The Hunters: Origins Books in Order

The Hunters: Origins is a companion line of short novels that digs into who the Hunters were before they ever stepped onto the same stage. Instead of vault raids and full scale missions, these stories slow down and show the choices that pushed each character toward Papineau's offer.

The first installment, Before the Storm, centers on team leader Jack Cobb in the months after his unexpected discharge from the United States Army. Stripped of the job that defined him, he drifts to Florida to call in favors at MacDill Air Force Base, only to be turned away at the gate because of the scandal that ended his career.

At that low point he reconnects with old friends Jonathon Payne and David Jones, tying the Origins line directly back to the Payne & Jones universe. Over drinks and in the middle of a gathering thunderstorm, they trade stories about past operations and nudge Cobb to think about what he actually wants to do with the skills he has.

The novella is lighter on firefights than the main Hunters books and leans into character work instead. Readers see Cobb outside the structured world of military command, dealing with rejection, boredom, and the oddity of civilian life. The banter with Payne and Jones brings out a more relaxed side of him and hints at the kind of leadership he will offer once he assembles his own crew.

More broadly, the Origins concept lets Kuzneski answer questions that hang around the edges of the trilogy. How did a hacker like Hector Garcia become comfortable working with violent criminals. What path took Sarah Ellis from intelligence work to high level theft. How did Josh McNutt decide that he trusted Papineau's money. Future stories are designed to fill in those gaps, seed clues for both the books and the planned film adaptation, and deepen the sense that these are real people carrying long histories onto the page.

You do not have to read Origins to follow the main Hunters plot, but coming back to The Hunters after Before the Storm adds extra weight to small moments and throwaway lines. The tone stays consistent with the rest of Kuzneski's work, mixing humor and tension, yet the shorter format makes each scene feel intimate, focused more on conversations and turning points than on massive set pieces.

If you enjoy the big missions but also find yourself wondering what these characters were doing before chapter one, The Hunters: Origins is meant for you. It offers a quieter, more personal look at the same world, showing how a scattered group of specialists ended up chasing impossible treasures together.