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Christopher Hyde Books in Order

Browse Christopher Hyde books in order, including Finn Ryan, John Holliday, Jane Todd, and more, with brief summaries and tips on where to start.

Last updated: July 3, 2026

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34 books

The Wave

by Christopher Hyde

1979

A threat to the Columbia River dam system sparks a frantic effort to stop catastrophe. Hyde's debut turns flood, sabotage, and nuclear fear into a large-scale disaster thriller with real bite.

Styx

by Christopher Hyde

1982

An earthquake traps an international archaeological team deep in a cave system in Yugoslavia. Their only way out is along a black underground river, where panic and the darkness become as deadly as the creatures around them.

The Icarus Seal

by Christopher Hyde

1982

When a friend's flight vanishes, journalist and pilot Peter Coffin starts asking questions. The search pulls him across Europe and Canada and toward a chilling scheme involving radioactive cargo on commercial planes.

The Tenth Crusade

by Christopher Hyde

1983

Photographer Philip Kirkland and Sarah Logan are all that stand between the country and a violent extremist movement. Hyde mixes cult politics, fanaticism, and conspiracy into a tense political thriller.

Maxwell's Train

by Christopher Hyde

1985

Harry Maxwell, an Amtrak maintenance man with a criminal past, plans one last robbery on a train carrying millions in fresh cash. Then terrorists move in, and the heist becomes something far more dangerous.

Jericho Falls

by Christopher Hyde

1986

A crash releases a top-secret biological weapon near a small New Hampshire town. As the military seals the area and the town starts to die, a handful of survivors fight to escape the quarantine.

Whisperland

by Christopher Hyde

1986

After his uncle's death, David Brock is summoned back into the orbit of his powerful family empire. The trail leads to Bermuda's Whisperland Hotel, where old money, murder, and long-buried secrets wait.

Crestwood Heights

by Christopher Hyde

1988

Kelly Rhine inherits property in a beautiful planned town in North Carolina and starts over. The place seems perfectly ordered, until she discovers a hidden system of surveillance, manipulation, and deadly research.

Egypt Green

by Christopher Hyde

1989

In a pristine underground city called Egypt Green, elites consider a horrifying answer to overpopulation. Hyde turns population control, plague research, and genetic planning into a cold, unsettling techno-thriller.

White Lies

by Christopher Hyde

1990

A buried assassination blueprint, first conceived for Roosevelt, is revived against a modern president and his independent vice president. Hyde builds the story into a sharp political thriller about power, secrecy, and who gets protected.

Hard Target

by Christopher Hyde

1991

A secret assassination plan from the Roosevelt years resurfaces when a young president shows signs of mental collapse. With the president, the vice president, and the state itself at risk, every agency is suddenly too late.

Black Dragon

by Christopher Hyde

1992

A killing marked with Chinese characters points toward Black Dragon, a vast international crime syndicate. As the body count rises, the hunt leads into a ruthless struggle for control inside the organization itself.

The Paranoid's Handbook

by Christopher Hyde

1994

Hyde steps away from straight thriller fiction for a darkly funny look at modern fears. It's a satirical guide to the things people worry about, from looming disasters to the strange logic of everyday paranoia.

A Gathering of Saints

by Christopher Hyde

1996

During the Blitz, Detective Inspector Morris Black tracks a serial killer whose victims appear where Luftwaffe bombs are about to fall. Spycraft, treason, and wartime panic make the case even more dangerous.

Watch Me

by Christopher Hyde

1996

FBI agent Jay Fletcher creates an illegal computer system that can spot likely serial killers. When she stumbles onto an online network built by murderers, her hunt for them becomes personal and dangerously lawless.

Unforgiven

by Christopher Hyde

1997

Twenty years after a small town helped bury the truth about her daughter's murder, a grieving mother comes back for justice. Hyde turns that setup into a bitter revenge thriller about memory, blame, and local corruption.

Catch Me

by Christopher Hyde

1999

Jay Fletcher is hiding in witness protection when Billy Bones, the killer who ruined her career, breaks free. His taunting message pulls her back into a brutal cat-and-mouse hunt she may not survive.

The Second Assassin

by Christopher Hyde

2002

In 1939, powerful isolationists plot to murder the King and Queen of England on American soil. Jane Todd is caught in a high-stakes conspiracy meant to break the bond between Britain and the United States.

Wisdom of the Bones

by Christopher Hyde

2003

Dallas detective Ray Duval has months to live and one last chance to save a kidnapped girl. Set against the chaos after President Kennedy's assassination, this is a grim race between illness, fear, and murder.

The House of Special Purpose

by Christopher Hyde

2004

In 1941, Jane Todd and Inspector Morris Black are sent to trace a missing relic from the Russian Revolution. Their mission could shift the balance of the war, if spies and double-dealers don't kill them first.

An American Spy

by Christopher Hyde

2005

War correspondent Jane Todd arrives in London to look into the murder of an American GI. With Major Lucas Dundee, she follows the case into treason, royal scandal, and a pro-Hitler plot in the Scottish Highlands.

Michelangelo's Notebook

by Christopher Hyde

2005

Art history student Finn Ryan discovers a drawing that may come from Michelangelo's lost notebook. Hours later her boyfriend is dead, and she is running through New York and Vatican history to stay alive.

The Lucifer Gospel

by Christopher Hyde

2006

In the Sahara, Finn Ryan and Virgil Hilts uncover signs of an old murder and a Roman medallion tied to a fallen angel. Their search for the truth becomes a globe-spanning chase through ruins, archives, and sunken wrecks.

Rembrandt's Ghost

by Christopher Hyde

2007

Finn Ryan inherits an Amsterdam house, a cargo ship, and what looks like a fake Rembrandt. Hidden inside the painting is a clue that sends Finn and Billy Pilgrim chasing a fortune across the South Pacific.

The Aztec Heresy

by Christopher Hyde

2008

Looking for a sunken Spanish galleon, Finn Ryan and Billy Pilgrim find clues to a lost Aztec codex and the City of Gold. Rival treasure hunters and religious fanatics make every step of the hunt deadly.

The Sword of the Templars

by Christopher Hyde

2009

Retired Ranger and West Point historian John Holliday inherits a medieval sword wrapped in Hitler's battle standard. When violence follows, he realizes the blade is tied to a centuries-old war the Templars never finished.

The Templar Cross

by Christopher Hyde

2009

Holliday's niece Peggy is kidnapped, and he joins Israeli archaeologist Rafi Wanounou to find her. Their search opens onto Egyptian legend, global intrigue, and one more deadly layer of Templar history.

The Templar Throne

by Christopher Hyde

2010

A mysterious Jacob's Staff links John Holliday to a medieval knight and a much older Egyptian secret. His search for answers turns into a race against enemies who would rather bury the truth with him.

The Templar Conspiracy

by Christopher Hyde

2011

The Pope is assassinated on Christmas Day, and the killing points toward Rex Deus, a modern Templar cabal. Holliday must untangle the plot before its backers seize even greater power.

The Templar Legion

by Christopher Hyde

2011

When an archaeologist friend makes a strange discovery in Ethiopia, Holliday is drawn into a lethal search across the Horn of Africa. The prize is ancient, priceless, and protected by a riddle from the distant past.

Lost City of the Templars

by Christopher Hyde

2012

A missing explorer's journal sends John Holliday into the Amazon. Tomb raiders, hostile terrain, and a hidden society guard a relic that Templar legends say was lost with Jerusalem.

Red Templar

by Christopher Hyde

2012

John Holliday's homecoming is cut short when a Russian stranger offers news of a lost companion to Holliday's Templar sword. The search pulls him from Turkey into Russia and a hidden network of Templar power.

Valley of the Templars

by Christopher Hyde

2012

Holliday and his friend Eddie head to Cuba to find Eddie's missing brother. Instead they uncover a long-brewing Templar plot tied to the island's crumbling regime and a secret buried in the Valley of Death.

Secret of the Templars

by Christopher Hyde

2015

After his niece and her fiancé are murdered, John Holliday hunts a lost Dead Sea Scroll. The trail leads from Vatican vaults to Pakistan and into a Nazi-era conspiracy that could shake Christian history.

Where should I start?

For big historical adventure: The Sword of the TemplarsThe Templar CrossThe Templar Throne
For art and archaeology mysteries: Michelangelo's NotebookThe Lucifer GospelRembrandt's GhostThe Aztec Heresy
For World War II intrigue: The Second AssassinThe House of Special PurposeAn American Spy
For darker standalone suspense: Jericho FallsCrestwood HeightsWisdom of the Bones
For serial-killer cat and mouse: Watch MeCatch Me

Author bio

Christopher Hyde was born on May 26, 1949, in Ottawa, Ontario, and he grew up in a family where art, ideas, and serious work all lived in the same house. His father, Laurence Hyde, was an artist, filmmaker, and author. His mother, Bettye Hyde, worked in child psychology and early childhood education. That mix of creativity and close observation shows up all through his fiction.

Before he was a novelist, Hyde spent years in broadcasting and media. He worked for CBC in Ottawa and Vancouver, and also did work connected with CTV, CJOH-TV, and educational television. Much of that work involved research, reporting, and interviewing, especially on technology, intelligence, and environmental subjects. It gave him a reporter's habit of chasing facts until the machinery behind a story finally made sense.

He turned to writing fiction full time in the late 1970s. His first major thriller, The Wave, arrived in 1979 and set the tone early. It is a large-scale disaster novel built around the Columbia River dam system, political choices, and the fear of a catastrophe that could keep spreading long after the first failure. Even in that debut, Hyde was already doing the thing many readers still like best about him, taking a frightening idea and grounding it in a lot of hard detail.

That research-heavy approach carried into books like The Icarus Seal, Maxwell's Train, Jericho Falls, and Crestwood Heights. Hyde liked systems, airports, rail lines, military plans, laboratories, intelligence networks, and the quiet ways institutions can go wrong. He also liked putting ordinary or half-ordinary people inside those systems and forcing them to improvise when everything starts breaking at once. His thrillers are often fast, but they are rarely careless.

He also had a sharp feel for paranoia.

Later, Hyde moved with real confidence into historical suspense. A Gathering of Saints, The Second Assassin, The House of Special Purpose, and An American Spy all draw on wartime politics, espionage, and the murky spaces between official history and private conspiracy. Readers who enjoy these books usually come for the mix of real events and invented danger. Hyde had a knack for making the past feel unsettled, as if one missing file or one dead courier might change everything.

He also wrote under other names. As Paul Christopher, he created the Finn Ryan novels, beginning with Michelangelo's Notebook, and the John Holliday adventures, beginning with The Sword of the Templars. Those books lean harder into archaeological mysteries, religious secrets, and globe-trotting action, but they still carry Hyde's usual interests: hidden power, old crimes with modern consequences, and smart protagonists forced to think on the run. As A.J. Holt, he wrote the Jay Fletcher thrillers Watch Me and Catch Me, which push into serial-killer territory and early cybercrime fears.

He even collaborated with his brother Anthony Hyde under the joint name Nicholas Chase. Across all these bylines, the recurring themes are easy to spot: secrecy, corruption, institutional failure, and people trying to stay morally intact while the pressure climbs. Hyde once described his books as being about paranoias, and that feels exactly right.

The surface excitement matters, but so does the unease underneath.

Hyde lived and worked in Canada and later in the Pacific Northwest, and he died in 2014. What remains is a body of thrillers that can move from dams to cathedrals, from the Blitz to the Vatican, without losing their grip. If you like suspense novels with brains, momentum, and a strong sense that the world is more fragile than it looks, Hyde has a lot to offer.

Edited by

Richard Reis

Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.

Anurag Ramdasan

Lead investor at 3one4 Capital whose startup expertise and love for books helped shaped MRB and its growth.

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