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fantasy
Series · fantasy
The Dark Artifices
The Dark Artifices series by Cassandra Clare has 4 known books (4 published) and is best read in publication order, starting with Lady Midnight (2016). The latest book with a fully recorded publication date is Secrets of Blackthorn Hall.
- Books
- 4 known books (3 novels + 1 companion)
- Published
- 4
- First published
- 2016
- Status
- completed
- Shelved under
- Fantasy
- Last checked
Start here: Lady Midnight (2016) — then read straight through in publication order.
Reading order
The date order of published books and any announced future entries — the default way to read the series.
- Book 1:
Lady Midnight
Lady Midnight is the novel that opens Cassandra Clare's Dark Artifices series, published in March 2016. It's followed here by Lord of Shadows. It's the natural place to begin the series, which ran to completion between 2016 and 2018 across 3 books.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Lady Midnight - Book 2:
Lord of Shadows
Lord of Shadows is by Cassandra Clare, the second novel in the Dark Artifices series, published in May 2017. In the reading order it follows Lady Midnight and precedes Queen of Air and Darkness.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Lord of Shadows - Book 3:
Queen of Air and Darkness
Queen of Air and Darkness is the Dark Artifices series' third entry, a novel by Cassandra Clare, published in December 2018, at 912 pages. It follows Lord of Shadows as the most recent entry in the series so far.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Queen of Air and Darkness - Book 4:
Secrets of Blackthorn Hall
Secrets of Blackthorn Hall (March 2026, Daphne Press, 320 pages) is an illustrated, epistolary Shadowhunters story -- told through letters, diary entries and texts -- following Emma Carstairs and Julian Blackthorn as the Clave orders them to restore the crumbling Blackthorn Hall in Chiswick, London, or lose it, only to find a spectral presence already sharing the house. Illustrated by Cassandra Jean, it bridges the timeline between The Dark Artifices trilogy and the forthcoming Wicked Powers series, arriving after Queen of Air and Darkness as the most recent Dark Artifices-connected entry.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Secrets of Blackthorn Hall
About The Dark Artifices
Five years after the events of City of Heavenly Fire, Emma Carstairs is a Shadowhunter in Los Angeles still hunting her parents' killers, bound by an unbreakable parabatai oath to Julian Blackthorn -- a bond that makes the romantic feelings growing between them not just complicated but explicitly forbidden by Shadowhunter law. When a new string of murders echoes the pattern that killed Emma's parents, she and Julian's investigation drags the Los Angeles Institute into a conspiracy involving the Faerie courts and the Cold Peace, a punitive treaty straining relations between Shadowhunters and the fae.
Set in the same timeline as The Mortal Instruments and featuring some of its characters in supporting roles, The Dark Artifices moves the action to Los Angeles and pushes Cassandra Clare's mythology toward morally thornier territory -- a forbidden romance with real institutional stakes, political intrigue with the fae courts, and one of the franchise's most divisive, high-stakes endings. It leans older and heavier than The Mortal Instruments, reflecting an audience that grew up alongside the earlier series.
Three novels tell one complete, continuous story following Emma and Julian from the string of murders through the trilogy's climactic reckoning with the Cold Peace and the Faerie courts.
Frequently asked questions
How many books are in The Dark Artifices?
Three: Lady Midnight, Lord of Shadows, and Queen of Air and Darkness.
What order should I read The Dark Artifices in?
Publication order: Lady Midnight, Lord of Shadows, Queen of Air and Darkness.
Do I need to read The Mortal Instruments before The Dark Artifices?
Strongly recommended. The Dark Artifices is set five years after City of Heavenly Fire, features Mortal Instruments characters, and spoils that series' ending.
Is The Dark Artifices finished?
Yes, the trilogy concluded with Queen of Air and Darkness in 2018.
Is The Dark Artifices as dark as its title suggests?
It's noticeably heavier and more morally complicated than The Mortal Instruments, with higher romantic and political stakes and a widely-discussed, bittersweet ending.
If you like The Dark Artifices
Reading order last verified .