Don Mann Books in Order
Explore Don Mann books in order, from SEAL Team Six thrillers to memoir and survival nonfiction, with short summaries, series guides, and where to start.
Last updated: July 5, 2026
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Publication Order
21 books
The Complete Guide to Adventure Racing
by Don Mann
2001
Mann's first book breaks down the gear, navigation, training, and team strategy behind adventure racing. It works as a starter guide for newcomers and a practical field manual for anyone curious about the sport.
The Modern Day Gunslinger
by Don Mann
2010
Written as a broad handgun manual, this book covers safety, gear, tactics, and range fundamentals for different kinds of shooters. It aims to help gun owners build sound habits rather than rely on hype or shortcuts.
Inside SEAL Team Six
by Don Mann
2011
Mann's memoir follows his path from a troubled youth into the SEALs and then SEAL Team Six. It mixes training, covert missions, and the personal cost of life inside one of America's most secretive units.
Hunt the Wolf
by Don Mann
2012
During a brutal training exercise, Thomas Crocker uncovers a terrorist network that stretches from K2 to Europe and the Middle East. He and his team must track a ruthless kidnapper before more captives disappear.
The U.S. Navy SEAL Survival Handbook
by Don Mann
2012
This practical handbook covers survival skills for harsh environments on land and at sea. Mann explains essentials like water, fire, shelter, navigation, weather, and survival medicine in a clear, field-tested format.
How to Become a Navy SEAL
by Don Mann
2013
This guide walks readers through the path to the SEALs, from qualifications and training to what the job demands after selection. Mann pairs practical information with firsthand perspective on one of the Navy's hardest tracks.
Hunt the Falcon
by Don Mann
2013
Crocker hunts an Iranian terrorist known as the Falcon, the same enemy tied to his wife's earlier kidnapping. The chase runs from Bangkok to Caracas as stolen Libyan nuclear material points toward a larger attack on America.
Hunt the Scorpion
by Don Mann
2013
Pirates seize a cargo ship off East Africa, and what looks like a rescue mission becomes something far worse. Crocker and his team discover the ship carries nuclear material, sending them into Libya to stop a catastrophic transfer.
Hunt the Jackal
by Don Mann
2014
When a senator's wife and teenage daughter are kidnapped, Crocker and SEAL Team Six head into cartel country in Mexico. Their target is the Jackal, a narcotics boss whose power, money, and violence make the rescue especially dangerous.
Hunt the Fox
by Don Mann
2015
On the way to meet a CIA source, Crocker realizes Syria is sliding further into chaos. Soon he and his team are deep in enemy territory, racing to stop an ISIS faction from using chemical weapons.
Hunt the Dragon
by Don Mann
2016
A violent incident in Las Vegas pulls Thomas Crocker into a North Korean plot involving cyber sabotage and nuclear ambition. What begins as a strange encounter quickly grows into a high-risk mission with international consequences.
Hunt the Viper
by Don Mann
2018
In war-torn Syria, Crocker and his team help a Kurdish town resist the Islamic State while tracking a ruthless ISIS general called the Viper. When aid workers are seized in Aleppo, the mission turns personal and dangerously unofficial.
Hunt the Leopard
by Don Mann
2019
Thomas Crocker and his SEAL Team Six crew head into Nigeria to stop Boko Haram's kidnappings, trafficking, and hostage taking. A failed rescue, a deadly crash, and a seized gas plant leave Crocker facing a brutal 24-hour countdown.
Navy SEALs
by Don Mann
2019
Mann and Lance Burton trace the history of the U.S. Navy SEALs from World War II combat swimmers to modern special operations. It blends broad military history with training, missions, and the culture that shaped the force.
Overcoming Obstacles
by Don Mann
2019
This compact guide focuses on setbacks, doubt, and the grind of keeping moving when life gets hard. Mann uses Navy SEAL style lessons and real-world examples to show how small choices can build resilience and momentum.
Reaching beyond Boundaries
by Don Mann
2019
Drawing on SEAL training and endurance racing, Mann lays out a method for turning huge goals into smaller, workable steps. It is part memoir, part mindset manual, built around grit, planning, and steady forward motion.
Choosing Your Battles
by Don Mann
2020
This short motivational guide is about deciding what is worth fighting for, and how to approach it with discipline and perspective. Mann mixes personal lessons, anecdotes, and practical advice for keeping conflict purposeful instead of reactive.
Facing Your Fears
by Don Mann
2020
Mann turns Navy SEAL lessons toward everyday anxiety, self-doubt, and stress. The book blends practical advice, short stories, and mindset coaching aimed at helping readers face fear without being ruled by it.
Crimson Waters
by Don Mann
2021
From ancient sea raiders to modern pirates, this history tracks piracy across centuries and oceans. Mann and Kraig Becker sort myth from fact while showing why maritime banditry has survived from the pharaohs to the present.
Black Sun Rising
by Don Mann
2023
An underground base in Cyprus houses the Praetorians, a new international special ops unit built for the worst threats on earth. In their first outing, they face Black Sun, a savage terror network armed with modern weapons and global ambitions.
History's Assassins
by Don Mann
2023
This nonfiction study looks at political assassins instead of only their famous victims. Mann and Jeff Emde examine motives, methods, and fallout, showing how these killings were planned and how often they failed to achieve the goals behind them.
Where should I start?
For military thrillers: Hunt the Wolf → Hunt the Scorpion → Hunt the Falcon
For Don Mann's real-life story: Inside SEAL Team Six → The U.S. Navy SEAL Survival Handbook → How to Become a Navy SEAL
For mindset and motivation: Reaching beyond Boundaries → Overcoming Obstacles → Facing Your Fears → Choosing Your Battles
For broad military and history nonfiction: Navy SEALs → Crimson Waters → History's Assassins
For a newer high-tech thriller: Black Sun Rising
Author bio
Don Mann did not come to books from a quiet desk job. He has written openly about a troubled childhood and about how the Navy gave him structure, direction, and a harder set of expectations. That search for discipline became the foundation for everything that followed, military service, endurance racing, public speaking, and writing.
Then he kept raising the bar.
Mann spent more than seventeen years as a Navy SEAL, including more than eight years with SEAL Team Six. His work took him into covert operations on land, at sea, and in the air, and later into training roles, including time as a SEAL Team Six training officer. In his public bios and memoir, he describes a career shaped by constant preparation, survival skills, and the kind of missions that demanded absolute trust in the people beside him.
Retirement did not turn him into someone who liked sitting still. He threw himself into endurance sports, expedition events, and adventure racing. By his official biography, he has competed in more than a thousand endurance events, completed multiple Ironman triathlons, raced in multi-day wilderness competitions, and trained for an Everest attempt by climbing dozens of other mountains first.
That part of his life helped push him toward publishing. Mann has said that a friend encouraged him to write about adventure racing, which became his first book, The Complete Guide to Adventure Racing. From there he moved into nonfiction that drew more directly on military life, including Inside SEAL Team Six, The U.S. Navy SEAL Survival Handbook, How to Become a Navy SEAL, and later Navy SEALs. Those books sit somewhere between memoir, field manual, and history, and readers tend to come to them for the practical detail as much as the stories.
He later made the jump to fiction with the Thomas Crocker thrillers, beginning with Hunt the Wolf. Mann has explained that fiction gave him more room to build stories around the kinds of global danger zones he knew well, without being boxed in by the review limits that come with real operations. The result was the SEAL Team Six series, fast military thrillers that send Crocker and his team through places like Libya, Mexico, Syria, North Korea, and Nigeria.
He is just as interested in mindset as in missions.
Books such as Reaching beyond Boundaries, Overcoming Obstacles, Choosing Your Battles, and Facing Your Fears pull his focus toward everyday resilience. Instead of talking only to future special operators, he writes for ordinary readers trying to handle fear, setbacks, and big goals. His usual method is simple: break large aims into smaller steps, stay consistent, and keep moving when doubt starts talking.
Across the whole bibliography, certain themes keep returning. Teamwork. Preparation. Mental toughness. The idea that hard things become less mysterious when you train for them and face them directly. Even in books as different as Crimson Waters and History's Assassins, he is drawn to pressure, danger, and the decisions people make when the stakes are high.
Today Mann lives in Virginia and continues to write, speak, and work in survival and adventure media. His public work also includes hosting shows such as Surviving Mann and The Mission, and supporting causes tied to SEAL families and public safety. That feels like a natural extension of the books. Whether he is telling a war story, explaining a survival skill, or pushing readers to aim higher, he keeps coming back to the same idea: train hard, think clearly, and do not quit on yourself too soon.
Edited by
Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.
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