Mark Abernethy Books in Order

Mark Abernethy grew up in New Zealand and has spent most of his adult life in Australia. His working life has taken in journalism, speechwriting, ghostwriting, nonfiction, and thrillers, all jobs that depend on making a complicated story clear and readable.

He has worked as an editor, including a stint at Australian Penthouse magazine, and has written for newspapers and magazines such as The Bulletin, the Sydney Morning Herald, and the Australian Financial Review. That background gave him a practical feel for deadlines, research, and the many ways public events can hide private agendas.

It also gave him plenty of material to think about.

Abernethy's first published novel, Golden Serpent, arrived in 2007. It introduced Alan "Mac" McQueen, an Australian intelligence officer who learns that a terrorist he believed dead is still active and has access to stolen nerve agent. The book set the pattern for the McQueen stories: international pressure, shifting loyalties, and a lead character who has to make decisions before he has the full picture.

Mac returned in Second Strike, Double Back, and Counter Attack. The series moves through Indonesia, East Timor, Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Australia, with threats that range from terrorism to political sabotage. The plots are busy, but Abernethy keeps the focus on fieldwork, surveillance, operational mistakes, and the strain of trying to tell allies from enemies.

The settings matter. Southeast Asia is not simply a backdrop in these books, but a region shaped by competing governments, old conflicts, business interests, and intelligence networks. Mac is capable and experienced, yet he is rarely allowed the comfort of a clean mission or a simple answer.

Abernethy has also written military thrillers under the name Mark Aitken, including Arctic Floor and Strikeforce Lightning. The alternate name let him explore a related corner of suspense fiction while keeping the Alan McQueen books together under his own name.

His nonfiction work shows another side of his career. In 1999, he co-wrote Business Angels, a practical guide to private investment in small businesses. In 2017, he published The Contractor, a collection of six counter-terrorism stories told through Mike Daly, a pseudonymous Australian builder who also works as a private intelligence contractor. Its follow-up, At Hell's Gate, adds more accounts from that dangerous double life.

Abernethy doesn't stick to one kind of writing. Across his work, the common thread is an interest in people working under pressure, whether they are investors making a deal, intelligence officers chasing a threat, or contractors asked to step into situations most people would avoid.