Max Doyle Books in Order

The Max Doyle novels shift gears into high octane international thrillers. Instead of detectives in Edinburgh, you are following covert operatives, rogue assassins, and conspiracies that stretch from Afghanistan to New York.

Max Doyle starts the series as a disgraced U.S. Army Ranger. Convicted of killing his commanding officer in Afghanistan, he is serving a life sentence in military prison when he is pulled into something far bigger. At the same time, former Royal Marines commando Nathan Kane is sitting in an English prison after executing a contractor in the hills. Both men are tough, capable, and running out of options.

In Final Steps, each is offered a deal that sounds too good to be true. Work for a shadowy organisation called the Phoenix Group, hunt down a British assassin known only as Rose Arcana, and earn a path out of their cells. What begins as a straightforward manhunt quickly turns into a maze of half truths, as Max and Nathan realise they are not being told everything about their target or the people pulling the strings.

The second book, Code Red, raises the stakes even further. An assassin is using a supposedly destroyed nerve agent in New York, taking out targets in crowded public spaces. Doyle and Kane have to move fast through airports, city streets, and diplomatic circles while staying ahead of both the killer and their own past choices. Old enemies resurface, including a former Delta soldier Max thought he had already dealt with for good.

The October Project pushes the team out to Los Angeles and small town Maine after an attack on the Phoenix Group’s own office. Two agents are missing, and one of them, Michelle Barragan, has a history with Max from his Army Intelligence days. Her cryptic text pulls him into a chase that uncovers plans for a major strike on New York and suggests that not everyone inside their organisation can be trusted.

Across the series, the tone is lean and punchy, with more explosions, shootouts and international travel than the Edinburgh based books. Still, Carson keeps a human core to the action. Max is a man trying to make sense of what happened to his family, Kane is wrestling with what honour looks like after a fall from grace, and their missions are never as clean as the briefing makes them sound.

If you enjoy crime fiction but want something closer to a military or espionage thriller, the Max Doyle stories offer that mix while still feeling connected to the larger Carson universe.