Complete The Laundry Files Series by Charles Stross
What if Occult Threats Were Fought by Cubicle Workers?
“The basic premise of the series is sort of a mash-up.”
(Revised May 2023)
Charles Stross’ The Laundry Files series is an occult workplace comedy that mixes Lovecraft with spycraft. The multiple Hugo Award-winning series follows the exploits of a former tech support worker now-turned field agent, Bob Howard, at a top secret British intelligence agency dedicated to protecting the human race from nefarious supernatural phenomenon.
British author Charles Stross holds degrees in pharmacy and computer science, and has worked in a variety of jobs including pharmacist, technical author, software engineer, and freelance journalist. He is now a full-time writer.
Author Stross explains The Laundry Files series:
“The basic premise of the series is sort of a mash-up. It’s a humorous horror subsection spy thriller, where the British Secret Service are protecting us from Cthulhu and the Old Ones and other Lovecraftian horrors from beyond space-time. Part of its premise is that magic exists but is essentially a branch of applied mathematics. If you solve the right theorem, creatures elsewhere in the multiverse will hear and possibly obey, giving rise to a field known by its practitioners as applied computational demonology.”—Lightspeed Magazine
He shared on the Tor blog:
The “Laundry”—or, more formally, X-Division of the Special Operations Executive—is the British government organisation responsible for defending the nation against emergent magical threats. As a branch of applied mathematics, magic was practiced on an ad-hoc basis prior to its systematization by Alan Turing in the 1940s. Wartime efforts combined the approach of GCHQ (cryptanalysis, applied computational demonology) and SOE (sabotage operations, combat philosophy) and led to the establishment of the post-war secret agency documented in these classified publications.
Members of staff assigned to Active Operations are required to maintain a journal describing their operations, so that in event of their death or assimilation by an extradimensional nightmare their knowledge is not lost to the organization. As a new recruit you are encouraged to familiarize yourself with these classified sources: they’re an invaluable learning resource and the following reading list may prove helpful.
Find out about all the books in the Laundry Files series below!
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Complete Laundry Files by Charles Stross
The Atrocity Archives (Laundry Files #1)
The first novel in Hugo Award-winning author Charles Stross’ witty Laundry Files series. Bob Howard is a low-level techie working for a super-secret government agency.
While his colleagues are out saving the world, Bob’s under a desk restoring lost data. His world was dull and safe—but then he went and got Noticed.
Now, Bob is up to his neck in spycraft, parallel universes, dimension-hopping terrorists, monstrous elder gods and the end of the world. Only one thing is certain: it will take more than a full system reboot to sort this mess out…
“Stross’s genius lies in devoting fully as much time to the bureaucratic shenanigans of the Laundry as he does to its thaumaturgic mission.”—The Washington Post Book World
The Jennifer Morgue (Laundry Files #2)
Saving the world from evil is a 24/7 job. No overtime pay included.
Ruthless software billionaire Ellis Billington has unearthed a device that will enable him to raise an eldritch horror, codenamed “JENNIFER MORGUE,” from the ocean’s depth for the purpose of ruling the world. Thwarting his devious plan is a job for the Laundry.
And since James Bond doesn’t work for the Laundry, it’s up to Bob Howard, geekish demonology hacker extraordinaire. His mission is to inveigle his way aboard Billington’s yacht and stop him, while fending off the beautiful and deadly Ramona Random, an American agent with her own agenda…
“Stross packs this new novel full of hilarious in-jokes and frenetic set pieces.”—San Francisco Chronicle
The Fuller Memorandum (Laundry Files #3)
Computational demonologist Bob Howard is taking a much-needed break from the field to catch up on his filing in the Laundry archives when a top secret dossier known as the Fuller Memorandum vanishes—along with his boss, who the agency’s executives believe stole the file.
Determined to discover exactly what the memorandum contained (and perhaps clear his boss), Bob runs afoul of Russian agents, ancient demons, and the apostles if a hideous faith who have plans to raise a very unpleasant undead entity known as the Eater of Souls.
Now Bob must use all of his skills to learn the secret of the Fuller Memorandum in order to save the world—and avoid becoming an item on the Eater of Souls’s dinner menu…
“A terrific pull-no-punches paranormal espionage thriller as the action starts from the onset…Bond and Bourne never face the adversaries Howard confronts. ”—Alternative Worlds
The Apocalypse Codex (Laundry Files #4)
For outstanding heroism in the field (despite himself), computational demonologist Bob Howard is on the fast track for promotion to management within the Laundry, the supersecret British government agency tasked with defending the realm from occult threats. Assigned to External Assets, Bob discovers the company (unofficially) employs freelance agents to deal with sensitive situations that may embarrass Queen and Country.
So when Ray Schiller—an American televangelist with the uncanny ability to miraculously heal the ill—becomes uncomfortably close to the Prime Minister, External Assets dispatches the brilliant, beautiful, and entirely unpredictable Persephone Hazard to infiltrate the Golden Promise Ministries and discover why the preacher is so interested in British politics. And it’s Bob’s job to make sure Persephone doesn’t cause an international incident.
But it’s a supernatural incident that Bob needs to worry about—a global threat even the Laundry may be unable to clean up…
“Well written, well reasoned, and thoroughly entertaining. Dig into the Laundry Files—there’s a mad joy inherent to these books that is difficult to find anywhere else.”— The Maine Edge
The Rhesus Chart (Laundry Files #5)
The Hugo Award-winning author of The Delirium Brief reveals the secrets of The Laundry Files in an adventure of Lovecraftian horror and espionage hi-jinks. As a newly appointed junior manager within the Laundry—the clandestine organization responsible for protecting Britain against supernatural threats—Bob Howard is expected to show some initiative to help the agency battle the forces of darkness.
But shining a light on what’s best left in the shadows is the last thing Bob wants to do—especially when those shadows hide an occult parasite spreading a deadly virus. Traders employed by a merchant bank in London are showing signs of infection—an array of unusual symptoms such as super-strength and -speed, an uncanny talent for mind control, an extreme allergic reaction to sunlight, and an unquenchable thirst for blood.
While his department is tangled up in bureaucratic red tape (and Buffy reruns) debating how to stop the rash of vampirism, Bob digs deeper into the bank’s history—only to uncover a blood-curdling conspiracy between men and monsters...
“Stross has pulled off yet another fast-paced blend of espionage thrills, mundane office comedy, and Lovecraftian horror…”— SFX
“A quirky, slightly crazy, but captivating cerebral supernatural thriller...It’s nothing short of brilliant!”— Fresh Fiction
The Annihilation Score (Laundry Files #6)
Dominique O’Brien—her friends call her Mo—lives a curious double life with her husband, Bob Howard. To the average civilian, they’re boring middle-aged civil servants. But within the labyrinthine secret circles of Her Majesty’s Government, they’re operatives working for the nation’s occult security service known as the Laundry, charged with defending Britain against dark supernatural forces threatening humanity.
Unfortunately, one of those supernatural threats has come between Mo and Bob. An antique violin, an Erich Zahn original, made of white human bone, was designed to produce music capable of slaughtering demons. Mo is the custodian of this unholy instrument. It invades her dreams and yearns for the blood of her colleagues—and her husband.
And despite Mo’s proficiency as a world-class violinist, it cannot be controlled…
“Charles Stross is awesome and his books are awesome and his Laundry Files series in particular is a hell of a lot of fun.”—John Scalzi, New York Times bestselling author of The End of All Things
The Nightmare Stacks (Laundry Files #7)
After stumbling upon the algorithm that turned him and his fellow merchant bankers into vampires, Alex Schwartz was drafted by the Laundry, Britain’s secret counter-occult agency that’s humanity’s first line of defense against the forces of darkness. Dependent on his new employers for his continued existence—as Alex has no stomach for predatory blood-sucking—he has little choice but to accept his new role as an operative-in-training.
For his first assignment, Alex is dispatched to Leeds to help assess the costs of renovating a 1950s Cold War bunker for use as the Laundry’s new headquarters. Unfortunately, Leeds is Alex’s hometown, and the thought of breaking the news to his parents that he’s left banking for the Civil Service, while hiding his undead condition, is causing him more anxiety than learning how to live as a vampire secret agent preparing to confront multiple apocalypses.
Alex’s only saving grace is Cassie Brewer, a drama student appearing in the local goth festival who is inexplicably attracted to him despite his awkward personality and massive amounts of sunblock. But Cassie has secrets of her own—secrets that make Alex’s nightlife behaviors seem positively normal...
“Smart, literate, funny.”—#1 New York Times bestselling author Lev Grossman, Time
The Delirium Brief (Laundry Files #8)
Someone is dead set to air the spy agency’s dirty laundry in The Delirium Brief, the next installment to Charles Stross’ Hugo Award-winning comedic dark fantasy Laundry Files series!
Bob Howard’s career in the Laundry, the secret British government agency dedicated to protecting the world from unspeakable horrors from beyond spacetime, has entailed high combat, brilliant hacking, ancient magic, and combat with indescribably repellent creatures of pure evil. It has also involved a wearying amount of paperwork and office politics, and his expense reports are still a mess.
Now, following the invasion of Yorkshire by the Host of Air and Darkness, the Laundry’s existence has become public, and Bob is being trotted out on TV to answer pointed questions about elven asylum seekers. What neither Bob nor his managers have foreseen is that their organization has earned the attention of a horror far more terrifying than any demon: a British government looking for public services to privatize.
Inch by inch, Bob Howard and his managers are forced to consider the truly unthinkable: a coup against the British government itself.
“Smart, literate, funny.” —Lev Grossman, author of The Magicians
The Labyrinth Index (Laundry Files #9)
The Lovecraftian Singularity has descended upon the world in The Labyrinth Index, beginning an exciting new story arc in Charles Stross' Hugo Award-winning Laundry Files series!
Since she was promoted to the head of the Lords Select Committee on Sanguinary Affairs, every workday for Mhari Murphy has been a nightmare. It doesn’t help that her boss, the new Prime Minister of Britain, is a manipulative and deceptive pain in the butt. But what else can she expect when working under the thumb of none other than the elder god N’yar Lat-Hotep, AKA the Creeping Chaos?
Mhari’s most recent assignment takes her and a ragtag team of former Laundry agents across the pond into the depths of North America. The United States president has gone missing. Not that Americans are alarmed. For some mysterious reason, most of the country has forgotten the executive branch even exists. Perhaps it has to do with the Nazgûl currently occupying the government and attempting to summon Cthulhu.
It’s now up to Mhari and her team to race against the Nazgûl's vampire-manned dragnet to find and, for his own protection, kidnap the president.
Who knew an egomaniacal, malevolent deity would have a soft spot for international relations?
“A bizarre yet effective yoking of the spy and horror genres.” —The Washington Post Book World
Dead Lies Dreaming (Laundry Files #10)
When magic and superpowers emerge in the masses, Wendy Deere is contracted by the government to bag and snag supervillains in Hugo Award-winning author Charles Stross’ Dead Lies Dreaming: A Laundry Files Novel.
As Wendy hunts down Imp—the cyberpunk head of a band calling themselves “The Lost Boys”— she is dragged into the schemes of louche billionaire Rupert de Montfort Bigge. Rupert has discovered that the sole surviving copy of the long-lost concordance to the one true Necronomicon is up for underground auction in London. He hires Imp’s sister, Eve, to procure it by any means necessary, and in the process, he encounters Wendy Deere.
In a tale of corruption, assassination, thievery, and magic, Wendy Deere must navigate rotting mansions that lead to distant pasts, evil tycoons, corrupt government officials, lethal curses, and her own moral qualms in order to make it out of this chase alive.
“We get to see a new view on Britain from the perspective from other than the Laundry—from the perspective of people on the street, or at least not within the walls of a quasi spy agency. Not that our protagonists are ordinary, but they are much closer to average people than our previous characters.”—nerds of a feather, flock together
Quantum of Nightmares (Laundry Files #11)
A unique blend of espionage thrills and Lovecraftian horror, Hugo Award-winning author Charles Stross's Laundry Files continues with Quantum of Nightmares.
It’s a brave new Britain under the New Management. The avuncular Prime Minister is an ancient eldritch god of unimaginable power. Crime is plummeting as almost every offense is punishable by death. And everywhere you look, there are people with strange powers, some of which they can control, and some, not so much.
Hyperorganized and formidable, Eve Starkey defeated her boss, the louche magical adept and billionaire Rupert de Montfort Bigge, in a supernatural duel to the death. Now she’s in charge of the Bigge Corporation—just in time to discover the lethal trap Rupert set for her long ago.
Wendy Deere’s transhuman abilities have gotten her through many a scrape. Now she’s gainfully employed investigating unauthorized supernatural shenanigans. She swore to herself she wouldn’t again get entangled with Eve Starkey’s bohemian brother Imp and his crew of transhuman misfits. Yeah, right.
Mary Macandless has powers of her own. Right now she’s pretending to be a nanny in order to kidnap the children of a pair of famous, Government-authorized superheroes. These children have powers of their own, and Mary Macandless is in way over her head.
Amanda Sullivan is the HR manager of a minor grocery chain, much oppressed by her glossy blonde boss—who is cooking up an appalling, extralegal scheme literally involving human flesh.
All of these stories will come together, with world-bending results...
“For all of Stross’ genuine ability to spook and dismay, The Laundry Files are some of the most tremendously humane books I’ve ever read.”
—Tamsyn Muir, author of Gideon the Ninth and Harrow the Ninth
Season of Skulls (Laundry Files #12)
Welcome to the sunlit uplands of the 21st century! Britain’s avuncular Prime Minister is an ancient eldritch god of unimaginable power. Crime is plummeting as almost every offense is punishable by death. And everywhere you look, there are people with strange powers, some of which they can control, and some, not so much.
Hyperorganized and formidable, Eve Starkey defeated her boss, the louche magical adept and billionaire Rupert de Montfort Bigge, in a supernatural duel to the death. At least, she has reason to hope he's dead. But though she's now in charge of the Bigge Corporation, she's not free of him yet.
Through the fecklessness of her brother Imp, combined with the intricate feudal law of a tiny Channel Island, it would appear that unbeknownst to her, she was married to Bigge—and that proving his death and releasing herself from his arcane bindings will take years and cost millions.
Then an emissary of the Prime Minister arrives with an offer that she absolutely can’t—well, you know…
The final novel in the trilogy that includes Dead Lies Dreaming and Quantum of Nightmares.
Escape from Yokai Land (Laundry Files Novella)
Regular readers of Charles Stross’ Laundry Files might have noticed Bob Howard’s absence from the events of The Nightmare Stacks, and his subsequent return from Tokyo at the start of The Delirium Brief. Escape from Yokai Land explains what he was doing there.
Bob’s been assigned to work with the Miyamoto Group, checking the wards that lock down Japan’s warded sites―a task previously handled by his predecessor Dr. Angleton, the Eater of Souls. This mostly involves policing yokai: traditional magical beings, increasingly grown more annoying and energetic.
But then Bob’s simple trip turns into a deadly confrontation with the ultimate yokai. It’s massively powerful. It’s pink. And it says “Hello.”
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