Saigon Commandos Books in Order
Part ofJonathan Cain Books in OrderSee the Saigon Commandos books in order by Jonathan Cain, with short summaries, series background, and clear help choosing the best place to start.
Last updated: July 1, 2026
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Saigon Commandos books in publication order
12 books
Saigon Commandos
by Nicholas Cain
1983
Burned out Green Beret Mark Stryker returns to Saigon and joins the 716th MPs, cops trying to keep a war city from blowing apart. Deserters, black-market gangs, and a vicious street killer turn every patrol into a case.
Boonie-Rat Body Burning
by Nicholas Cain
1984
Someone called the Torch is dousing drunken GIs with gasoline and setting them ablaze, and Stryker needs answers fast. Meanwhile, deserters, street thieves, and a frightened rookie pull the MPs into trouble on every block.
Cherry Boy Body Bag
by Nicholas Cain
1984
Stryker and the 716th juggle a city full of trouble, from peace talks and bad dope to deserters and nervous new MPs. It is a busy, wide-angle look at Saigon, where any small disturbance can turn into a major crisis.
Code Zero Shots Fired
by Nicholas Cain
1984
Back with the 716th, Stryker hunts a missing MP after a sniper attack and uncovers a trail that runs through double lives and foreign intrigue. As the case widens, Saigon keeps throwing fresh chaos at his squad.
Di Di Mau or Die
by Nicholas Cain
1984
After mercenaries ambush a payroll convoy and slaughter dozens of MPs, Stryker hunts the corrupt network behind the attack. Dirty officers, leaked schedules, and superstition all shadow a mission that could end in another massacre.
Dinky Dau Death
by Nicholas Cain
1984
A bounty is put on a reckless First Cavalry captain, and Stryker sends two rookie MPs undercover into the field to stop the hit. Out in the jungle, they learn the man they are protecting may be as dangerous as the assassin.
Mad Minute
by Nicholas Cain
1985
A rogue former MP begins a one-man terror campaign against supposed Communist sympathizers, while Stryker is framed for murder. His friends must clear his name and stop the killings before Saigon swallows one more good man.
Sac Mau, Victor Charlie
by Nicholas Cain
1985
An old enemy comes to Saigon looking for revenge on Mark Stryker, just as the MPs are hit with bizarre killings and crooked schemes. Danger comes from every direction as several messy cases begin to connect.
You Die, Du Ma!
by Nicholas Cain
1985
CID detective Robert Quinn becomes the center of the story when a sadistic escaped criminal kidnaps his family to settle an old score. The hunt is personal, brutal, and far more intimate than the usual squad-wide cases.
Hollowpoint Hell
by Nicholas Cain
1986
The first shock of Tet has passed, but Saigon is still full of snipers, holdouts, and desperate firefights. Stryker's MPs fight block by block while trying to clear a sergeant accused of murdering his own commander.
Suicide Squad
by Nicholas Cain
1986
In the final book, the mop-up after Tet is still deadly, with small bands of enemy fighters turning the city into a maze of last stands. Stryker races between flashpoints and a family crisis as the series heads toward a hard finish.
Torturers of Tet
by Nicholas Cain
1986
As the Tet Offensive erupts on January 31, 1968, Stryker and the 716th MPs are pushed from policing into all-out street combat. Saigon becomes a battlefield, and holding the city together suddenly feels almost impossible.
Saigon Commandos books in chronological order

Saigon Commandos
by Nicholas Cain
1983Saigon Commandos, Book 1
Code Zero Shots Fired
by Nicholas Cain
1984Saigon Commandos, Book 2
Dinky Dau Death
by Nicholas Cain
1984Saigon Commandos, Book 3
Cherry Boy Body Bag
by Nicholas Cain
1984Saigon Commandos, Book 4
Boonie-Rat Body Burning
by Nicholas Cain
1984Saigon Commandos, Book 5
Di Di Mau or Die
by Nicholas Cain
1984Saigon Commandos, Book 6
Sac Mau, Victor Charlie
by Nicholas Cain
1985Saigon Commandos, Book 7
You Die, Du Ma!
by Nicholas Cain
1985Saigon Commandos, Book 8
Mad Minute
by Nicholas Cain
1985Saigon Commandos, Book 9
Torturers of Tet
by Nicholas Cain
1986Saigon Commandos, Book 10
Hollowpoint Hell
by Nicholas Cain
1986Saigon Commandos, Book 11
Suicide Squad
by Nicholas Cain
1986Saigon Commandos, Book 12
Series background & context
At the center of the Saigon Commandos books is Sergeant Mark Stryker, a former Green Beret who winds up with the 716th Military Police Battalion in Saigon. That setup gives the series its angle right away. These are not battlefield novels in the usual sense. Stryker and his MPs are cops working a war city, trying to keep murders, black-market deals, deserters, and panic from tipping the whole place into chaos.
Saigon matters as much as any character. Cain treats it as a crowded, nervous, half-lit city of bars, hotels, alleys, markets, embassies, and military compounds, a place where soldiers on leave, hustlers, street kids, local police, American officials, and Viet Cong agents can all collide in the same afternoon. The setting lets the books shift naturally between police procedural, crime novel, and combat thriller.
That blend is the whole hook.
One book might send Stryker after a missing MP. Another might revolve around a bounty on a reckless officer, a killer torching GIs, a convoy ambush, or a kidnapping that turns personal. The cases often sprawl, and that is part of the rhythm. Instead of one clean mission, the squad is usually juggling several ugly problems at once, with recurring figures like Saigon policeman Jon Toi and a rotating group of MPs helping give the series a lived-in, station-house feel.
The tone is tough, pulpy, and often surprisingly procedural. There is violence, plenty of it, but there is also paperwork, witness interviews, patrol chatter, and the constant sense that being an MP in Saigon means never really leaving the job behind. Cain likes group dynamics, dark humor, and the friction between soldiers who are supposed to enforce order in a place where almost nobody trusts order for long.
They are lawmen in a place that keeps breaking the rules.
The later books widen the scope. By the time you reach Torturers of Tet, Hollowpoint Hell, and Suicide Squad, the series moves into the Tet Offensive and the MPs are no longer just policing the city, they are helping defend it street by street. That trilogy gives the run a bigger historical frame without losing the squad-level perspective that made the early books work.
Cain drew the series from his own military police background, and that helps explain why the world feels so specific. Even when the books lean hard into paperback action, the routines, slang, and daily pressure feel grounded. One later novel, Mad Minute, also became the basis for the 1988 film Saigon Commandos, which helped keep the series in circulation among action-paperback readers.
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