrong Questions volume, Snicket boards a night train where almost every passenger seems suspicious. A missing Bombinating Beast, switched identities, and a looming disaster force him to face what his secret organization is really doing.

Model Citizens is a recent book by Daniel Handler that is usually grouped with his adult fiction rather than the Lemony Snicket tales. It offers another chance to see his sharp, uneasy sense of humor outside the world of the Baudelaires.