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Kyle Swanson Books in Order

Part ofJack Coughlin Books in Order

See all the Kyle Swanson sniper books by Jack Coughlin in order, with plot summaries, series background, character notes and tips on the best place to start.

Last updated: June 7, 2026

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Publication Order

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10 books

1

Kill Zone

by Jack Coughlin

2007

An American general is kidnapped in the Middle East, and Marine sniper Kyle Swanson is sent on a rescue mission that explodes into an ambush. Stranded, he uncovers mercenaries and powerful officials inside Washington who plan to use the kidnapping to grab control of the military.

2

Dead Shot

by Jack Coughlin

2009

Swanson, officially dead on paper so he can work off the books, is sent after Juba, a legendary terrorist sniper who murders a scientist inside Baghdad's Green Zone. Their duel stretches from Iraq to London, where a new chemical weapon threatens mass casualties.

3

Clean Kill

by Jack Coughlin

2010

An historic peace summit at a Scottish castle ends in fire when missiles kill the Israeli foreign minister and nearly assassinate a Saudi prince. Pulled from covert work in Pakistan, Kyle Swanson must protect the survivors and trace the attack to oil hungry power brokers and his old enemy Juba.

4

An Act of Treason

by Jack Coughlin

2012

On a black mission in Pakistan, sniper Kyle Swanson is thrown into prison and his CIA partner Lauren Carson is branded a traitor. The only man they think they can trust, Kyle's mentor Jim Hall, has gone rogue and is selling secrets to a warlord bent on building a nuclear armed political movement.

5

Running the Maze

by Jack Coughlin

2012

After a team of aid workers is massacred in flood stricken Pakistan, a single cellphone photo of a collapsed bridge reaches Coast Guard sniper Beth Ledford. Teaming up with Kyle Swanson and Task Force Trident, she follows the image into the border badlands, where a hidden terror complex and a compromised American diplomat could swing the war on terror.

6

Time to Kill

by Jack Coughlin

2013

When terrorists demolish the Sphinx, massacre Iran's national soccer team in Cairo and sink a warship in the Red Sea, Egypt and Iran edge toward open war. Kyle Swanson and Task Force Trident race to unmask a double agent called the Pharaoh and use pinpoint strikes to stop a conflict that could choke off the Suez Canal.

7

On Scope

by Jack Coughlin

2014

As Spain teeters on economic collapse, an alliance of Islamic financiers offers a no strings bailout that would pull the country away from its Western allies. After terrorists slaughter the Marine guard at the US consulate in Barcelona, Kyle Swanson and Beth Ledford are sent after the elite bankers behind the plot, racing from island villas to Madrid before a final shot decides the future of Spain and NATO.

8

Night of the Cobra / One Hit

by Jack Coughlin

2015

Years after a violent mission in Mogadishu where a young Kyle Swanson first captured a brutal enforcer known as the Cobra, his old enemy escapes prison and begins staging attacks on American soil, including a strike on a huge shopping mall. Working alongside FBI agent Lucky Sharif, whom he once saved as a child, Kyle must return to Somalia's streets to break the new warlord before the blood feud consumes more civilians.

9

Long Shot

by Jack Coughlin

2016

A top Russian intelligence officer defects and insists on dealing only with Kyle Swanson, the Marine sniper who once helped him at scout sniper school. The secrets he offers about Moscow's next land grab may be bait, and when Kyle's friend Calico is kidnapped in Estonia, he must uncover a traitor and take a decisive shot to stop an invasion.

10

In the Crosshairs

by Jack Coughlin

2017

At a friend's funeral, Kyle Swanson survives a bomb that blows open the grave, then narrowly escapes a grenade attack in Berlin. Branded suspect in Washington, he is teamed with young operative Luke Gibson to track assassin Nicky Marks and a shadowy kingpin who is using cartel cash, Taliban fighters and corrupt CIA flights to build a global drug empire.

Series background & context

The Kyle Swanson series follows a Marine sniper who starts in uniform and gradually moves into the murky world of covert work, co-written by Jack Coughlin and Donald A Davis. Drawing on Coughlin's own time as a Marine gunnery sergeant, the books mix battlefield detail with big geopolitical stakes and a constant sense that loyalty can shift without warning.

In Kill Zone an American general is kidnapped in the Middle East, and Swanson is sent on a rescue mission that collapses into an ambush, forcing him to cross the desert alone and exposing a conspiracy inside the US government itself. It sets the pattern for the series, a lone shooter with a small circle of trusted allies trying to untangle plots that reach far beyond the first trigger pull.

Dead Shot raises the tension by introducing Juba, a legendary terrorist sniper tied to a cache of chemical weapons and a mass casualty attack in London, while Clean Kill opens with a missile strike on a Scottish castle that was about to host a fragile peace agreement between Saudi Arabia and Israel. Those early books lean into cat and mouse duels between rival snipers and the question of who is really pulling the strings in modern wars.

As the series continues Swanson becomes part of a black ops unit called Task Force Trident and works more often with other specialists. In Running the Maze he teams with Coast Guard sniper Beth Ledford to investigate the murder of aid workers in Pakistan, following a cellphone photo of a collapsed bridge to a hidden terrorist headquarters. Time to Kill pushes the story onto a bigger stage when terrorists destroy the Sphinx and try to engineer a war between Egypt and Iran so they can control the Suez Canal and the region's oil flow.

On Scope and Night of the Cobra take Swanson from a financial and political power play in a crisis stricken Spain to a deeply personal hunt for a Somali killer known as the Cobra, who once faced him on the streets of Mogadishu and now leads attacks from American shopping malls back to East Africa.

Later novels such as Long Shot and In the Crosshairs keep that blend of global and intimate stakes, having Swanson deal with Russian intelligence games on the edge of NATO territory and a web of CIA corruption, drug cartels and Taliban fighters tied together by a ruthless assassin called Nicky Marks. Familiar faces like Beth Ledford, CIA officer Lauren Carson and British industrialist Geoffrey Cornwell drift in and out, so long time readers see careers, friendships and grudges evolve alongside the missions.

Across the series you can expect modern military hardware, tight sniper set pieces and a lot of talk about how small teams actually move, shoot and communicate in the field, balanced by quieter beats where Swanson weighs the costs of his work. The books are written to be picked up almost anywhere, but read in order they trace a steady shift from straightforward battlefield assignments into dense, secretive conflicts where a single shot can tip a nation off balance.

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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All 10 Kyle Swanson Books in Order (Complete List 2026)