David O'Neil Books in Order
Browse David O'Neil books in order, with series lists, short summaries, and simple guidance on where to start with his thrillers and sea adventures.
Last updated: July 9, 2026
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Publication Order
35 books
Fort William & Oban
by David O'Neil
2007
This Highland guidebook introduces the Fort William and Oban area for travelers who want local background as well as practical help. It is a useful starting point for planning visits and understanding the region.
Laughing at the Devil
by David O'Neil
2009
Part memoir, part religious investigation, this book grows out of O'Neil's childhood experience with a fundamentalist cult. It explores the roots of Western religious stories and the links he sees between myth, history, and astronomy.
Fatal Meeting
by David O'Neil
2011
A sailing trip across the English Channel should have been a romantic break for Donny Weston and Abby Marshall. Instead they discover a smuggler aboard and are dragged into a violent chase involving gangsters and a mysterious ally.
Exciting, Isn't It?
by David O'Neil
2012
Widowed former policeman and ex-MI6 man John Murray plans a quiet trip through France, then picks up Gabrielle, a fleeing writer with dangerous documents in her bag. Their chance meeting turns into a fight against a powerful criminal.
Lethal Complications
by David O'Neil
2012
Taking time away from their studies, Donny and Abby hope for a quieter year in France. Instead they are swept into attacks, political intrigue, and a deadly showdown with a rogue Chinese faction.
The Mercy Run
by David O'Neil
2012
A mission meant to save lives turns into a dangerous test of nerve as good intentions collide with violence and hidden motives. O'Neil builds the tension around rescue, loyalty, and how quickly a humanitarian effort can go wrong.
A Thrill a Minute
by David O'Neil
2013
Back at university, Donny and Abby discover that normal life feels brief and fragile. Trouble finds them again, and what starts as boredom quickly becomes another reckless rush into danger.
Better the Day
by David O'Neil
2013
Peter Murray and his fellow Coastal Forces officers fight German E-boats, naval forces, and Luftwaffe attacks across several theaters of war. The novel mixes sea action, espionage, romance, and the long grind toward D-Day.
Distant Gunfire
by David O'Neil
2013
Robert Graham rises from the ranks during the Napoleonic wars and builds a name through courage, prizes, and dangerous assignments. Naval combat, espionage, and romance all crowd this large-scale sea adventure.
Hell is Another Place
by David O'Neil
2013
Mike Summers rises from a career setback to unexpected command on a covert deployment near Iran. After a successful strike, he learns his own side plans to erase every witness, turning the mission into a desperate escape.
It's Just One Thing After Another
by David O'Neil
2013
After beating back one threat, Donny and Abby are rewarded with a trip to the United States, only to learn it comes with strings attached. Friends, former enemies, and new dangers crowd in fast.
Market Forces
by David O'Neil
2013
CIA assassin Katherine Percival is sent to kill Mark Parnell, then realizes the hit may be part of a larger setup. Together with Parnell and Secure Inc, she takes on rogue interests, dirty money, and a widening conspiracy.
Minding the Store
by David O'Neil
2013
A famous department store becomes the next target for organized crime and money laundering. David Freemantle and his ex-military security team answer invasion, kidnapping, and intimidation with force of their own.
Sailing Orders
by David O'Neil
2013
Abandoned at thirteen, Martin Forrest is taken in by Captain Bowers and raised into the Royal Navy. His rise through war, prize-taking, family loyalty, and secret missions launches a sweeping naval adventure.
What Goes Around...
by David O'Neil
2013
Trying to settle into study again, Donny and Abby are hit from an unexpected direction when a concert outing ends in gunfire. Their latest scramble carries them from Britain to Europe and on toward Florida.
When Needs Must....
by David O'Neil
2013
Major Teddy Robertson-Steel, Mark Parnell, and Katt Percival are pulled into a web of terrorism, mob money, and political manipulation. The third Counterstroke novel expands the team and pushes the stakes across Europe.
Business Insights
by David O'Neil
2014
This practical business guide shows how to turn raw data into clear, persuasive insights. It focuses on finding the real story in the numbers, choosing the right charts, and presenting recommendations that people can act on.
Quarterdeck
by David O'Neil
2014
Martin Forrest-Bowers comes home to find his wife gravely ill, then is drawn back into covert work and naval duty. Treasure ships, French intrigue, and rising tension before the War of 1812 drive the sequel.
The Hunted
by David O'Neil
2014
When the Russian Mafia and allied gangs hijack a global charity network to move guns and drugs, Tarquin Gilmore declares war on them. He gathers a deadly team and turns the hunt into a brutal fight back.
Without Prejudice
by David O'Neil
2014
On their way to Malta, Donny and Abby stumble into threats aimed at friends from another vessel and uncover a plan to stage a devastating assassination. Their chase from Europe to the Thames estuary raises the stakes once again.
Desperate Measures
by David O'Neil
2015
With Napoleon at the height of his power, England's navy faces the combined weight of France and Spain. Sea battles, land fighting, and urgent decisions give this historical thriller its relentless pace.
In Dangerous Waters
by David O'Neil
2015
British naval officers and the women beside them try to balance love, duty, and survival while rescuing agents under fire. Shells, sea combat, and impossible odds keep the pressure high throughout.
Seasons
by David O'Neil
2015
In southern France, vineyards and olive groves become the center of a messy fight over land, love, and money. An English stonemason, a lively local woman, gangsters, and schemers all collide in a romantic suspense story with real bite.
Winning
by David O'Neil
2015
Captain Sir Martin Forrest-Bowers returns to sea with Patrick Brooks and his loyal crew for another dangerous spell of service. The trilogy closes with more naval action, duty, and hard-earned leadership under pressure.
HMS Audax
by David O'Neil
2016
A convoy near Liverpool is shattered by a sudden U-boat strike, and the sea war turns brutal in an instant. O'Neil throws readers straight into escort duty, loss, and the deadly cat-and-mouse fight on Britain's approaches.
Making Waves
by David O'Neil
2016
Before World War II erupts, a British intelligence team sets out to slow Germany's bomb and missile programs. Undercover missions, sabotage, and constant danger drive this wartime thriller from 1938 to D-Day.
Privateer
by David O'Neil
2016
A refitted former French frigate is sent out from Jamaica under letters of marque, armed for profit and survival. Prize-taking, deception, and hard sea fighting shape this fast-moving tale of private war on the ocean.
A Place in the Sun
by David O'Neil
2017
When David MacLean finally moves toward divorce, a new connection changes the path ahead. Set in Provence, the novel follows two generations of the MacLean family as they build a wine business through love, work, sacrifice, and setbacks.
Glory
by David O'Neil
2017
Jonathon Hope escapes slavery aboard a Spanish ship and fights his way to a new life at sea. His rise to command the captured corvette Glory drives a wide-ranging naval adventure from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean and the American coast.
Shock
by David O'Neil
2017
Harry Ross is all that stands between a terror plot and the destruction of the US president and top government leaders. With official support shaky and assassins closing in, he has to survive long enough to stop the strike.
Château du Lac
by David O'Neil
2018
Set among the vineyards of Provence, this novel follows the people around Château du Lac as friendship, family strain, and romance reshape old loyalties. The mood is warmer than O'Neil's pure thrillers, but trouble never stays far from the vines.
Saving the Day
by David O'Neil
2018
This maritime thriller centers on Anton Chance as danger at sea turns a hard job into a fight to keep control. O'Neil leans into pressure, quick decisions, and the risk that one mistake could cost everything.
The Blitz
by David O'Neil
2020
A hidden network of predators is pushing nation after nation toward authoritarian control. Their empire runs on violence and corruption, but one careless move may give their enemies the opening they need.
The Blitzkrieg
by David O'Neil
2020
A secret cabal is tightening its grip on the world through coercion, murder, blackmail, and trafficking. The plot looks unstoppable until one small mistake opens a crack in the machinery and gives resistance a chance.
The Yanks
by David O'Neil
2020
As the young United States Navy tries to learn from older sea powers, three junior officers are sent abroad as diplomatic attachés. What begins as a fact-finding mission turns into a rough education in politics, shipbuilding, and real-world danger.
Where should I start?
If you want the young-couple thrillers: Fatal Meeting → Lethal Complications → A Thrill a Minute
If you want espionage and conspiracies: Exciting, Isn't It? → Market Forces → When Needs Must....
If you want Napoleonic naval adventure: Sailing Orders → Quarterdeck → Winning
If you want wartime naval suspense: Better the Day → Making Waves → HMS Audax
Author bio
David O'Neil grew up in London, and war was not an abstract story in his childhood. His family home was bombed during the Blitz, an experience that stayed with him. His early ambitions were practical and vivid: he wanted to fly airplanes and sail boats.
He got part of that wish during National Service, when he learned to fly with the RAF.
Later he served in the Colonial Police in Nyasaland, now Malawi, where he first got serious about sailing. He spent eight years there before returning to the UK. That mix of discipline, travel, and time on the water helps explain why so many of his books care about boats, duty, and what people do under pressure.
Back in Britain, O'Neil settled in southern England and worked for more than twenty years as a management consultant. He later returned to Scotland, and by the mid-1980s he was working as a tour guide. Before fiction took over, he was also known as an artist and photographer.
Writing came late. He started seriously in 2006, and his first published books were Highland guidebooks, including Fort William & Oban. Soon after, he turned to fiction, bringing with him places he knew, work he had done, and a lifetime of stories rooted in travel and service rather than in literary fashion.
His first novel, Fatal Meeting, arrived in 2011 and introduced Donny Weston and Abby Marshall, a young couple whose sailing trip turns into a violent thriller. From there he branched out fast. Exciting, Isn't It? opens the Counterstroke books with espionage and European conspiracy, while Shock builds a high-stakes man-against-terror plot around Harry Ross.
The sea never stays far away. In books like Sailing Orders, Quarterdeck, HMS Audax, and Making Waves, O'Neil leans into naval warfare, covert missions, and commanders making hard calls under fire. Even when the setting shifts from the Napoleonic era to the Second World War or the present day, readers can expect movement, jeopardy, and people who keep going because standing still is not really an option.
He also wrote books that step away from straight military action. A Place in the Sun and Château du Lac move into Provence, vineyards, family strain, and romance, while The Blitzkrieg returns to global conspiracy on a bigger scale. Across the range, his fiction tends to favor plain stakes: survival, loyalty, love, betrayal, and the problem of who to trust.
O'Neil did not come to novels from classrooms or writing workshops. He came to them after a long working life, and that shows. His books are full of jobs, skills, logistics, routes, and the kind of competence that only matters once everything starts going wrong.
That may be the simplest way to describe him. He wrote thrillers and sea adventures that feel shaped by a life spent doing things first, and writing about them after.
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