The Lovecraft Squad Books in Order

The Lovecraft Squad is a little different from the other entries here because it is not a conventional one-author run of novels. It is a shared-world series of anthologies in which multiple writers contribute stories set inside the same larger conflict. Michael Marshall Smith is one of those contributors, so his books in this sequence are part of something bigger.

The core idea is great fun if you like your horror mixed with pulp adventure. The series imagines a secret struggle against Lovecraftian forces, cults, monsters, and cosmic influences operating behind the scenes of twentieth-century history. The people fighting that battle are tied to the Human Protection League, which gives the whole thing the feel of occult espionage. You get secret missions, recurring enemies, hidden files, strange artifacts, and the constant knowledge that human beings are nowhere near the top of the food chain.

Think occult espionage rather than quiet haunting.

That shared setup gives the books a broad canvas. Stories can jump across decades, countries, and historical events while still feeding the same central mythology. One tale may feel like a wartime thriller, another like an urban horror story, another like straight cosmic adventure. The pleasure comes from seeing how different writers handle the same haunted world.

Michael Marshall Smith's contributions fit that world well. He is especially good at mixing unease with dry humor and at giving even a short piece a human center, so when he steps into a Mythos setting he does not just deliver tentacles and cults. He gives you people trying to stay rational while the ground rules of reality slide away from them. In a series like this, that tone helps. It keeps the stories sharp and readable even when the ideas get huge.

The volumes connected to him here, Waiting and Dreaming, sit in the later part of the wider Lovecraft Squad sequence. They are anthologies rather than single continuous novels, so each book gives you several entry points. At the same time, there is an ongoing background story and an expanding sense of threat, so readers who enjoy linked worlds will probably get the most from reading the series in order.

What should you expect overall? Not subtle domestic dread. Not slow literary ghost stories. This is a series that likes secret agencies, cult networks, global stakes, and the sense that history itself has been nudged by things older and worse than humanity. Smith is one voice in that chorus, but he is a good fit for it, and his stories add a nicely grounded, human edge to all the cosmic trouble.