Stephen Mertz Books in Order

Ex-stuntman and Denver private eye Rock Dugan takes a case that quickly turns rough and dangerous. This early Mertz mystery mixes hardboiled attitude, violence, and a strong feel for the city's seedier corners.

Music industry fixer Steve Madison joins a rock tour to stop a killer behind a string of vampire-style murders. The result is a fast, grimy mystery with strong 1970s rock-and-roll energy.

After slipping away from a CIA team in Bangkok, Stone takes on a rescue mission tied to an old war debt. Cambodia becomes another brutal proving ground for his one-man crusade.

For Stone, the war is not over while Americans are still missing. This time he heads toward Hanoi and deeper enemy territory, driven by equal parts honor, fury, and refusal to quit.

A debt of honor sends Stone into deadly mountain country after more forgotten captives. The series' mix of rescue mission, vendetta, and combat action stays front and center.

Former Green Beret Mark Stone devotes himself to one mission, bringing America's abandoned POWs home. With help from trusted allies, he heads into Laos for a rescue that looks close to impossible.

Cody and his handpicked team head into Libya for another covert anti-terror operation. Desert warfare, political danger, and a hostile battlefield keep the pressure high from the start.

American prisoners are rotting in the slave camps of Laos, and Stone means to reach them. The mission is savage, the odds are terrible, and the series' anger at abandonment burns hot.

After one dirty job too many, John Cody is pulled back into covert war and handed a tiny anti-terror strike team. The first book sets the template: off-the-books missions, hard men, and impossible odds.

Stone knows prison camps from the inside, and he is willing to go back into hell to get others out. This entry leans hard into survival, rage, and do-or-die extraction.

Cody's Army heads to Northern Ireland to stop a plot that could set off open revolt. Streets, politics, and gunfire collide in one of the series' most volatile settings.

A violent conspiracy reaches Washington, and Cody's Army is sent into the capital to stop it before the damage turns national. This one brings the series' off-the-books action straight to the heart of American power.

Stone's war spills beyond Vietnam in a mission that carries him into Nicaragua. It's another hard-driving rescue thriller built on speed, violence, and refusal to leave people behind.

Cody's team is sent to rescue an American family being held by communist guerrillas in the Philippines. It's a tight hostage mission with jungle danger and no room for mistakes.

When U.S. representatives investigate whether American servicemen are still being held in Vietnam, the trip turns deadly. Stone hits Ho Chi Minh City and finds politics, ambushes, and blood in the streets.

A killing in Paris and a kidnapping in Frankfurt pull the action into a wider European terror crisis. Stone's team faces international pressure, shifting loyalties, and a mission that keeps growing darker.

In Haiti, Cody's small team faces overwhelming numbers as a mission spins toward open war. Mercenaries, chaos, and brutal odds make this one of the series' toughest assignments.

An American journalist disappears in Moscow, and Stone goes after answers inside Soviet territory. The cold setting gives this series entry an especially tense, high-risk edge.

The battlefield shifts to Miami, where drug violence turns the city into a different kind of war zone. Vietnam veteran Jack Wofford takes point in a brutal stateside fight.

A fanatical conspiracy pulls Cody's team into another race through terror, betrayal, and political violence. The final Cody's Army novel keeps the global stakes high and the pace relentless.

Japan is on the brink of surrender in 1945, but a last desperate conspiracy could rewrite the end of the war. This historical thriller runs on secret plans, shifting loyalties, and end-of-empire tension.

What looks like an easy job in a small African nation becomes a massacre waiting to happen. Stone and his men head into desert combat against enemies who are far stronger than expected.

A prisoner of war has spent seventeen years in captivity, and Stone will not let him be forgotten. The mission sends him back into Vietnam and back into the old nightmare.

A man Stone once wrote off as gone resurfaces in Los Angeles gangland, and the city becomes a battlefield. Treachery, urban violence, and unfinished business drive this entry.

Dr. Yu Bin is not an ordinary extraction target, and China's prisons are not a forgiving place to operate. Stone has to cut through layers of politics and danger to bring him out.

A vicious gathering of killers and warlords in Vietnam sets up one of Stone's bloodiest assignments. Alliances are shaky, the fighting is fierce, and nobody walks in clean.

At a Stanley Cup Final in Pittsburgh, firefighter Darren McCord uncovers terrorists, hostages, and a plan to turn the arena into a bomb. The whole story runs on clock pressure and nonstop action.

Robin Curtis and her son come to Devil Creek, New Mexico, hoping for a fresh start. Instead they find a town sliding toward madness, and a lonely neighbor who may be their only real ally.

Former Army Ranger Steve Madison now works damage control for the music business, but one rainy night in St. Louis drags him into kidnapping, cocaine, gang pressure, and murder. A comeback tour becomes a full-blown nightmare.

When the shuttle Liberty crash-lands on the border between North and South Korea, pilot Kate Daniels is thrust into a larger crisis. A space defense satellite and international brinkmanship push the story into full political-thriller mode.

At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, disgraced security man Tag McCall stumbles onto a catastrophic plot. A ruthless insider, a defecting Chinese general, and a missing teenage gymnast drive the suspense.

In 1952 Shreveport, Hank Williams and Muddy Waters cross paths in a fictional crime adventure full of music, race, crooked cops, and danger. It's part mystery, part road-house fever dream.

Set against Cuba in 1961, this thriller drops readers into a volatile world of invasion plans, covert agendas, and Cold War danger. The pace is quick and the stakes are international.

When an M.I.A. mission goes wrong, Stone and his team are thrown into a standoff with terrorists controlling an isolated town. Rescue and survival become the same job.

Husband-and-wife gunfighters J.D. and Kate Blaze survive an Apache ambush and then go after outlaws led by Rosa Diablo. The first book sets up a western series with swagger, speed, and plenty of gun smoke.

A dying Arizona town and a horde of shambling horrors push the Blaze series into weird-west territory. J.D. and Kate stay tough, funny, and dangerous even when the setup gets wild.

Holmes and Watson race to stop Moriarty from unleashing a zombie plague on London. The book plays with horror, mystery, and steampunk while keeping the great detective under real pressure.

This collection shows Mertz working across westerns, historical fiction, private-eye tales, pulp adventure, and suspense. It's a good sampler if you want his range in one book.

J.D. and Kate Blaze ride into another rough frontier showdown where outlaw violence and personal stakes collide. It keeps the series' fast pace, sharp chemistry, and taste for trouble.

J.D. and Kate Blaze become unlikely holiday escorts when a desperate mother sets out to save her son. Outlaws, Apaches, and Christmas on the trail give this western a fun seasonal twist.

Two years after the first ordeal, Robin, Paul, and Mike are trying to heal when fresh terror breaks loose. Devil Creek proves it still has plenty of darkness left.

In London in 1970, Soldier answers a call for help from Jimi Hendrix and steps into a maze of gangsters, drugs, and deadly secrets. Music-history fiction meets tough-guy thriller.

Archaeologists Adam Chase and Lara Newton lead a dig on the Turkey-Syria border for a billionaire obsessed with biblical truth. Their discovery pulls them into a dangerous historical conspiracy.

In 1970s Denver, tough PI Kilroy starts with a missing woman case and lands in a tangle of vice, politics, and murder. The retro setting gives this hardboiled mystery a sharp, lived-in feel.

McShan heads into southeastern Arizona to check on a former Olympic gymnast tangled up with a New Age cult. Soon he is dealing with bikers, rich secrets, deadly charmers, and a case that keeps getting stranger.

Another short fiction collection, this one leans into crime, suspense, and darker moods. The variety makes it a strong way to sample Mertz in smaller, sharper doses.

When terrorists strike Camp David during a high-level summit, Cody is thrown into a deadly siege at one of America's most protected sites. Tight security, confusion, and close-quarters combat drive the action.

Sara goes missing on a deep-cover mission in Afghanistan, and Cody charges in after a rescue attempt goes wrong. Stranded in brutal country, the two have to survive the elements and a relentless Taliban pursuit.

Jack Cody must extract defecting physicist Dr. Kwan before China's new super-weapon changes the balance of power. A missing U.S. plane, vanished dive team, and a coup in Beijing turn the mission into a full crisis.

Blackmail is only the beginning when Kilroy stumbles into another dirty Denver case. The third book keeps the series' 1970s noir mood, rough humor, and steady supply of bad people with secrets.

Kilroy goes looking for a missing blues singer and ends up deep in trouble. Music, street-level danger, and old-school private-eye grit make this one a natural follow-up to the first book.

Still recovering from personal loss, Cody is forced back into action when American Nazis, Islamic terrorists, and stolen Russian nukes threaten Houston. The result is a fast, hard run toward disaster prevention.

A presidential visit to a tiny border town turns into a hostage crisis when a murderous clan takes control. Cody and Sara must fight a domestic terror nightmare from different sides of the chaos.

J.D. and Kate Blaze ride into another violent Arizona manhunt, mixing sharp banter, frontier grit, and sudden gunfire. It's a brisk western built around a married pair of deadly professionals.

Saigon, 1970. Lone-wolf investigator Cord McGavin digs into murder and corruption in a city already warped by war, giving this thriller a hard, dangerous edge from the first page.

After America's withdrawal from Afghanistan, Cody learns U.S. personnel may have been left behind in Taliban hands. He launches a one-man mission into a collapsing war zone to bring them home or die trying.

Back in Washington after a brutal Russian mission, Cody expects rest and finds only more danger. Foreign hit teams, an injured Sara, a fugitive princess, and a nuclear dealer turn the capital into a kill zone.

Now operating without official cover, Cody and Sara race from Syria to the Italian Alps to stop a doomsday plot. Hit teams, betrayal, and a ticking nuclear threat keep the pressure on every page.

Cody faces a chilling alliance between media titan Thelma Justice and nuclear strategist Vetrov. Their partnership raises the stakes from ordinary terrorism to something much larger, and much deadlier.

Cody and Sara head into war-ravaged Syria to rescue an American woman and her son before a defection turns deadly. A remote outpost, 500 mercenaries, and impossible odds make this one especially brutal.