Colton James Books in Order

The Colton James books move Thomas DePrima's storytelling into contemporary New York and blend crime thriller plots with a speculative twist. The series begins with an everyman who stumbles onto a piece of impossible technology and follows him as that discovery pulls him into federal investigations and mob wars.

In A World Without Secrets, Colton is scraping by in a Lower West Side walk-up, doing his best to make a living from his skills. When a supposedly empty apartment building across the street explodes in a predawn fireball, he joins the cleanup only to find that something extra has been mixed in with his scattered paperwork, something that should not exist by any reasonable standard.

That object opens the door to a world where privacy can be stripped away as easily as files from a hard drive. As Colton decides what to do with it, he attracts the attention of people and agencies who either want the device, want it buried, or want him silenced.

By Vengeance is Personal, Colton is an FBI special agent, and the threat is no longer theoretical. A local mob boss named Delcona believes Colton has something valuable and responds with home invasions and murder, turning an ongoing investigation into a vendetta that headquarters tells Colton to stay out of.

Unable to sit on his hands while friends are killed and his own life is under constant attack, Colton starts working off the books. The tension in these stories comes from watching him balance procedure and personal loyalty, trying to bring down an entrenched crime family while every move is shadowed by other law enforcement teams and internal rules.

Expect more interviews, surveillance, and street-level confrontations here than starship battles. The series still moves quickly and keeps the focus on character, especially the cost of revenge and the uncomfortable trade-offs between security and the right to keep parts of your life hidden.