Matthew Dunn Books in Order
Browse Matthew Dunn books in order, with summaries, reading order for Spycatcher and Ben Sign, series background, and simple guidance on where to begin.
Last updated: January 17, 2026
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Publication Order
18 books
The Private Spy
by Matthew Dunn
2022
This omnibus gathers the first four Ben Sign stories, following the former MI6 officer as he launches a private consultancy with ex cop Tom Knutsen. Together they tackle suspicious suicides, Cold War echoes in the Falklands, Russian intrigue, and a chilling country house killer.
The Spy Thief
by Matthew Dunn
2021
When classified British secrets start leaking to hostile agencies, all signs point to a traitor at the top of government, known only as the Thief. Former MI6 strategist Ben Sign must sift through five powerful suspects before the damage becomes irreversible.
The Kill House
by Matthew Dunn
2019
A serial killer is using a remote English manor as a hunting ground, hiring undocumented staff then murdering them in ways tailored to their lives. Ben Sign and ex undercover cop Tom Knutsen follow the trail of vanished migrants to expose a predator the law cannot see.
The Spy Whisperer
by Matthew Dunn
2018
Six senior MI6 officers tipped to lead British intelligence begin dying in apparent suicides. Ben Sign is brought back from retirement to find the mastermind he calls the whisperer and the special forces killer helping him, before the service tears itself apart.
The Russian Doll
by Matthew Dunn
2018
MI6 officer Jayne Archer hires Ben Sign and Tom Knutsen to solve two tangled problems, a Russian double agent who suddenly wants out and the disappearance of her twin sister. Their search from London to Moscow uncovers buried family secrets and a treasonous scheme.
The Fifth Man
by Matthew Dunn
2018
After four Falklands islanders confront an Argentinian spy ship, their bodies wash ashore and talk of war flares. Ben Sign and Tom Knutsen are sent south to find the missing fifth man from the boat, whose testimony could ignite or avert a new conflict.
Act of Betrayal
by Matthew Dunn
2017
Years after Will Cochrane assassinated a terrorist financier in Berlin, people tied to the mission are dying. Branded a fugitive and hunted by the FBI, Will digs back into the operation to uncover who is cleaning house inside the US government and why.
A Soldier's Revenge
by Matthew Dunn
2016
Will Cochrane wakes in a New York hotel covered in blood, with a murdered woman in his bathroom and no memory of the night before. Framed and on the run, he must save the twin boys he planned to adopt while proving he is not a killer.
The Spy House
by Matthew Dunn
2015
After the French ambassador to Israel is assassinated, the region lurches toward war. A covert cell of allied agents in Beirut is wiped out, and Will Cochrane is hired as an independent to learn what really happened and stop the unseen strategist who wants chaos.
Spy Trade
by Matthew Dunn
2015
When a CIA operation in Syria collapses, senior officer Bob Oakland is kidnapped by militants demanding the release of a prisoner called Arzam Saud. With Washington refusing to bargain, Will Cochrane is dispatched to uncover why Saud matters and to pull Oakland out alive.
Dark Spies
by Matthew Dunn
2014
On a snowbound mission in Norway, Will Cochrane is ordered to watch, not intervene, as a CIA officer meets a Russian source. When the meeting turns violent he breaks orders to save her, triggering an international manhunt and exposing a hidden operation built on betrayal.
Counterspy
by Matthew Dunn
2014
A terrorist known as Trapper escapes from a secret CIA prison and heads for Washington, determined to kill the man he blames for his leader’s death. That man is MI6 operative Will Cochrane, who discovers that taking Trapper down will open a far wider threat.
Slingshot
by Matthew Dunn
2013
A stolen Cold War document threatens to reactivate a long buried pact between rogue Russian and American generals. Will Cochrane is sent to recover it before a designated assassin can strike, while a rival Russian operative hunts the same prize in a deadly mirror match.
Sentinel
by Matthew Dunn
2012
After a cryptic message from a deep cover asset warns that someone has betrayed the West and wants war, Will Cochrane is sent into a remote Russian submarine base to learn the truth. Teaming with a legendary agent known as Sentinel, he races to stop catastrophe.
Spycatcher / Spartan
by Matthew Dunn
2011
When intelligence intercepts point to a devastating terror attack, MI6 and the CIA unleash their most secret weapon, field officer Will Cochrane. To stop an Iranian mastermind, he uses a journalist from the man’s past as bait, chasing his target from Europe to New York.
The Tiananmen Square Effect
by Matthew Dunn
2008
Two decades after the 1989 protests in Beijing, a driven woman sets out to echo the defiance of the man who stood before the tanks. Using charm, nerve, and a camera, she targets powerful figures whose exposed secrets could spark a worldwide reaction.
The Good Silver
by Matthew Dunn
2007
A reporter travels to upstate New York to investigate claims that a controversial nineteenth century utopian commune has been reborn in its old mansion. When she is found dead, her twin brother and a city cop retrace her steps through a town full of buried sins.
Erased
by Matthew Dunn
2007
Daniel Rayne remembers exactly who he is, but every official trace of his identity has vanished. With no documents, no records, and growing doubts about his own sanity, he fights to rebuild his life and uncover who has wiped him from the system and why.
Where should I start?
If you want his main MI6 and CIA spy saga: Spycatcher / Spartan → Sentinel → Slingshot → Dark Spies → The Spy House.
If you prefer a fugitive thriller arc: A Soldier's Revenge → Act of Betrayal for a later, darker Will Cochrane storyline.
If you like investigative spy mysteries: start the Ben Sign books with The Spy Whisperer → The Fifth Man → The Russian Doll → The Kill House → The Spy Thief.
If you are curious about his early standalones: try Erased → The Good Silver → The Tiananmen Square Effect.
If you want a compact route into Ben Sign's world: read The Private Spy, which collects his first four cases.
Author bio
Matthew Dunn is a British spy novelist who went from real intelligence work to writing about it. He was born in London in 1968 and grew up in England, the son of a former merchant seaman who later worked as a photographer.
He attended state schools, then studied politics and economics at the University of East Anglia. Those years deepened his interest in how governments behave in public and in private, and led him on to a doctorate in international relations at the University of Cambridge. He was drawn to questions about power, secrecy, and how ordinary lives are shaped by distant decisions.
While he was finishing his academic work, talk about future careers turned serious. A tutor pointed him toward government service, and the more he heard about intelligence work, the more it appealed. Instead of staying in lecture halls, he joined the British Secret Intelligence Service, better known as MI6.
In MI6 he worked as a field officer rather than a desk analyst. Dunn recruited and handled agents, helped plan and run special operations, and spent long stretches under deep cover in other countries. His training covered weapons, explosives, surveillance, countersurveillance, unarmed combat, and the kind of advanced driving and escape skills most people only see in films.
Those missions took him into places where discovery could have meant execution. Over several years he completed dozens of operations that remain classified. On one of them he earned a rare personal commendation from Britain’s foreign secretary for work that helped resolve a major international crisis.
Eventually he left the service and turned toward writing. After years of living inside sealed files and briefings, fiction let him explore similar territory in public. Before he ever put his own name on a spy novel, he wrote suspense stories such as The Good Silver, Erased, and the nonfiction work The Tiananmen Square Effect, learning how to build tension on the page instead of in the field.
His breakthrough came with Spycatcher, the first novel about MI6 and CIA operative Will Cochrane. Drawing on his own experience, Dunn built stories that mix detailed tradecraft with bruising action and the emotional cost of long careers in the shadows. Sequels including Sentinel, Slingshot, Dark Spies, The Spy House, A Soldier’s Revenge, and Act of Betrayal follow Cochrane through shifting alliances, betrayals, and the blurred line between duty and obsession. The books move from European capitals to the United States, Russia, and the Middle East.
Later he created another lead character, former senior MI6 officer Ben Sign. In novels like The Spy Whisperer, The Fifth Man, The Russian Doll, The Kill House, The Spy Thief, and the omnibus The Private Spy, Sign works as a private consultant, picking up cases that official agencies cannot or will not touch and uncovering corruption, serial killers, and traitors who hide inside respectable institutions. These stories tilt a little closer to mystery and noir, with smaller teams and more emphasis on deduction.
Across both series, Dunn returns to a few constant ideas: how far states will go to protect themselves, what secrecy does to people over time, and how trust can be weaponised. His plots move quickly, but he makes room for quiet moments in safe houses, hotel rooms, and anonymous streets where his characters have to live with what they have done.
Dunn lives in England and writes full time, while also working as a commentator and creative adviser on intelligence and security topics. He still keeps a measure of distance from his past, but his novels give readers a controlled look into the kinds of operations he once carried out for real.
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