Dave Riley Books in Order

Bob Mayer is the writer behind Dave Riley, the Green Beret hero who first appeared in Eyes of the Hammer. Mayer was born in the Bronx and grew up there, and you can feel that New York background in the grit, speed, and sharp sense of place that run through so many of his books, especially the later Will Kane novels set in the city during the 1970s.

Before he was a novelist, he went to West Point and served in the Army. He spent time in the Infantry, joined Special Forces, and went on to command a Green Beret A-Team. That experience matters on the page. His thrillers pay attention to planning, chain of command, logistics, and the way a mission can start going wrong long before the shooting starts.

Writing came later.

Mayer has said that the push toward fiction started while he was in Korea and training in martial arts. He wanted to tell a story, and that eventually became Eyes of the Hammer in 1991. It was a practical beginning. He knew the world he was writing about, and he knew that the most interesting conflicts in military fiction are often about bad information, divided loyalties, and leaders trying to do the right thing inside a broken system.

The early Green Beret novels, especially Eyes of the Hammer, Dragon Sim-13, and Eternity Base, show what readers tend to come to Mayer for. The books move fast, but they are not just about explosions and raids. People like them because the operations feel lived-in, the settings matter, and the danger usually comes from both the enemy and the people giving the orders. Dave Riley is tough, but he also has to think, doubt, and improvise.

He also writes well outside straight military fiction.

If you jump from the Green Beret books to Area 51 or Atlantis, you can see another side of his work. He likes hidden history, secret programs, strange science, and the idea that the official version of events is usually incomplete. Even with the bigger premises, the core stays familiar: small teams under pressure, competent people trying to solve impossible problems, and a steady interest in what fear does to judgment.

Then there is the lighter, more playful side. In collaborations like Don't Look Down, he mixes danger with humor and strong back-and-forth character work. That range helps explain why his bibliography travels so well between military thrillers, conspiracy fiction, science fiction, historical material, and collaborative romantic adventure. He is interested in story first, and he seems happy to change the wrapper as long as the pressure stays on.

Across all of those books, some themes keep returning. Mayer likes characters who are trained, capable, and a little battered. He writes a lot about loyalty, aftermath, government secrecy, and the gap between the plan on paper and the mess on the ground. He is also drawn to place, from jungles and frozen bases to New York streets and small Southern towns. His settings are not wallpaper. They help shape the problem.

After years in traditional publishing, he also moved hard into independent publishing and built Cool Gus Publishing. That let him bring older books back, continue long-running series, and release work on his own schedule. It fits his practical streak.

These days he lives in Tennessee with his wife and their yellow labs.

For Dave Riley readers, that background explains a lot. Mayer knows the machinery of military life from the inside, but he also knows how to turn that knowledge into fast, readable fiction. Whether you pick up Eyes of the Hammer, Dragon Sim-13, Area 51, or Don't Look Down, the through line is the same: pressure, motion, and people trying to stay human while the world around them turns dangerous.