Most Recommended Books

Track reading, wishlists & new-book alerts

Get
Skip to content
Share:

The Mad Mick Books in Order

Part ofFranklin Horton Books in Order

Explore The Mad Mick series by Franklin Horton in reading order, with quick summaries, crossover notes, and background on Conor Maguire’s explosive role in the wider Borrowed World universe.

Last updated: June 7, 2026

As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases (at no extra cost to you).

Publication Order

Sort:

11 books

1

The Mad Mick

by Franklin Horton

2018

When a drunk driver kills his wife and injures his young daughter, bomb-maker Conor Maguire takes revenge the courts denied him. Recruited into a covert weapons program, he spends decades in the shadows—until the collapse and Barb’s kidnapping force him into the open.

2

Masters of Mayhem

by Franklin Horton

2019

After obliterating the gang that kidnapped Barb, Conor tries to rally his scattered neighbors into a real defensive force. Unbeknownst to them, the dead men’s boss is marching south with his own army, eager to put the Mad Mick’s head on a pike.

3

Brutal Business

by Franklin Horton

2020

Reports of a heavily armed column razing towns to the north reach Conor’s mountain community. Outnumbered and divided, he must weld suspicious neighbors into a fighting force before the invaders arrive, all while his daughter Barb stokes conflict with her sharp tongue.

4

Northern Sun

by Franklin Horton

2020

Conor returns to professional assassination work, taking a lucrative job to eliminate a shady financier while the country still reels from collapse. The mission spirals into something far larger, uncovering a secret that reshapes his understanding of his own life.

5

Punching Tickets

by Franklin Horton

2021

Asked to punch tickets for a network of traitors who profited from America’s collapse, Conor assembles his team for what should be a straightforward hit list. Instead, every step of the operation unravels, leaving them physically and emotionally stretched past their limits.

6

Ultraviolent

by Franklin Horton

2021

When Conor’s new boss orders him to wipe out an insurgent named Jim Powell, the Mad Mick finally collides with the Borrowed World’s central hero. This crossover novel pits two lethal men—and their equally stubborn followers—on opposite sides of the same mission.

7

American Oligarch

by Franklin Horton

2022

Conor’s new employer, billionaire Walter Lightspeed, is clearing his path to power by eliminating corrupt insiders. As Conor and Ricardo carry out quiet killings, they start to question whether this visionary reformer might also be putting their own families at risk.

8

The Death Dealer's Manual

by Franklin Horton

2022

On a mission near Washington, DC, Conor Maguire and Ricardo stumble into the orbit of a billionaire who believes he can rebuild America without politicians. Their simple supply run becomes a tangle of assassination plots, backroom deals, and uneasy alliances.

9

Dislocated

by Franklin Horton

2023

Chinese missiles shatter Camp David and kill Walter Lightspeed, plunging the recovering nation back into blackout. With foreign covert teams hunting key resisters, Conor and Ricardo land on the hit list and respond the only way they know—by taking the fight to the hunters.

10

Shift Point

by Franklin Horton

2023

Months after Walter Lightspeed proves he can beam power wirelessly, America is clawing its way back from the dark. As enemies inside and outside the country sabotage the project, Conor and his team must decide how far they’ll go to keep the recovery alive.

11

Hostile Takeover

by Franklin Horton

2024

Holed up in the West Virginia mountains after Lightspeed’s fall, Conor’s crew searches for someone who can reignite the national recovery. Their mission to recruit a larger-than-life ally collides with forces that may permanently fracture their tight circle of friends and family.

Series background & context

The Mad Mick series drops you into the life of Conor Maguire, a contract assassin with an Irish background, a workshop full of custom weapons, and one soft spot: his daughter Barb. When the same national terror attacks that fuel The Borrowed World universe knock out power and order, Conor and Barb think their fortified Virginia compound will let them ride out the chaos.

That illusion shatters when Barb is kidnapped by slavers who see her as expendable labor in a world with no rules. The first book follows Conor as he tears through the back roads of Appalachia to get her back, using the skills he honed over decades designing bombs and weapons for a shadowy government program. The tone is blunt and darkly funny—less checklists and prepping tips, more improvised traps, sarcasm, and very messy payback.

In later books, Conor tries to pull his head up from pure vengeance and think about community. The people around his compound need leadership and protection, whether he wants the job or not. Threats escalate from local thugs to paramilitary forces rolling through towns like locusts, and Conor has to weld together uneasy alliances, even as Barb’s sharp tongue and brutal honesty rub almost everyone the wrong way.

As the series evolves, the stakes widen from one hollow in the mountains to the fate of the country. Conor’s old handler, Ricardo, reenters his life, bringing missions that target the architects of the collapse and the corrupt officials trying to profit from it. A billionaire entrepreneur named Walter Lightspeed emerges with a radical plan to restore power and remake the government, and Conor’s team ends up at the center of that effort—first as hired guns, then as something more complicated.

Those big-picture plots don’t erase the small, human moments. The books keep returning to Conor’s relationship with Barb, to the makeshift family that forms around them, and to the nagging question of what a man like Conor owes the world beyond his own fence line. The humor is rough, the language salty, and the action often over the top, but underneath it is a story about loyalty and what it costs to stay loyal in a broken country.

The Mad Mick novels also serve as one of the main bridges between series. Readers who know Jim Powell from The Borrowed World or Dan Slaughter from The Way of Dan will spot major crossovers and shared threats, including missions that could pit beloved characters against each other. You can read this series on its own, but it feels even richer if you’re following the whole universe.

Edited by

Richard Reis

Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.

Anurag Ramdasan

Lead investor at 3one4 Capital whose startup expertise and love for books helped shaped MRB and its growth.

Comments

Did we miss something? Have feedback?

Help us improve this page by sharing your thoughts

We only use your email to notify you about replies.

All comments are moderated.

Discover and track your reading on the go

Track your reading, manage wishlists, and get notified when new books are added.

All 11 The Mad Mick Books in Order (Complete List 2026)