John Wells Books in Order: How to read Alex Berenson’s series?

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Written by American author and former reporter for The New York Times Alex Berenson, the John Wells series is about a CIA agent named John Wells–as you may have guessed. In this spy thriller series, John Wells spent the formative years of his CIA career under deep cover with al-Qaeda, his success costing him the trust of his handlers. Now, he works to clean up corruption from foreign governments, as well as his own.

How to read the John Wells Series in Order?

Every entry in the John Wells book series works as a standalone story, but the lives of the different characters evolve from one novel to the other.

  1. The Faithful Spy – Years ago, John Wells was an all-American boy from Montana. Now, he is roaming the mountains of Pakistan as a member of al Qaeda. After a decade away from home, he despises the United States for its decadence. He hates America’s shallow, mindless culture of vice and violence. He is a devout Muslim. He is a brave warrior for Allah. He is a CIA operative. And he is coming home…
  2. The Ghost War – John Wells barely survived his homecoming when it was thought he’d become too close to the terrorists. Though his wounds have healed, his mind is far from clear. He needs to get back in the fight. And there is a fight waiting for him. A power play in China is causing chaos around the globe. And even as Wells does what he does best, a mole within the CIA is preparing to light the final fuse that will propel an unsuspecting world toward open war and annihilation.
  3. The Silent Man – CIA agent John Wells has spent years in the company of evil men. He’s paid the price and is beginning to doubt if he can ever live a normal life. And when a powerful adversary from his past finds him, Wells must once again enter the fray. For his country. For his soul. For revenge.
  1. The Midnight House – One morning, a former CIA agent is shot to death in the street. That night, an army vet is gunned down in his doorway. The next day, John Wells gets a phone call. Come to Langley. Now. The victims were part of an interrogation team that operated out of a secret base in Poland called the Midnight House, where they worked over the toughest jihadis, extracting information by any means necessary. Now Wells must find out who is killing them.
  2. The Secret Soldier – In Saudi Arabia, a series of terrorist attacks has put the Kingdom on edge. King Abdullah is losing his hold, and his own secret police cannot be trusted. With nowhere to turn, the king asks for ex-CIA agent John Wells’s help. Reluctantly, and with the secret blessing of his former boss, Wells begins to unravel the conspiracy, and realizes that there is more than one country at stake.
  3. The Shadow Patrol – In late 2009, CIA officers in Afghanistan’s Kabul station allowed a Jordanian doctor into their closest confidence. In truth, the doctor was an al-Qaeda double agent-and when he blew himself up, the station’s most senior officers died with him. Years later, the station still hasn’t recovered. Recruiting has dried up and the agency’s best sources are being eliminated. The CIA’s chiefs begin to suspect the worst: somehow, the Taliban has infiltrated the station. They ask John Wells to investigate.
  1. The Night Ranger – When four young volunteers in Kenya decide to take a break from working at a Somali refugee camp, they pile into a Land Cruiser for an adventure. But they get more than they bargained for when they are kidnapped. They wake up in a hut, hooded, bound, no food or water. Hostages. John Wells is asked to try to find them.
  2. The Counterfeit Agent – In an Istanbul hotel, a deep source warns a CIA agent that Iran intends to kill a CIA station chief. Quickly, John Wells is called in to investigate, but before he can get far, the tip comes true. Which means that the next warning the source gives will be taken very seriously indeed. And it’s a big one. A radioactive one. As the threat level jumps and the government mobilizes, Wells must figure out what’s really going on.
  3. Twelve Days – John Wells, with his former CIA bosses Ellis Shafer and Vinny Duto, have uncovered a staggering plot, a false-flag operation to drive the United States and Iran into war. But they have no proof and only twelve days to find a way to stop the headlong momentum. They fan out, from Switzerland to Saudi Arabia, Israel to Russia, desperately trying to tease out the clues in their possession. And meanwhile, the forces gather.
  1. The Wolves – John Wells has just barely managed to stop an operation designed to drive the United States and Iran into war, but the instigator himself disappeared behind an impenetrable war of security. Now it’s time for him to pay, and Wells has made it his personal mission.
  2. The Prisoner – Evidence is mounting that someone high up in the CIA is doing the unthinkable-passing messages to ISIS, alerting them to planned operations. Finding out the mole’s identity without alerting him, however, will be very hard, and to accomplish it, Wells will have to do something he thought he’d left behind forever. He will have to reassume his former identity as an al Qaeda jihadi, get captured, and go undercover to befriend an ISIS prisoner in a secret Bulgarian prison.
  3. The Deceivers – The target was the American Airlines Center, the home of the Dallas Mavericks. The FBI had told Ahmed Shakir that his drug bust would go away if he helped them, and they’d supply all the weaponry, carefully removing the firing pins before the main event. It never occurred to Ahmed to doubt them, until it was too late. When John Wells is called to Washington, he’s sure it’s to investigate the carnage in Dallas, but it isn’t. Vinnie Duto has plenty of people working in Texas. He wants Wells to go to Colombia. An old asset there has information to share.

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