Nathan McBride Books in Order

Andrew Peterson's Nathan McBride books follow a single protagonist across seven interlocking thrillers. Nathan is a former Marine scout sniper and covert CIA operative whose final mission in Nicaragua left him scarred in body and mind and pushed him into early retirement in California.

He now runs a private security firm with his longtime friend and fellow Marine, Harvey Fontana, doing quiet surveillance and protection work until old contacts in the FBI and CIA drag them back into the world of black operations. They are older, more cautious, and far less willing to treat people as expendable, which gives the series much of its emotional weight.

First to Kill throws Nathan into a manhunt for domestic terrorists after a deep cover FBI agent and a cache of Semtex disappear, revealing a plot that entangles senior officials as well as his own estranged family. Forced to Kill forces him to confront Montez de Oca, the Nicaraguan interrogator who once tortured him, turning a mutilated body in a Utah lake into a personal reckoning with justice and mercy.

In Option to Kill the focus narrows to a single, frantic day and a half, as Nathan rescues twelve year old Lauren from a kidnapper and discovers that her fractured story about witness protection, corrupt marshals, and a murdered stepfather is both dangerous and true. Ready to Kill sends Nathan and Harv back into the Central American jungle that nearly killed him the first time, chasing the fallout of a long buried US operation that someone is desperate to keep quiet.

Contract to Kill moves the action to the US Mexican border, where a friend’s desperate call after witnessing a double homicide exposes a private military contractor running a secret war alongside official efforts to fight cartel violence. Right to Kill compresses the timeline again, following a single night’s attempted kidnapping of retired CIA station chief Linda Genneken into a six hour race to untangle linked assassinations and an old South American rescue mission gone wrong.

Hired to Kill, the seventh book, raises the stakes to a national scale when coordinated terror attacks on San Diego and Washington, DC turn out to be aimed straight at Nathan’s family. With help from the Border Patrol, the CIA, and a powerful private security CEO he has known for years, Nathan has to stop a bioweapon plot while deciding how far he is willing to go for revenge.

Across the series you can expect detailed firearms work, helicopter insertions, and layered conspiracies, but also long standing friendships, awkward family dinners, and the ongoing work of recovery after torture and war. The books are written to stand alone, yet they are most satisfying read in order, letting you watch Nathan’s circle of allies deepen as each operation leaves its mark on him.