Green Berets Books in Order
Part ofDave Riley Books in OrderSee the Green Berets books by Bob Mayer in order, with short summaries, series background, and where to start with Dave Riley, Horace Chase, and Will Kane.
Last updated: July 11, 2026
As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases (at no extra cost to you).
Green Berets books in publication order
15 books
Eyes of the Hammer
by Dave Riley
1991
Dave Riley leads a covert Green Beret mission into Colombia to destroy cocaine labs, but the real danger may be coming from his own side. Betrayal, CIA agendas, and a missing teammate turn the raid into a fight for survival.
Dragon Sim-13
by Dave Riley
1992
What starts as a military simulation becomes a real covert strike when a computer genius turns training into action after Tiananmen Square. Dave Riley's team crosses into enemy territory and discovers they may have been sent in without a way back.
Synbat / Operation Synbat
by Dave Riley
1994
A secret Pentagon experiment goes loose when genetically engineered baboons escape a Tennessee lab and start killing. Dave Riley tracks them from backwoods containment to urban tunnels, where the real nightmare is what comes next.
Cut Out
by Dave Riley
1995
A mob money launderer in witness protection becomes the center of a deadly scheme involving corrupt officials and hired killers. Dave Riley has to work out who is protecting the witness, who wants him dead, and why.
Eternity Base
by Dave Riley
1996
When federal employee Sammy Pintella uncovers evidence of a secret U.S. base in Antarctica, Dave Riley escorts her into a frozen cover-up. Under the ice lie Cold War secrets worth killing for, and plenty of armed competition.
Z
by Dave Riley
1996
Dave Riley heads into Angola to protect reporter Conner Young as a lethal new virus tears through the region. When both are exposed, the mission becomes a frantic chase for answers, a cure, and the people using the outbreak.
Chasing the Ghost
by Dave Riley
2010
Former covert operative Horace Chase juggles a murder investigation in Boulder and a counterterrorism case involving militias, mercenaries, and old war wounds. The farther he digs, the more both cases begin to connect.
Chasing the Lost
by Dave Riley
2013
Hoping for a quiet life on Hilton Head, Horace Chase instead gets pulled into a kidnapping tied to Russian mob money and online gambling. Dave Riley joins the hunt as Chase builds a makeshift team to bring a boy home.
Chasing the Son
by Dave Riley
2015
Horace Chase learns he has a son, and that the young man is on the run after a murder accusation in South Carolina. Teaming with Dave Riley, Chase digs into family secrets, land deals, and enemies who never let go.
Lawyers, Guns and Money
by Dave Riley
2019
Three weeks after the blackout, Will Kane takes what should be a routine security job on a yacht and walks into gunfire. A failed hit, hidden motives, and IRA operatives drag him back into New York's dirtiest fights.
New York Minute
by Dave Riley
2019
In the blistering summer of 1977, former Green Beret Will Kane works as a fixer until one compromising photo puts the mob, the CIA, and the IRA on his trail. Then the blackout hits, and everything breaks loose.
Walk on the Wild Side
by Dave Riley
2019
A Bowie-knife warning tells Will Kane that a blood debt is due, and soon killers are coming for him. While he dodges vengeance, mob politics, and a shadowy power network, every alliance starts to look dangerous.
Hell of a Town
by Dave Riley
2020
A mutilated Ranger's body pulls Will Kane into New York's buried tunnels, where missing people are being hunted underground. To stop the killer, he has to survive darkness, tight spaces, and a city most people never see.
No Quarter
by Dave Riley
2021
Will Kane digs into a child trafficking ring tied to powerful people in New York. The deeper he goes, the more the case turns into a personal war that tests his code and how far he is willing to go.
Shelter From The Storm
by Dave Riley
2024
Will Kane heads into the Colorado mountains looking for answers about his ex-wife and the son they lost. Instead he finds a town under militia siege, a storm closing in, and nowhere to hide but forward.
Green Berets books in chronological order

Eyes of the Hammer
by Dave Riley
1991Green Berets, Book 1
Dragon Sim-13
by Dave Riley
1992Green Berets, Book 2
Synbat / Operation Synbat
by Dave Riley
1994Green Berets, Book 3
Cut Out
by Dave Riley
1995Green Berets, Book 4
Eternity Base
by Dave Riley
1996Green Berets, Book 5
Z
by Dave Riley
1996Green Berets, Book 6
Chasing the Ghost
by Dave Riley
2010Green Berets, Book 7
Chasing the Lost
by Dave Riley
2013Green Berets, Book 8
Chasing the Son
by Dave Riley
2015Green Berets, Book 9
New York Minute
by Dave Riley
2019Green Berets, Book 10
Lawyers, Guns and Money
by Dave Riley
2019Green Berets, Book 11
Walk on the Wild Side
by Dave Riley
2019Green Berets, Book 12
Hell of a Town
by Dave Riley
2020Green Berets, Book 13
No Quarter
by Dave Riley
2021Green Berets, Book 14
Shelter From The Storm
by Dave Riley
2024Green Berets, Book 15
Series background & context
The Green Berets books are Bob Mayer's long-running military thriller world, and Dave Riley is the figure who anchors it. In the earliest novels he is a Special Forces operator who knows how to plan, improvise, and keep moving when orders get murky. That matters, because these books rarely give him a clean, simple enemy. The threat might be drug cartels, rogue science, terrorists, or Cold War secrets, but the real trouble often starts when politicians, intelligence agencies, or senior officers begin hiding things.
The original Dave Riley run is the backbone of the series. Eyes of the Hammer sends Riley into Colombia on a covert anti-drug mission. Dragon Sim-13 turns a training exercise into a real incursion near China. Synbat / Operation Synbat pushes into military science fiction with escaped engineered killers, while Cut Out, Eternity Base, and Z bring in witness-protection corruption, Antarctic secrets, and a deadly virus in Africa. The settings change fast, but the feel stays steady: sharp action, tactical detail, and a hero who keeps learning that the official mission is never the whole story.
These are not parade-ground adventure stories.
Riley himself is not a swaggering cartoon superman. He is capable, stubborn, and very hard to fool for long, but he also carries grief, betrayal, and the wear that comes with long service. That human wear-and-tear becomes even more important in the later books, when the wider Green Berets world starts following other veterans.
The Horace Chase novels, Chasing the Ghost, Chasing the Lost, and Chasing the Son, shift the focus to another former covert operator. These books lean a little more toward investigation and conspiracy than battlefield action. Boulder, Hilton Head, Daufuskie, and the South Carolina low country matter as much as the villains do. Dave Riley is still in the orbit, older now and retired on paper at least, and the series gets good mileage out of what happens when men trained for hidden wars try to build regular lives.
Then the Will Kane books go backward in time. New York Minute, Lawyers, Guns and Money, Walk on the Wild Side, Hell of a Town, No Quarter, and Shelter From The Storm work as prequels inside the larger Green Berets timeline. Kane is a different kind of lead, lonelier, rougher around the edges, and shaped by 1970s New York as much as by Vietnam and Special Forces. Those books bring in mob politics, IRA plots, city corruption, underground tunnels, and later a snowbound siege in Colorado.
The timeline gets a little twisty.
What ties the whole series together is tone. Mayer writes about operators, but he is just as interested in aftermath, loyalty, and the cost of being good at violence. Expect military texture, a strong sense of place, and plots where the enemy in front of the rifle is only half the problem. If you like thrillers where the action feels used rather than borrowed, this series has a lot to dig into.
Edited by
Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.
Lead investor at 3one4 Capital whose startup expertise and love for books helped shaped MRB and its growth.















Comments
Did we miss something? Have feedback?
Help us improve this page by sharing your thoughts