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Sandman Slim Books in Order

Part ofRichard Kadrey Books in Order

Explore the Sandman Slim series by Richard Kadrey with books in order, plot summaries, character notes, world background, and guidance on the best reading path through this supernatural noir.

Last updated: January 12, 2026

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Publication Order

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21 books

1

King Bullet

by Richard Kadrey

2021

2

King Bullet

by Richard Kadrey

2021

A deadly epidemic has Los Angeles masked and scared when a violent gang called the Shoggots and their mysterious leader, King Bullet, push the city toward collapse. Stark hunts the faceless king through riots and ruined streets, uncovering a plan that could change Heaven, Hell, and Earth forever.

3

Ballistic Kiss

by Richard Kadrey

2020

Back in Los Angeles and haunted by his time in Hell, James Stark is hired to clear murderous ghosts from Little Cairo. As he uncovers a 1970s cold case and falls in with a dangerous thrill club, he stumbles on secrets that could shift the war in Heaven.

Recommended by:

Patrick Rothfuss

4

Ballistic Kiss

by Richard Kadrey

2020

5

Hollywood Dead

by Richard Kadrey

2019

6

Hollywood Dead

by Richard Kadrey

2018

One year after dying, Stark is dragged back from the grave by the occult power brokers of Wormwood, who need him to stop a rogue faction. Only half alive and on a strict deadline, he has days to prevent a city destroying ritual and earn his second chance.

7

The Kill Society

by Richard Kadrey

2017

8

The Kill Society

by Richard Kadrey

2017

Murdered and stranded in a blasted desert realm of Hell, Stark falls in with a convoy led by a charismatic, ruthless figure called the Magistrate. As they cross a wasteland of wrecks and ruins, he uncovers a plan to combine divine weapons and blow open the gates of Heaven.

9

The Perdition Score

by Richard Kadrey

2016

10

The Perdition Score

by Richard Kadrey

2016

Trying to live a quieter life on the Sub Rosa council, Stark is pulled back into trouble when a dying angel hands him a vial of mysterious black milk. After a friend is poisoned, he and Candy must return to Hell to find a cure and derail Wormwood’s newest plot.

11

Killing Pretty

by Richard Kadrey

2015

12

Killing Pretty

by Richard Kadrey

2015

Someone has trapped Death in a human body and cut out his heart, and suddenly no one on Earth can die. Working as a private investigator in Los Angeles, Stark is hired to solve the murder of Death himself before the broken rules of life unravel everything.

13

The Getaway God

by Richard Kadrey

2014

14

The Getaway God

by Richard Kadrey

2014

Los Angeles is drowning under relentless rain while cultists build shrines from butchered body parts in honor of an ancient Angra god. Stark, juggling a fragile relationship and a dubious alliance with the Golden Vigil, has to stop the entity from entering our universe and wiping it clean.

15

Kill City Blues

by Richard Kadrey

2013

16

Kill City Blues

by Richard Kadrey

2013

Stark needs to recover the Qomrama, a god killing weapon he once lost, before it falls into the wrong hands. His search leads to Kill City, an abandoned mega mall turned vertical slum where exiled Sub Rosa families, cults, and worse things haunt the darkened escalators.

17

Devil Said Bang

by Richard Kadrey

2012

Stuck wearing Lucifer’s crown, Stark juggles assassination attempts, rebellious demons, and infernal bureaucracy while searching for a way back to Los Angeles. When he returns, a killer ghost and reality twisting angelic schemes force him to save the world one more time.

18

Devil in the Dollhouse

by Richard Kadrey

2012

Newly crowned as Lucifer, Stark is still learning how to rule Hell when reports arrive of massacres at a remote fortress on the frontier. Determined to prove no one can challenge him, he rides out to confront a horror so bad that even demons tried to lock it away.

19

Aloha from Hell

by Richard Kadrey

2011

When an old enemy threatens both his lost lover and the balance between Heaven and Hell, Stark heads back to the underworld he barely escaped. To end the feud and stop a cosmic war from spilling onto Earth, he must face the worst parts of Hell and himself.

20

Kill the Dead

by Richard Kadrey

2010

Now scraping by as a freelance monster hunter, Stark is drafted as Lucifer’s bodyguard while the Devil visits Los Angeles to oversee a biopic. When a zombie outbreak and occult murders hit the city, Stark has to keep his impossible client alive and stop an undead catastrophe.

21

Sandman Slim

by Richard Kadrey

2009

After eleven brutal years fighting demons in Hell’s arenas, magician James "Sandman Slim" Stark claws his way back to Los Angeles. Armed with stolen infernal tools, he hunts the sorcerers who betrayed him and finds himself in the middle of a war between Heaven and Hell.

Series background & context

The Sandman Slim books follow James Stark, a street level magician who was betrayed by his circle and sent alive to Hell. Down there he survived as a gladiator and later as an assassin for demon generals, picking up scars, weapons, and a reputation under the name Sandman Slim. When the first novel opens, he claws his way back to Los Angeles, furious, traumatized, and very hard to kill.

What begins as a revenge story quickly widens into something stranger. Stark’s hunt for the magicians who ruined his life drops him into the hidden world of the Sub Rosa, the city’s community of sorcerers, alchemists, and half human things who live just under the surface of everyday Los Angeles. Hollywood producers make deals with Hell, dive bars host angels in disguise, and Homeland Security has its own occult task force. The series leans into that mix of supernatural grit and crime fiction, with Stark acting as both hitman and reluctant detective.

Across the books he keeps getting dragged back into bigger fights. Sometimes Heaven wants to use him as a blunt instrument, sometimes Hell does, and sometimes both sides want him dead. He spends a stint wearing Lucifer’s armor and ruling Hell, returns to Earth to work odd jobs for the Golden Vigil and the Sub Rosa council, and keeps stumbling into plots that involve elder gods, corporate cults, and weapons capable of tearing holes in reality. Saving the world is never really his plan, but it keeps landing on his to do list.

One of the series’ strengths is its supporting cast. Candy, a Jade demon who refuses to stay in the box other people put her in, becomes both Stark’s partner in crime and his conscience. Vidocq, an immortal French alchemist, drifts between mentor, fixer, and comic relief. A talking severed head, a sin eating priest, shapeshifters, angels with day jobs, and dead cowboys all come and go, giving the books a sense of a shared, lived in community.

Stylistically, the novels are fast, foul mouthed, and funny, but the voice hides a lot of hurt. Stark is a classic noir narrator who never stops cracking jokes, yet the longer the series runs, the more it deals with what his years in Hell actually did to him. Later volumes dig into trauma, anger, and the impossible task of going back to ordinary life after you have been Lucifer and the monster under the bed.

If you are wondering where to start, begin with Sandman Slim and read forward in order. Each book contains its own story, but the character arcs, running jokes, and shifting alliances pay off best when you see Stark’s long, messy journey from furious escapee to someone who might finally be ready to stop fighting everyone and everything.

Edited by

Richard Reis

Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.

Anurag Ramdasan

Lead investor at 3one4 Capital whose startup expertise and love for books helped shaped MRB and its growth.

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All 21 Sandman Slim Books in Order (Complete List 2026)