Saul Herzog Books in Order
See Saul Herzog books in order, with quick summaries, series guides, and where to start, whether you want Lance Spector or the newer espionage novels.
Last updated: July 2, 2026
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Publication Order
13 books
The Asset
by Saul Herzog
2020
After quitting the CIA, Lance Spector wants nothing to do with Langley, until a mysterious vial from Russia lands at headquarters with a note demanding him by name. The case pulls him into a biological threat with global consequences.
The Russian
by Saul Herzog
2020
A mass bombing in Moscow pushes Washington and the Kremlin toward a dangerous new Cold War. The CIA's best hope is Lance Spector, but he is wounded, off the grid, and not eager to be found.
The Sleeper
by Saul Herzog
2021
A giant Arctic blast, a vanished Norwegian icebreaker, and a missing Russian scientist point to something far bigger than sabotage. Lance Spector follows the trail into a frozen crisis where intelligence leaks and nuclear fears collide.
The Target
by Saul Herzog
2021
Evidence of a Russian invasion plan surfaces near Latvia just as assassins move to silence anyone who can warn the CIA. With a sleeper agent activated in New York, Lance faces a mission that could tip the world into war.
The Splinter
by Saul Herzog
2022
When female staffers at the US embassy in Prague start turning up dead, the killings look random only at first. Lance is pulled into Russian invasion planning, hired killers, and Cold War secrets that refuse to stay buried.
The Contractor
by Saul Herzog
2023
Gunfire inside the Kremlin signals that Russia's regime may be cracking from within. As the crisis spreads, Washington must decide whether the CIA's old, dangerous methods, and Lance Spector himself, are still worth the cost.
The Fixer
by Saul Herzog
2023
War erupts as Russia invades a neighboring country, and Lance crosses into hostile territory to stop the next disaster before it begins. Back in Washington, the White House fears the Kremlin may be ready to use tactical nuclear weapons.
The Center
by Saul Herzog
2024
Set two years before The Asset, this prequel shows Lance in a reckless relationship with his own handler. When the Russians move to turn that affair into leverage, the damage reaches his career, his loyalties, and Levi Roth.
The Station
by Saul Herzog
2024
A call from a small police station in Washington State tells Lance his missing sister may have been found. The search opens into a larger conspiracy that stretches from the borderlands to the Kremlin and forces old wounds back into the light.
The Dissonant
by Saul Herzog
2025
This novel imagines a modern decapitation strike against Western leadership and the chaos that follows. As Washington and Moscow lurch toward catastrophe, intelligence veterans and field operatives race to understand who moved first and what comes next.
The Honeytrap
by Saul Herzog
2025
Three women, a lover, an operative, and a Cold War orphan, are drawn into separate missions that lead to the same conspiracy. As their stories collide across continents, seduction, blackmail, and buried intelligence threaten global war.
The Swallow
by Saul Herzog
2026
Looking at the suspicious rise of Russia's ruler, this installment asks how power is really seized and kept. When the Kremlin appears to run the same playbook in Washington, CIA spymaster Roman Adler has very little time to stop it.
The Hypersonic
by Saul Herzog
2027
An upcoming fourth Espionage Thriller novel. Public plot details are still limited, but it continues Herzog's newer geopolitical spy series after The Swallow and points toward another confrontation shaped by fast-moving technology and state power.
Where should I start?
If you want the main Lance Spector arc: The Asset → The Russian → The Target
If you want the Russia versus NATO pressure-cooker books: The Sleeper → The Splinter → The Fixer
If you want Lance's backstory first: The Center → The Asset → The Russian
If you want the newer ensemble espionage novels: The Honeytrap → The Dissonant → The Swallow
Author bio
Saul Herzog is a pen name, and the person behind it has kept the usual author biography out of public view. There is no widely shared origin story, no reliable hometown profile, and no tidy list of personal milestones. What is public is the shape of the writing career, a steady run of modern spy thrillers built around covert action, Russian power politics, and the strain that secret work puts on everyone involved.
The mystery feels deliberate.
Public author notes describe Herzog as an experienced thriller writer who has worked around both publishing and film. That background shows up on the page. The books tend to move fast, but they are not just chases and shootouts. They spend time on chain of command, intelligence tradecraft, military planning, and the awkward fact that national security decisions are often made by tired, compromised people in bad rooms under worse pressure.
The first novel published under the name was The Asset in 2020. It introduced Lance Spector, a former CIA paramilitary operator who wants out and gets dragged back in anyway. From there came The Russian, The Target, The Sleeper, The Splinter, The Fixer, and the later Lance Spector books, a nine-book run that stretches through 2024. Across that series, Herzog keeps circling the same kinds of trouble, biological threats, embassy killings, invasion plans, rogue assets, internal betrayal, and the long shadow of Moscow.
Lance is the entry point, but he is not the whole appeal.
Part of what keeps the Lance Spector books moving is the supporting cast around him. Levi Roth brings the cold, strategic side of the CIA world. Laurel Everlane and Tatyana Aleksandrova add emotional friction, competence, and their own hard edges. Books like The Center, which steps back before the first novel, and The Station, which closes the arc, show that Herzog is interested not just in missions but in the damage missions leave behind, especially when loyalty and manipulation start to look uncomfortably similar.
That mix of action and pressure is probably what readers respond to most. The settings shift from Montana to Washington, Moscow, Prague, Norway, and other pressure points where Russian and American interests collide. The details are often grounded in current fears, Russian revanchism, NATO tension, covert biological programs, and wars that can go from local to global in a hurry. Even when the plots get big, the books usually come back to a few people trying to decide what they will live with.
In 2025, Herzog opened a newer line with The Honeytrap. That series continues in The Dissonant and The Swallow, and it feels a little broader in design. Instead of following one signature operative, it leans into ensemble espionage, overlapping missions, and the way old Cold War logic keeps leaking into the present. Women operatives and civilians sit much closer to the center of these books, and the mood is a touch more political, though the pace is still quick and the danger still very personal.
The scope changes, but the interests stay the same.
Because the real author remains undisclosed, there is not much reliable public information about where Herzog lives now or what everyday life looks like away from the books. That leaves the work to do most of the talking. So far, it says this is a writer drawn to modern espionage, morally compromised institutions, and stories where the enemy is rarely just across the border. Sometimes it is in the room, on the phone, or already inside the system.
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