Brad Thor Books In Order – Complete List – Scot Harvath Series

New York Times bestselling author Brad Thor is known for his popular Scot Harvath thriller series. He also wrote short stories and a book in a separate series, but they are all in the same universe.

Here are the Brad Thor books in order of publication, which also coincide with the chronological order of events in the books.

Do note that some readers consider The Athena Project part of a separate series (including only one book), while others consider it part of the main Scot Harvath series. I tend to side with the first group since Scot and his team are not really featured in the book.

Latest Brad Thor Books

Scot Harvath Books in Publication Order

Scot Harvath is an ex-Navy SEAL Secret Service agent who later would become a covert counterterrorism agent.

1. The Lions of Lucerne (#1), 2002
2. Path of the Assassin (#2), 2003
3. State of the Union (#3), 2004
4. Blowback (#4), 2005
5. Takedown (#5), 2006
6. The First Commandment (#6), 2007
7. The Last Patriot (#7), 2008
8. The Apostle (#8), 2009
9. Foreign Influence (#9), 2010
10. Full Black (#10), 2011
11. Black List (#12), 2012
12. Free Fall (#11.5), 2013
13. Hidden Order ( #12), 2013
14. Epilogue II (#12.5), 2013
15. Act of War (#13), 2014
16. Code of Conduct (#14), 2015
17. The Athens Solution (#14.5), 2015
18. Foreign Agent (#15), 2016
19. Use of Force (#16), 2017
20. Spymaster (#17), 2018
21. Backlash (#18), 2019
22. Near Dark (#19), 2020
23. Black Ice (#20), 2021
24. Rising Tiger (#21), 2022
25. Dead Fall (#22), 2023
26. Shadow of Doubt (#23), 2024

Scot Harvath Short Stories and Novellas in Order of Publication

1. Free Fal, 2013
2. Epilogue II, 2013
3. The Athens Solution, 2015

The Athena Project Books in Publication Order

• The Athena Project, 2014

Series Brad Thor Contributed To

Thriller: Stories to Keep You Up All Night

• The Athens Solution, 2015

Anthologies and Short Story Collections

• Thriller: Stories to Keep You Up All Night, 2006 (edited by James Patterson)

Brad Thor Biography – About the Author

Brad Thor is a popular American author, the  #1 New York Times bestselling author for several of his spy thriller novels, and the character of Scot Harvath is well known among lovers of the thriller genre. His first novel, The Lions of Lucerne (book #1 in Scot Harvath’s series), was published in 2002 and it was also the first novel I’ve read by the author. I got hooked on his style right away.

The author was born in 1969 in Chicago, Illinois, where he also grew up.  He attended the Sacred Heart Schools and then the Francis W. Parker School, where he was classmates with actors like Billy Zane and Anne Heche, following which he enrolled at the University of Southern California studying writing under author T.C. Boyle. He initially enrolled for a business major, but soon he switched to creative writing and film production when he realized that he would never love to work as a manager for some company. He graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree.

While he always wanted to become a writer, he only started to pursue his dream some 30 years of his life because, as he mentioned in an interview, he was always afraid of failing.

Before he started writing novels, Brad Thor was the producer, writer, and host of the Public Television travel series, Traveling Lite. He just finished the second season and got married. On their honeymoon, his wife asked him what would be the one thing he regretted on his deathbed on never having it done. And this is when he realized that he wanted to write books.

Many critics have called Brad Thor ‘the master of thrillers’ and with good reason. He is mentioned along with names such as Robert Ludlum, and his books have been published pretty much all over the world.

I guess it is no wonder that the author knows so much about politics, espionage and similar topics, having worked at the Department of Homeland Security’s Analytic Red Cell Unit, and being a member of the Alexandrian Defense Group.

He gives regularly lectures to law enforcement organizations on over-the-horizon/future threats, and to several other organizations that involve national security and defense.

For his novels, Brad Thor does thorough research. For example, to write the book The Apostle, in 2008 he shadowed in Afghanistan a Black-Ops team at work.

His book The Last Patriot was banned in Saudi Arabia as it was called “Islamophobic.”

In addition to writing books, Brad Thor often appears in TV talk-shows on CNN, Fox, PBS and other channels to discuss of terrorism and how they relate to his books and to real life.

For each year of his career, there is one Brad Thor book. The author writes one book per year, which some readers say it’s not fast enough. However, considering that book authors take 2-3 years to write a single novel, I’d say Brad Thor is pretty darn fast with releasing his books.

So far, there have been over 15 million Brad Thor books sold, and the author is often placed along with Vince Flynn as one of the biggest names in the political thriller genre.

Scot Harvath is the popular Navy Seal-turned-intelligence operative, who will feature in the first movie adaptation of The Lions of Lucerne, which, if all goes well, will be directed by Louis Leterrier, who is best known for his work on the Transporter 1 and 2. In addition, the rights to The Athena Project have been bought by Warner Brothers, so at some point, we should see some developments in that arena as well.

Reading the Brad Thor books in order is easy, as it only includes his Scot Harvath thriller series. However, as the Scot Harvath series has close to 30 books so far, it would be useful to organize the series in proper reading order, as it is a distinct continuity to the books in the series.

As an interesting side-note about the author, in 2020, Brad Thor briefly announced his candidacy in the US President election, but soon he canceled his bid and became an independent party instead.

Brad Thor Book Adaptations to Movie or TV Series

The Scot Harvath books are being adapted into a TV series by Steven Lightfoot (who also did Shantaram, Behind Her Eyes, and The Punisher). The deal came together in 2023, just before the WGA strike.

Brad Thor Awards and Nominations

• The Last Patriot – nominated for the ITW Thriller Award in the Best Thriller Of The Year category in 2009
• Blowback – voted and included in the Top 100 “Killer Thrillers” by the National Public Radio (NPR) audience in 2010.
• Backlash – nominated for the Barry Awards in the Best Thriller category in 2020

Authors to Check Out If You Like Brad Thor