Sinners Duet Books in Order

The Sinners Duet is Sophie Lark’s darkest work, a two-book plunge into obsession, violence, and love between a serial killer and the artist who fascinates him. Set in San Francisco’s art world, it reads like a psychological thriller threaded with a deeply twisted romance.

In There Are No Saints, Cole Blackwell is a celebrated sculptor with a secret: he’s also a meticulous predator who treats the city as his hunting ground. His only real rival is Alastor Shaw, another killer who enjoys chaos where Cole prefers control. When struggling painter Mara Eldritch accidentally stumbles into one of Shaw’s attacks and survives, Cole becomes fixated. He starts stalking her, testing her, and eventually pulling her into his orbit under the guise of mentorship.

Mara is broke, bruised by past abuse, and hungry to be seen for her talent. Cole is the first person who really looks at her work and takes it seriously, even as he plays a deadly game in the shadows. The tension in the first book comes from that push and pull: Mara knows Cole is dangerous, but he’s also the only one offering her a way out of invisibility. Cole, for his part, can’t decide whether to protect her from Shaw or consume her himself.

There Is No Devil picks up the story with the stakes raised. Shaw is no longer content to circle; he goes after Mara directly, forcing Cole into open conflict he’s spent years avoiding. The duet’s second half digs deeper into Mara’s emerging sense of power, Cole’s warped ideas of love and ownership, and the brutal line between survival and complicity. Their relationship shifts from predator and prey into something like partnership, though never in a way that feels clean.

These books are explicit in both violence and sex, with content that includes murder, torture, stalking, and psychological abuse alongside the romance. They are not designed to be read as standalones; you need both halves to see the full arc of Cole and Mara’s story. For readers who enjoy morally bankrupt leads, intense psychological games, and romances that lean into the question of whether a monster can be loved without being redeemed, the Sinners Duet is the place to go in Sophie Lark’s catalog.