Reading Order
Locke And Keyseries.seoTitleShort
Start with Welcome to Lovecraft and continue through all 17 books in the listed reading order.
Start Here
Start with Welcome to Lovecraft
Book 1 by Joe Hill • Published 2008
After their father’s murder, the Locke children move with their mother to Keyhouse, a rambling New England mansion full of impossible doors. Youngest brother Bode begins finding keys that unlock powers—and a hungry pr...
Complete List
Locke And Key reading order
Ends with The Golden Age
- 1
Book 1:Welcome to Lovecraft
Joe Hill • 2008
After their father’s murder, the Locke children move with their mother to Keyhouse, a rambling New England mansion full of impossible doors. Youngest brother Bode begins finding keys that unlock powers—and a hungry pr...
- 2
Book 2:Head Games
Andrew Lane • 1995
The Doctor and Jason are pulled back into the Land of Fiction just as its stories start leaking into the real universe. With old companions caught in the crossfire, they have to fight their own nightmares and shut dow...
- 3
Book 3:Crown of Shadows
Joe Hill • 2010
Crown of Shadows sees the villain wielding the Shadow Key and an army of living darkness against Keyhouse. While the adults struggle with grief and addiction, the Locke children fight back with the very magic that has...
- 4
Book 4:Keys to the Kingdom
Joe Hill • 2011
Keys to the Kingdom mixes some of the series’ wildest visual experimentation with big plot turns, as new keys surface and alliances in Lovecraft shift. Tyler begins to understand who their enemy really is, even as the...
- 5
Book 5:The Guide To Known Keys
Joe Hill • 2011
Presented as an in-universe guidebook, this special issue catalogs the many keys of Keyhouse and their powers, with an added short story about a boy and his father using the Moon Key. It’s part handbook, part love let...
- 7
Book 7:Clockworks
Joe Hill • 2013
Clockworks dives into Keyhouse’s past, revealing how an earlier generation of Lockes first opened a door into another realm and forged the keys. As Tyler and Kinsey explore time itself, they finally learn the truth ab...
- 8
Book 8:Alpha & Omega
Joe Hill • 2014
Alpha & Omega brings the core Locke & Key saga to its climax, pitting the Lockes against the demon behind the Black Door once and for all. It’s a bloody, emotional finale about sacrifice, family, and what stays locked...
- 9
Book 9:Small World
Joe Hill • 2017
In this standalone story, members of an earlier Locke generation inherit a detailed dollhouse version of Keyhouse that can affect the real mansion. When something nasty crawls into the miniature, the children must sto...
- 10
Book 10:Heaven and Earth
Joe Hill • 2017
Heaven and Earth collects three Locke & Key stories, including the much-loved “Open the Moon,” in which a father uses the keys to give his dying son one last impossible adventure. It’s a more intimate, bittersweet com...
- 11
Book 11:Locke & Key: Dog Days
Joe Hill
Use the reading order above to move through the series in the intended sequence.
- 12
Book 12:Locke & Key: ...In Pale Battalions Go… #1
Joe Hill • 2020
Set in the run-up to World War I, this first issue follows a young Locke who steals enchanted keys from his family home to bring to the battlefield. The decision draws him into a conflict that magic can’t easily fix.
- 13
Book 13:Locke & Key: ...In Pale Battalions Go… #2
Joe Hill • 2020
In part two, the use of the keys on the Western Front has terrible consequences for the soldiers around him and attracts the attention of inhuman forces. Back at Keyhouse, his family begins to sense the cost of his ad...
- 14
Book 14:Locke & Key: ...In Pale Battalions Go… #3
Joe Hill • 2020
The final chapter of …In Pale Battalions Go… closes the loop between the Locke family’s wartime tragedy and later events in The Golden Age. One young man’s attempt to change history instead helps set darker destinies...
- 15
Book 15:Locke & Key/Sandman: Hell & Gone #0
Joe Hill • 2020
This prologue collects earlier Locke & Key stories that set the stage for the crossover with the Sandman Universe. It lays out the history of Keyhouse and the occult forces that will eventually lead a Locke into the r...
- 16
Book 16:Locke & Key/Sandman: Hell & Gone #1
Joe Hill • 2020
When a young Locke seeks a way to rescue a loved one from Hell, she journeys through the Dreaming and into the wider Sandman universe. Crossing paths with its strange denizens, she discovers that every door has a price.
- 17
Book 17:Locke & Key/Sandman: Hell & Gone #2
Joe Hill • 2021
The conclusion of the Hell & Gone crossover finds the Lockes pushing deeper into the underworld with their magic keys, bargaining with Lucifer and other powers. It ties the mythologies of Keyhouse and the Sandman toge...
- 18
Book 18:The Golden Age
Joe Hill • 2022
The Golden Age gathers the historical Locke & Key tales—from colonial-era adventures to World War I and the Sandman crossover—into one sequence. Together they sketch the long, bloody history of Keyhouse and the many L...
Quick Answers
Locke And Key FAQ
What is the best order to read the Locke And Key series?
The recommended reading order is the numbered order shown on this page, starting with Welcome to Lovecraft.
How many books are in the Locke And Key series?
There are 17 books currently listed in the Locke And Key series on GurusReads.
Where should I start with the Locke And Key series?
New readers should start with Welcome to Lovecraft, the first book in the reading order.
Is the Locke And Key series complete?
Based on the publication years we have, the series appears likely complete and spans releases from 1995 to 2022.