Hector Lassiter Books In Order

Publication Order of Hector Lassiter Books

Chronological Order of Hector Lassiter Books

The name ‘Hector Lassiter’ refers to a series of historical fiction novels written by Craig McDonald. The books tell the larger than life stories of Hector Lassiter, a legendary author who goes on grand adventures all over the world.

+The Story
Hector Lassiter is one of a kind, a literary genius and a globetrotting badass with a penchant for seducing women and foiling dastardly plots. Not even Craig McDonald could have predicted the success of the Hector Lassiter series or the popularity his hero would garner when he wrote that first Hector Lassiter novel in 2007.

It is worth pointing out that while ‘One True Sentence’ is listed as the first novel in the series, the first Hector Lassiter book Craig McDonald ever wrote was ‘Head Games’.

‘Head Games’ was also McDonald’s debut work. McDonald had introduced Lassiter in ‘The Last Interview’, a short story he wrote in 2005.

But ‘Head Games’ was the first full-length novel to feature Lassiter. In it, Lassiter is a crime writer enjoying the company of a poet by the names of Bud Fiske when the pair is gifted with a carpet bag within which is contained the stolen head of Mexican General Francisco Villa.

The head was part of a collection that a secret society stored in a trophy cabinet. When its disappearance is noted, Lassiter becomes the target of some very dangerous people.

Even though ‘Head Games’ was the first Lassiter novel Craig McDonald ever wrote, ‘One True Sentence’ is generally considered the true starting point of the Hector Lassiter series because it takes readers back to the protagonist’s earliest days.

In other words, as far as chronology is concerned, ‘One True Sentence’ is the starting point of the Hector Lassiter legend. The book takes readers to Paris in 1924. There, Lassiter and a whole host of crime writers must band together to stop a serial killer with a taste for publishers and editors.

The Hector Lassiter books are technically mystery suspense novels. When readers first meet Lassiter, he is little more than a fledgling author who so happens to be Ernest Hemingway’s best friend.

For the most part, Lassiter just wants to be left alone, and he says as much even in Paris in 1924 when a killer who hates his kind is on the loose. But no matter how hard he tries, Lassiter simply cannot steer clear of trouble.

First, he is forced to tangle with the devious mind prowling Paris’ streets in the 1920s. And then he is drawn back to the United States where an encounter with the love of his life is ruined by a bat-wielding fiend with a penchant for murder.

And before he can make proper sense of the consequences of that encounter, WWII sweeps him away into an even deeper heap of trouble.

Each installment in the Hector Lassiter series takes readers to a new time period. Some of the novels focus on a particular year in history. Others explore entire chunks of time, a few years in some cases, and several decades in others.

And while Craig McDonald’s novels are touted as historical mysteries, they focus more on the history than they do the mystery. McDonald is a history buff and it shows. Each one of his Lassiter novels has some important event or movement from history at its center.

From the Black Dahlia to the Revolution in Cuba and even the Spanish Civil War, the Hector Lassiter novels are essentially a historical highlight reel. And Lassiter is basically a combination of Rambo and Hemingway.

McDonald always finds a way to put him in the nucleus of history’s most significant moments. And McDonald isn’t afraid to play with real historical figures. In fact, he clearly relishes the prospect because his Lassiter works are chocked with cameos of those men and women that shaped the world.

Lassiter, for his part, faces off against everything from serial killers to crooked cops, hurricanes, tyrants, and thugs. He drinks harder than any sane man should and he does even more fighting.

The women he meets cannot get enough of him and they will fight each other to the death if it means securing one night of passion with one of the manliest men fiction has ever seen.

For the most part, Hector Lassiter is just a man. But he keeps achieving feats that would put most men to shame. There are times when Lassiter would like nothing better than to enjoy the peace and quiet.

But more often than not, he simply cannot stop sticking his nose into matters that do not concern him. So it is only natural that he would eventually grow in renown to the point of drawing the interest of Orson Welles, Salvador Dali, John Dos Passos, and their ilk.

The Lassiter novels can get downright silly from time to time. It often feels like Hector Lassiter has way too much sex. But Craig McDonald’s immersive descriptions of historical settings and cultures elevate the series above the pulpy fanfare to which it is normally compared.

+One True Sentence
Someone is killing people in Paris in 1924. The victims are all publishers and editors. Hector Lassiter, a fledgling author is drawn into the chaos when he hears a body fall into the Seine.

Then Gertrude Stein reaches out to him. Stein has gathered all the prominent mystery and crime writers in Paris. With people like Brinke Devlin and Hector Lassiter by her side, Stein believes that she can force the killer into the light.

Lassiter had no true interest in the affair as a whole. But then three women to whom he was drawn upended his world.

+Forever’s Just pretend
Hector Lassiter comes to Key West in 1925 after several years abroad because he wants to find and rekindle his relationship with Brinke Devlin, an author and the love of his life.

Hector is ready to make Devlin his first wife and then ride off into the sunset. Unfortunately for him, Key West has begun to sink into turmoil. If all the fires weren’t enough, some bat-wielding fiend is attacking women.

Lassiter is pretty good at minding his own business when he really wants to. But when this fiend launches an attack that hits a little too close to home, Lassiter and Devlin are forced to investigate.