Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Gun Seller | 1996 | Hugh Laurie | Buy |
The Gun Seller is Hugh Laurie’s only novel, published in 1996. It tells the story of Thomas Lang, a former British army officer who is hired to kill a businessman but instead warns the intended target. This decision pulls Lang into a tangled web of arms dealers, government agents, and a weapons conspiracy that spans multiple countries.
The novel reads like a classic spy thriller filtered through Laurie’s comic sensibility. Lang narrates the story himself, and his deadpan observations and self-deprecating humor give the book a tone quite different from the typical espionage novel. Critics compared the style to P.G. Wodehouse crossed with John le Carre.
Laurie has talked about a sequel called The Paper Soldier for many years, but it has never been published. The Gun Seller remains his only work of fiction, and it has held up well with readers who enjoy spy stories that do not take themselves too seriously.