Mark Pryor Books in Order
Explore Mark Pryor books in order, with series reading guides, short summaries, background notes, and advice on where to start with his mysteries.
Last updated: June 7, 2026
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Publication Order
16 books
The Bookseller
by Mark Pryor
2012
Hugo Marston watches helplessly as his friend Max, a Paris bouquiniste, is abducted at gunpoint. The search draws him into old wartime secrets, missing booksellers, and a turf war along the Seine.
As She Lay Sleeping
by Mark Pryor
2013
This true-crime account follows the long cold case of Natalie Antonetti, murdered in Austin in 1985. Pryor recounts the investigation and trial from the inside as a former journalist turned prosecutor.
The Crypt Thief
by Mark Pryor
2013
Two tourists are murdered in Père Lachaise Cemetery, then a thief steals bones from famous dancers' crypts. Hugo Marston joins the French police to find a killer who seems to move like a ghost.
The Blood Promise
by Mark Pryor
2014
Guarding an American senator at a French chateau, Hugo Marston stumbles into a centuries-old secret hidden in a sailor's chest. Soon old history is driving new violence.
The Button Man
by Mark Pryor
2014
In this prequel, newly posted in London, Hugo Marston must protect a movie-star couple tied to a hit-and-run. When one star is found dead, the trail leads toward an English village and more bodies.
Hollow Man
by Mark Pryor
2015
Dominic is an Austin prosecutor, musician, and psychopath trying to pass for normal. A demotion, debt, and a seductive stranger push him into a cash-van heist that turns deadly.
The Reluctant Matador
by Mark Pryor
2015
Hugo Marston follows a friend's missing daughter from Paris to Barcelona, where a search becomes a murder case. With Tom Green beside him, Hugo must clear an old friend and find the girl.
The Paris Librarian
by Mark Pryor
2016
When Hugo Marston's friend dies in a locked room at the American Library in Paris, the official explanation feels too neat. Rare letters tied to a wartime actress may hold the answer.
The Sorbonne Affair
by Mark Pryor
2017
American writer Helen Hancock finds a hidden camera in her Paris hotel room, so Hugo Marston is sent to investigate. A dead employee, a leaked video, and slippery suspects turn surveillance into murder.
Dominic
by Mark Pryor
2018
Dominic has escaped one terrible secret, but Detective Megan Ledsome is getting too close. As a younger psychopath offers help, Dominic plots another solution with the same cold logic that got him this far.
The Book Artist
by Mark Pryor
2019
At a Montmartre exhibition of sculptures made from books, Hugo Marston expects culture, not murder. When an innocent suspect is arrested and an old enemy resurfaces, Hugo has two dangers closing in.
The French Widow
by Mark Pryor
2020
An attack on a young American woman and the theft of four paintings draw Hugo Marston to a Paris chateau. The guarded Lambourd family has secrets to protect, and the case puts Hugo under a harsh spotlight.
Die Around Sundown
by Mark Pryor
2022
In occupied Paris, Inspector Henri Lefort has five days to solve the murder of a German major in the Louvre. The suspects include artists, secrets, and forces that could get Henri killed.
The Dark Edge of Night
by Mark Pryor
2023
In winter 1940 Paris, Henri Lefort is ordered to find a missing German neurologist while pursuing a French murder. The cases converge around forbidden secrets, vanished children, and Nazi power.
A Blood Red Morning
by Mark Pryor
2024
When a man is murdered outside Henri Lefort's own apartment in January 1941, the case becomes painfully personal. The victim's classified file and Henri's neighbors point toward a dangerous wartime choice.
The Most Mysterious Bookshop in Paris
by Mark Pryor
2026
Retired Hugo Marston opens an antiquarian mystery bookshop in the Marais, hoping for quiet. A blackmail threat at a chocolatier soon turns to murder, pulling him back into investigation.
Where should I start?
For Hugo Marston in publication order: The Bookseller → The Crypt Thief → The Blood Promise → The Button Man.
For World War II mysteries: Die Around Sundown → The Dark Edge of Night → A Blood Red Morning.
For darker psychological noir: Hollow Man → Dominic.
For Hugo after retirement: The Most Mysterious Bookshop in Paris.
Author bio
Mark Pryor was born in Hertfordshire, England, and raised on a farm just outside London. That early countryside life sits a long way from the Paris crime scenes and Austin courtrooms that later filled his books, but it gave him one useful writer's tool: a sharp eye for place.
He found his way to crime through newspapers first.
Pryor trained as a journalist in England and worked as a reporter, covering police and crime stories among other beats. In the mid-1990s he moved to the United States, studied journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, then went on to Duke University School of Law. It was a practical pivot, but not a random one. Crime, motive, evidence, and the strange things people do under pressure had already caught his attention.
After law school, he practiced commercial litigation in Dallas for a few years. The work did not quite fit. Pryor wanted criminal law, courtrooms, and cases that felt closer to real people, so he moved into prosecution and later spent many years with the Travis County District Attorney's Office in Austin.
The courtroom followed him onto the page.
His first Hugo Marston novel, The Bookseller, introduced a former FBI profiler from Texas who works security at the American Embassy in Paris. The series grew from there, with books such as The Crypt Thief, The Blood Promise, and The Paris Librarian mixing present-day crimes with old secrets, Paris landmarks, and a steady love of books.
Pryor also writes on the darker side of crime. Hollow Man and Dominic follow an Austin prosecutor and musician who knows exactly what is wrong with him and is very good at hiding it. Those books lean into noir, unreliable narration, and the uncomfortable fun of watching a bad person think quickly.
Then came Inspector Henri Lefort. In Die Around Sundown, Pryor moved to German-occupied Paris in 1940, giving readers a French detective who must solve murders while dealing with Nazi power, local fear, and his own private troubles. The Dark Edge of Night and A Blood Red Morning continue that wartime thread.
Across his fiction, Pryor returns to a few steady interests: smart investigators, legal pressure, history that refuses to stay buried, and characters who have to decide what justice means when the rules are bent or broken. His true-crime book As She Lay Sleeping comes from the same territory, a cold murder case he helped prosecute in Austin.
Pryor now works as a criminal defense attorney in Austin. He still writes crime fiction, travels for research when he can, and has built a bibliography that lets readers choose between Paris embassy mysteries, World War II detective work, and Texas psychological noir.
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