Jeffrey J Burger Books in Order

Jeffrey J. Burger was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. At 28, he moved to Florida's Gulf Coast, a place that gave him a very different backdrop from the city where he grew up. He has continued to make trips back to Chicago to see family and friends.

Before writing novels, Burger was interested in law enforcement, following a path familiar through his father and uncle. His creative side pulled him in another direction. He built a career in photography, illustration, design, marketing, and advertising, work that gave him a practical eye for images, detail, and presentation.

Then he added fiction to the mix.

His first novel, Destination Unknown, arrived in 2012 and introduced Jack Steele, a former big-city police officer rebuilding his life as a pilot for hire. Jack flies aircraft wherever clients need them delivered, with his German Shepherd, Fritz, close by. A routine-looking job turns into a fight to stay alive as the story moves from familiar ground toward a much bigger universe.

That book launched the Wings of Steele series. Burger continued Jack's story in Flight of Freedom, Revenge and Retribution, Dark Cover, and Resurrection, published between 2013 and 2019. The books start with a grounded setup, a working pilot with police instincts and a dog, then expand into space travel, military missions, pirates, hidden enemies, and the politics of worlds beyond Earth.

It gets bigger fast.

Burger's work is a natural fit for readers who like action-led science fiction with ships, crews, weapons, and clear problems to solve. Jack is not presented as someone looking for cosmic adventure. He is a capable, prepared man who keeps getting dragged into situations where preparation helps, but never quite solves everything. Loyalty, family, responsibility, and the costs of leadership become more important as the series moves along.

His own interests connect closely with the nuts and bolts of those stories. Burger is a certified firearms instructor and has worked with civilians, military personnel, and law enforcement officers. He has also spent time flying with civilian and military pilots in both fixed-wing and rotary aircraft. He has spoken especially warmly about vintage aircraft, including the sound and feel of a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine in a P-51 Mustang.

Those interests give the series its hands-on feel. Planes and ships are not simply ways to get characters from one scene to another. They are workplaces, lifelines, and sometimes the only shelter available when a mission falls apart.

Burger lives on Florida's Gulf Coast with his German Shepherd, Jax. Between his Chicago roots, visual-arts background, interest in aviation, and experience around firearms training, he brings a lot of real-world texture to Jack Steele's far-future adventures.