Roger O'Neil Books in Order

Roger O'Neil is John Etterlee's bridge between survival thriller and espionage thriller. He is a former Army Ranger and Afghanistan veteran who wants a quieter life, and that matters. The books work because Roger is not looking for chaos. He has a wife, kids, a ranch in Montana, and a very clear sense of what peace is supposed to look like. Then the series keeps taking that peace apart.

In The Cold Storm, Roger heads into the Montana mountains for a winter retreat with his family. What should have been a simple trip turns ugly after he finds a strange man hiding near the cabin and chooses to help him. That choice pulls Roger's family into the sights of the Aryan Brotherhood and a wider criminal conspiracy. The snow, distance, and isolation matter here. This is not city thriller territory. It is a book about how fast home can stop feeling safe, and about the old friends Roger calls when the law cannot keep up.

Roger wants peace. The books keep taking it away.

That home-front tension carries into Strike Point, but the second book opens the series up in a big way. Roger is living quietly on his Montana ranch when he is drawn into a top secret CIA operation and sent undercover into Moscow. There he works with SAS soldiers while tensions rise between Russia and the West, an imprisoned student becomes part of a propaganda game, and a nuclear conspiracy starts pushing the story toward the edge of a much larger war. It turns the series from local danger into international brinkmanship, without losing Roger's grounded point of view.

What links the books is Roger himself. He is capable, trained, and willing to fight, but he is also clearly a family man, which gives the series a different feel from thrillers built around loners with nothing to lose. Montana is important for the same reason. The ranch, the horses, the cabin, and the wide-open country give Roger a life worth defending. When he gets pulled back into violence, you can see exactly what he is trying to protect.

The tone shifts a little from book to book. The Cold Storm leans into survival, pursuit, and a last stand with former operators. Strike Point leans harder into covert work, spycraft, and geopolitical danger. Together they make a series that blends domestic stakes with military action in a very readable way.

If you like your thrillers with veterans, snowbound danger, tight teams, and a hero who keeps getting dragged out of retirement, this is the place to start. Read The Cold Storm first, then Strike Point. Roger's world makes the most sense that way.