Codename: Starman Books in Order

Codename: Starman is one of Mack Maloney's lighter and stranger series, a mix of military mystery, spy thriller, crime fiction, and paranormal pulp.

The central character is Lieutenant Chris Starr, a Naval Intelligence and law-enforcement investigator with unusual ESP abilities. That one detail changes the whole feel of the books. Starr still works cases with the usual tools, interviews, surveillance, military contacts, weapons, and travel orders, but he also has instincts and flashes that push the stories a little off center in a fun way.

The books do not unfold like one long single-plot thriller. Instead, each volume collects three linked adventures. That means the series can move quickly from one kind of case to another. One story might start with a murder in a seedy motel, another with artillery fire hitting a quiet Massachusetts town, another with a rogue SEAL, a stolen experimental engine, or rumors of a reality-bending satellite. The pace stays brisk because the books are always picking up a new angle before the last one has quite cooled off.

Chris Starr is the thread that holds it all together. He is capable, mobile, and comfortable crossing between military and civilian worlds. The supporting cast helps give the series personality too. His model girlfriend Angel turns up in key moments, and later books pair him with Irish detective Maura McCann, whose own unusual gifts make her a natural match for Starr.

That combination gives Codename: Starman a different texture from Maloney's more straightforward war fiction. These books still like hardware, covert agencies, and dangerous operations, but they are just as interested in odd clues, uncanny coincidences, and cases that feel one step away from the unexplained.

The settings are wide-ranging, from San Diego and coastal Massachusetts to Ireland, Tahiti, Rome, Arizona, Africa's Skeleton Coast, and even outer space. So while the books are short and fast, they never feel small.

If you want Maloney at his pulpiest, with a hero who can move from murder case to spy caper to paranormal mystery without blinking, this is a good series to try. It is looser, more episodic, and a little more playful than Wingman or Superhawks, but it still has the same love of secret worlds hiding just behind the official one.