Wayne Stinnett Books in Order
Explore Wayne Stinnett books in order, with overviews, short summaries, reading guides, and tips on where to start his Florida Keys and Caribbean thrillers.
Last updated: January 12, 2026
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Publication Order
49 books
Cursed
by Wayne Stinnett
2026
Years after a near-fatal ascent from the Florida Straits, Jesse finally has the means to revisit the mysterious wreck he glimpsed in the depths. While he prepares, Armstrong asks him to lead an elite team against a corrupt ruler, and he starts to wonder which mission is truly cursed.
Looted
by Wayne Stinnett
2025
Deep in the Everglades, Jesse, Rusty Thurman, and Billy Rainwater begin salvaging a World War II Nazi submarine driven inland by a hurricane. As they uncover a fortune in stolen gold, an unseen predator stalks a local middle-schooler, forcing Jesse to balance treasure hunting with hard justice.
Down Island
by Wayne Stinnett
2025
After nine months away, Jesse returns to his island north of Big Pine Key to find systems failing and his caretaker missing. A yacht broker’s cryptic tip and a body in Miami reveal a coordinated attack on the Keys that only Jesse and his friends can confront.
Cocaine Cowboys
by Wayne Stinnett
2025
Seeking a change of scenery, young Marines Jesse and Rusty head to the Outer Banks and collide with modern-day pirates running cocaine along the coast. Forced to team up with an unlikely ally, they take the fight to the smugglers on open water.
Swift and Silent
by Wayne Stinnett
2024
Life on Jesse’s little island no longer feels like the Keys he first fell for. Yacht thieves prowl the Middle Keys at night, and when they pick the wrong target, Jesse and his family are dragged into a covert struggle that gets painfully personal.
Dominica Blue
by Wayne Stinnett
2024
Living off the grid aboard the custom cruiser Taranis, Jesse and his small crew drift toward the misty peaks of Dominica, enjoying deserted coves and quiet beaches. There they discover the island doubling as a staging ground for drugs and arms, and paradise turns violent fast.
Bad Blood
by Wayne Stinnett
2024
On another rare leave, Jesse and Rusty head back to the Keys for diving and time with Jesse’s reporter girlfriend. A man who has survived four murder attempts draws them into a feud with a violent biker gang linked to an old enemy, ending in a showdown in Key West.
Apalach Affair
by Wayne Stinnett
2024
A simple family cruise to Apalachicola for oysters pulls Jesse into the pine woods of Tate’s Hell State Forest, where hidden meth labs poison Florida’s Forgotten Coast. As rumors swirl on the waterfront, he plays a high-stakes game with dealers who know the swamp too well.
Weigh Anchor
by Wayne Stinnett
2023
When Jesse’s lifelong friend Billy Rainwater finds something impossible deep in the Everglades, the two chase the mystery like they did as kids. Others have been searching for decades, and the fight over the Glades’ buried secret soon spills into Jesse’s favorite Keys watering hole.
Liable Charity
by Wayne Stinnett
2023
Charity has ended many lives as a covert assassin, but this time she feels responsible for destroying a friendship. Sailing off to make amends, she encounters a cartel trafficking endangered wildlife and must rescue an innocent woman before she can even confess what she has done.
Friends of the Devil
by Wayne Stinnett
2023
After Jerry’s yacht explodes in a fiery blast, the only lead forces him to seek help from his mob-connected mentor. At a billionaire’s funeral on a private island, bodies begin washing up, and Jerry must unmask a killer while facing the sins of his own past.
Fish On!
by Wayne Stinnett
2023
Finally ready to retire, Jesse is diving a remote backcountry reef with family and friends when he finds a sunken 1928 Duesenberg once owned by a Saudi prince. The discovery hides a darker secret that turns one of his own protégés into a lethal threat.
A Seller's Market
by Wayne Stinnett
2023
Newly minted Marine Jesse McDermitt comes home on leave expecting familiar beaches and easy days. A dive trip with a boot camp buddy to the Florida Keys reveals a new breed of pirate, trading wooden ships for fast boats and motorcycles while turning paradise into a battleground.
Vodou Child
by Wayne Stinnett
2022
On French St Martin, a hustler preacher is stabbed and his teenage girlfriend disappears. A Vodou priest blames an evil spirit, but Jerry Snyder and DJ Martin suspect human motives as they comb the island’s alleys and hidden temples to find the missing girl.
Timeless
by Wayne Stinnett
2022
Decades after a plane crash supposedly killed his father, Eddie Rains finds a hidden letter that suggests otherwise. His hunt for the truth draws help from familiar Caribbean heroes and turns into a deadly chase for a secret others are willing to kill to keep.
Man Overboard
by Wayne Stinnett
2022
Back in the Keys, Jesse senses a strange tension in the heavy July air. A former investment banker, now a hollow-eyed waiter, and another broken stranger hint at something sinister hollowing out lives. Jesse needs to uncover the source before the next islander disappears inside it.
Graceless
by Wayne Stinnett
2022
Nathan Fitzgerald’s dream voyage turns into a nightmare when his wife Grace and their new sailboat vanish. With officials slow to act, the Florida Keys coach turns to a cast of seasoned island adventurers and races across the Caribbean to bring her home.
Elusive Charity
by Wayne Stinnett
2022
Charity Styles sets out to repair a friendship she fears she has broken and instead sails into another shadowy operation that stretches across the islands. With enemies and emotions both closing in, she must stay one step ahead to keep herself and others alive.
Cast Off
by Wayne Stinnett
2022
During what should be an easy stretch of time at sea with family and friends, Jesse once again finds danger riding in his wake. A new threat forces him to choose between slipping quietly out of sight and confronting the trouble head-on to protect those around him.
Wayward Sons
by Wayne Stinnett
2021
Where Jerry Snyder goes, trouble follows. After a honeymoon attack in the Virgin Islands, he and one-legged partner DJ Martin investigate a body washed ashore at a resort in Culebra and sail into a Caribbean conspiracy that forces them to confront Jerry’s dangerous past.
Steady As She Goes
by Wayne Stinnett
2021
Now captaining the research vessel Ambrosia, Jesse’s public mission is mapping the seafloor for oil. His real assignment is tracking a Venezuelan cartel moving drugs and slave labor through legitimate shipping lanes, hidden among thousands of freighters that cross the Caribbean every year.
Rising Tide
by Wayne Stinnett
2021
A homemade skiff drifts under the Seven Mile Bridge carrying an injured boy who speaks perfect English but remembers nothing. Clues point back to Fort Myers gangs Jesse once fought, forcing him into a fast, dangerous return he swore he would never make.
Lost Charity
by Wayne Stinnett
2021
Restless after a series of minor jobs, Charity accepts two new assignments, one to ferry guests to a mega-yacht crewed by old allies, another to infiltrate a sprawling sex-trafficking network. Staying undercover long enough to find its leader may cost her far more than a clean conscience.
All Ahead Full
by Wayne Stinnett
2021
On a dive vacation in Honduras, Jesse discovers a cartel stripping rain forest for coca fields and smuggling rare hardwoods and wildlife out through hidden coves. With activists being butchered, he and the Ambrosia crew must decide how far they are willing to go to stop it.
Rising Warrior
by Wayne Stinnett
2020
Back in Fort Myers, Jesse joins friends on a kayaking trip that turns into a rescue for a sick baby manatee. As red tide devastates the coast, he uncovers a man-made scheme in the Ten Thousand Islands that is far deadlier than any natural bloom.
Rising Thunder
by Wayne Stinnett
2020
After a brutal mission in Mexico, Jesse just wants to sail away and forget. That plan dies when a severed leg tangles in his dinghy line, pointing to a serial killer and a former Russian smuggler hunting victims in the jungles outside Belize City.
Rising Moon
by Wayne Stinnett
2020
On sleepy Grassy Key, a young woman vanishes on her way to work, leaving only her car behind. Months later the trail is cold, until Jesse starts leaning on locals and uncovers a web of secrets someone is willing to kill to keep buried.
Vigilant Charity
by Wayne Stinnett
2019
Back in the Bahamas after months roaming the Pacific, Charity drops anchor in a quiet Abaco cove and runs into an old friend and her young daughter, both haunted by four bodies in a deep blue hole. When disaster strikes, Charity must stop a drug ring and save the only family she has left.
Rising Water
by Wayne Stinnett
2019
On Norman Island, a strange commune of newcomers seems merely odd until one of them washes ashore dead. Visiting a friend, Jesse stumbles into a cult-like drug ring using hidden coves as cover and must shut it down before more followers disappear into the sea.
Rising Spirit
by Wayne Stinnett
2019
Rebuilding his storm-ravaged island after Hurricane Irma, Jesse hopes for peace. Instead, an eco-minded woman from his past uncovers a massive drug lab in Virginia, and a contract killer starts stalking his friends, dragging Jesse into snow-covered mountains far from his home waters.
Rising Charity
by Wayne Stinnett
2019
After drifting too long as a hard-drinking, drifting sailor, Jesse forces himself back into fighting shape. A message from Charity Styles offers what he needs most, a shared mission that carries them from the deep canyons of Exuma Sound to the marinas of Bimini.
Rising Force
by Wayne Stinnett
2018
Relaxing among laid-back cruisers in the Berry Islands, Jesse tries to enjoy life off the grid. When destroyed reefs and slaughtered sea turtles point to a vicious crew hiding nearby, he is forced to trade beach bars for blue water and hunt killers once again.
Enduring Charity
by Wayne Stinnett
2018
When her government position disappears, Charity retreats to her sloop and a wandering life under sail. Hidden dangers in the Bahamas and beyond, from pirates to smugglers, soon claim someone close to her, forcing her to protect other victims even while grieving her own loss.
Rising Storm
by Wayne Stinnett
2017
In Miami’s Coconut Grove, a seedy new crowd is preying on adventurous young women while a fortune in Aztec emeralds vanishes. Hired to find the gems, Jesse digs into the waterfront’s glitz and grime and uncovers a predator whose crimes go far beyond theft.
Rising Fury
by Wayne Stinnett
2017
A quiet day in the Keys ends when a shrimp trawler explodes on the horizon, killing someone from Jesse’s past. Chasing answers from Miami to Fort Myers, he uncovers a plot that brings violence to his doorstep and answers it with a fury he thought he had buried.
Reckless Charity
by Wayne Stinnett
2017
Hoping to unwind on the quiet side of St Thomas, Charity instead rides out a hurricane, tangles with an ex, and collides with drug dealers and a charming developer. When a man-made storm of greed threatens the island, she responds in the only way she knows.
Ruthless Charity
by Wayne Stinnett
2016
Still healing from past wounds, Charity takes an assignment in the Venezuelan jungle, where a brutal land baron and his gun-happy security team terrorize an Indigenous community. Sent to remove one man, she must decide how far her idea of justice is willing to go.
Fallen Hero
by Wayne Stinnett
2016
When a young treasure-diving couple is found murdered in the Keys backcountry, one of Jesse’s closest friends becomes the prime suspect. Convinced of his innocence, Jesse teams up with Detective Devon Evans to stop a serial killer before more bodies wash ashore.
Fallen Angel
by Wayne Stinnett
2016
A rushed rescue off the Bahamian Out Islands goes sideways when the kidnap victims would rather return to the Jamaican killers than face the man who ordered their deaths. Chasing that puppet master pulls Jesse to the Carolina Lowcountry, where politics and murder collide in the marsh.
Blue Collar to No Collar
by Wayne Stinnett
2016
Part memoir and part motivation, this short book traces Wayne Stinnett’s journey from long-haul truck driver to full-time novelist and shares candid, practical encouragement for writers who are considering self-publishing their own work.
Merciless Charity
by Wayne Stinnett
2015
Former Olympian and Army helicopter pilot Charity Styles survived torture in Afghanistan and now works off the books for Homeland Security. Given a chance to strike back at the people who play by no rules, she turns her beloved sloop into a floating weapon.
Fallen Tide
by Wayne Stinnett
2015
Jesse’s morning swim turns grisly when he finds a human arm in the surf. The next day a drifting mega-yacht reveals more bodies, pointing to Eastern European black marketers using the Keys as a base. Jesse races across the Gulf Stream to save the missing owners.
Fallen King
by Wayne Stinnett
2015
Explosions on fragile patch reefs in Florida Bay shatter the quiet backcountry, and Jesse is furious to find a violent Miami gang behind the blasts. After he and his daughter witness a brutal double murder, he uncovers a psychopath using the Keys as bait.
Fallen Honor
by Wayne Stinnett
2015
A young man fleeing a Pittsburgh cocaine dealer lands in Key West, hoping the island is far enough away. When his past follows and bodies start appearing from the Bahamas to the Everglades, Jesse steps in, determined to shut down the smugglers stalking his waters.
Fallen Pride
by Wayne Stinnett
2014
Jesse is helping a fellow Marine’s son battle crippling PTSD in the Keys when a deadly threat from inside Homeland Security targets them both. As a government assassin closes in, Jesse has to decide how far he will go to protect his makeshift family.
Fallen Out
by Wayne Stinnett
2014
Fresh out of the Marine Corps and unwilling to face another cold winter, Jesse heads for the Florida Keys, buys a liveaboard boat, and starts a charter business, only to discover that danger in Marathon and the Everglades is impossible for him to ignore.
Fallen Mangrove
by Wayne Stinnett
2014
A centuries-old clue hidden in a mangrove tree sends Jesse and his friends after a lost Spanish treasure in the Bahamas. When the Croatian mob, a predatory islander, and a crooked attorney close in, the hunt for gold turns deadly fast.
Fallen Palm
by Wayne Stinnett
2013
Retired Marine Jesse McDermitt runs a quiet charter business on a remote Florida Keys island until a former sergeant dies in a suspicious diving accident. Hunting the truth pulls Jesse toward a psychotic killer, buried treasure, and a terrorist cell in the Caribbean.
Fallen Hunter
by Wayne Stinnett
2013
Still grieving a devastating loss to terrorists, Jesse hides on his island and numbs himself with busywork. When a friend begs him to save her father from a Cuban smuggler tied to Hezbollah, Jesse sees a chance for vengeance and heads back into danger.
Where should I start?
If you want to start with Jesse McDermitt: Fallen Out → Fallen Palm → Fallen Hunter → Fallen Pride
If you like darker vigilante stories: Merciless Charity → Ruthless Charity → Reckless Charity → Enduring Charity
If you prefer island mysteries with new leads: Wayward Sons → Vodou Child → Friends of the Devil
If you want young Jesse’s backstory: A Seller's Market → Bad Blood → Cocaine Cowboys
If you are curious about the author’s path: Blue Collar to No Collar
Author bio
Wayne Stinnett grew up near the beaches and rivers of Florida’s east coast, spending long days fishing, diving, and roaming the swamps and lagoons that later turned up in his fiction. Those early years along the Indian River and the Atlantic shore gave him an eye for tides, weather, and small coastal towns that feel lived in rather than postcard perfect.
After high school he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. The Marines took him far from Florida, across northern Europe and the Pacific, and taught him the discipline, camaraderie, and dark humor that echo through his retired‑Marine characters. When he eventually left active duty, he carried with him both the physical skills of a rifleman and the quieter habits of watching, listening, and planning three steps ahead.
Civilian life for Stinnett was anything but linear. Over the years he worked as a deckhand and commercial fisherman, a divemaster, taxi driver, construction manager, and long‑haul truck driver. He lived aboard a sailboat in the Florida Keys, spent stretches of time on Andros in the Bahamas, Dominica in the Windward Islands, and Cozumel, and later settled in the Carolinas. All of that wandering, on and off the water, stocked his imagination with harbors, backroads, and the kinds of people you meet far from big cities.
He first tried writing in the late 1980s, drafting a handful of sea‑soaked short stories and then setting them aside when work and family took priority. Years later, at the urging of his third wife and youngest daughter, he went back to those early pieces. They became the raw material for Fallen Palm, the novel that would introduce retired Marine and charter‑boat captain Jesse McDermitt.
From there the Jesse McDermitt Caribbean Adventure Series grew into a long‑running saga that follows Jesse from a quiet life on a remote Keys island into a world of smugglers, terrorists, traffickers, and environmental crimes. Readers come for the fast boats and firefights, but many stay for the small details of island living, the found family on Jesse’s little patch of sand, and the way retirement keeps getting interrupted.
Stinnett later spun off another fan favorite, Charity Styles, a former Olympian and Army helicopter pilot turned covert operative. Her Caribbean Thriller books lean darker, following a woman who has survived torture and now walks a tightrope between justice and vengeance. A newer collaboration with Stewart Matthews, the Caribbean Mystery series, centers on Jerry Snyder and his one‑legged partner DJ Martin as they work for a secretive organization hunting the worst criminals in the islands.
Alongside the fiction, Stinnett wrote Blue Collar to No Collar, a short, plainspoken account of how he went from driving a truck to making a living as an independent novelist. It is less a how‑to manual than a glimpse into the grind of writing, publishing, and slowly building an audience from scratch.
These days he lives in the South Carolina Lowcountry on a sea island with his wife and their youngest daughter, not far from the Marine recruit depot at Parris Island. They have grown children, several grandchildren, a dog, and a noisy flock of parakeets. He keeps a boat in a nearby marina and splits his time between the water and a small office that looks out over the docks.
His stories almost always circle back to the tropics: the Florida Keys, the wider Caribbean, and the people who scrape out a living there. Expect plenty of salt on the air, a strong sense of place, loyal friends, and characters who know that sometimes the only way to protect what you love is to fight.
Edited by
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