Sinners Duet

About the Sinners Duet series

The Sinners Duet is a two-book dark romance from Sophie Lark, a step away from her mafia-world series into psychological horror-thriller territory. There Are No Saints introduces Cole Blackwell, San Francisco's most celebrated sculptor and, in secret, a predator who hunts the city at night; when struggling painter Mara Eldritch survives an attack that should have killed her, Cole's fascination with her escape curdles into obsession, and he begins watching her even as a rival killer, Alastor Shaw, starts circling her as a pawn in his own war against Cole. There Is No Devil closes the story, following Cole and Mara's relationship as it's tested by Alastor's continuing pursuit and by how much of Cole's true nature Mara can accept and survive.

Published back to back in October and December of 2021, the Sinners Duet trades the Bratva-and-heist plotting of Underworld for a tighter two-hander built on obsession, art, and genuine menace rather than found-family mafia dynamics. It's a deliberately darker read than Lark's other series, with a killer as its hero, and is best approached by readers already comfortable with morally dark romance rather than as a first introduction to her work.

How to read this series

Publication order, and the only order that makes sense: There Are No Saints (October 2021), then There Is No Devil (December 2021). This is a single continuous story split across two books rather than two standalone entries -- There Are No Saints ends without resolving Cole and Mara's relationship or the threat from Alastor Shaw, so it should not be read as a standalone. Go in expecting a darker, more overtly horror-adjacent read than Lark's mafia-world series: Cole is written as a predator first and a love interest second, and the duet leans on dread and obsession rather than found-family warmth. Readers new to dark romance may want to start with a lighter Lark series, like Kingmakers, before committing to this one.