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Green Berets Books in Order

Part ofDave Riley Books in Order

See 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

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Green Berets books in publication order

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15 books

1

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.

2

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.

3

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.

4

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.

5

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.

6

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.

7

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.

8

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.

9

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.

10

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.

11

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.

12

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.

13

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.

14

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.

15

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

  1. Book cover for "Eyes of the Hammer"

    Eyes of the Hammer

    by Dave Riley

    1991Green Berets, Book 1
  2. Book cover for "Dragon Sim-13"

    Dragon Sim-13

    by Dave Riley

    1992Green Berets, Book 2
  3. Book cover for "Synbat / Operation Synbat"

    Synbat / Operation Synbat

    by Dave Riley

    1994Green Berets, Book 3
  4. Book cover for "Cut Out"

    Cut Out

    by Dave Riley

    1995Green Berets, Book 4
  5. Book cover for "Eternity Base"

    Eternity Base

    by Dave Riley

    1996Green Berets, Book 5
  6. Book cover for "Z"

    Z

    by Dave Riley

    1996Green Berets, Book 6
  7. Book cover for "Chasing the Ghost"

    Chasing the Ghost

    by Dave Riley

    2010Green Berets, Book 7
  8. Book cover for "Chasing the Lost"

    Chasing the Lost

    by Dave Riley

    2013Green Berets, Book 8
  9. Book cover for "Chasing the Son"

    Chasing the Son

    by Dave Riley

    2015Green Berets, Book 9
  10. Book cover for "New York Minute"

    New York Minute

    by Dave Riley

    2019Green Berets, Book 10
  11. Book cover for "Lawyers, Guns and Money"

    Lawyers, Guns and Money

    by Dave Riley

    2019Green Berets, Book 11
  12. Book cover for "Walk on the Wild Side"

    Walk on the Wild Side

    by Dave Riley

    2019Green Berets, Book 12
  13. Book cover for "Hell of a Town"

    Hell of a Town

    by Dave Riley

    2020Green Berets, Book 13
  14. Book cover for "No Quarter"

    No Quarter

    by Dave Riley

    2021Green Berets, Book 14
  15. Book cover for "Shelter From The Storm"

    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

Richard Reis

Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.

Anurag Ramdasan

Lead investor at 3one4 Capital whose startup expertise and love for books helped shaped MRB and its growth.

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