Kirk McGarvey Books in Order: How to read David Hagberg's series?

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David Hagberg’s style has been described as a cross between Tom Clancy and Ian Fleming, so you know who’s gonna save us from the Russians!

What is the Kirk McGarvey series about?

Super-spy Kirk McGarvey is the main protagonist in the techno-thrillers written by the American novelist-and ex-cryptographer for U.S. Air Force Intelligence-David Hagberg since 1989.

When the series began, Kirk McGarvey was a retired CIA assassin, but he couldn’t escape his life in the world of spies and killers.

He still is one the best and when the world needs saving-mostly the USA-he is the first to spring into action.

How to read the Kirk McGarvey Books in Order?

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

Without Honor (1989)
Countdown (1990)
Crossfire (1991)
Critical Mass (1992)
High Flight (1995)
Assassin (1997)
White House (1999)
Joshua’s Hammer (2000)
The Kill Zone (2002)
Soldier of God (2005)
Allah’s Scorpion (2006)
Dance with the Dragon (2007)
The Expediter (2009)
The Cabal (2010)
Abyss (2011)
Castro’s Daughter (2012)
Blood Pact (2014)
Retribution (2015)
The Shadowmen (short story, 2016)
The Fourth Horseman (2016)
24 Hours (short story, 2016)
End Game (2016)
Tower Down (2017)
Flash Points (2018)
Face Off (2018)
First Kill (prequel, 2019)
McGarvey (2020)
Gambit (2021)
Traitor (2022)

What is the plot of the Kirk McGarvey stories?

For more information about the books in the Kirk McGarvey series by David Hagberg, you’ll find below the official synopsis for all the books:

Without Honor – Former CIA agent Kirk McGarvey is living in Lausanne with his girlfriend when a couple of top operatives from “the Company” show up. They desperately need his help as the Russians are up to something and it seems there may be a mole in the upper levels of the United States government. And McGarvey is the only man who can find him…

Countdown – When a U.S. submarine vanishes and a Pershing missile is hijacked, the CIA calls in Kirk McGarvey, who faces his toughest foe in a Russian agent bent on destroying Glasnost.

Crossfire – Russia is in turmoil. As liberals struggle to hold power, the hard-liners in the KGB decide to fund themselves. They will hijack a vital US gold shipment. The first step will be to frame Kirk McGarvey for the bombing of the CIA’s Paris headquarters…

Critical Mass – Kirk McGarvey-one-time CIA assassin-dreams of a peaceful life and marital bliss. One man will change all that. In 1945, Isawa Nakaruma lost his mother and father at Hiroshima, his wife and child at Nagasaki, and has been planning years to wreak his revenge-and he holds Kirk McGarvey personably responsible.

High Flight – The Japanese are ready to strike at our largest industrial export-airplanes. Expert saboteurs continue to strike at our vital industries. Ex-CIA field officer Kirk McGarvey is hired by Guerin Airline Company to investigate a recent rash of accidents and restore the company’s, and America’s, international reputation.

Assassin – Yevgenni Anatolevich Tarankov, known as the tarantula, is out to turn back the clock in the new Russia and return to the good old days of communism. Ex-CIA officer Kirk McGarvey knows that any chance for Russian democracy rests on his shoulders–and on the bullet with the Tarantula’s name on it.

White House – On American soil, a terrorist bomb explodes at a Georgetown restaurant, killing CIA operative Kirk MGarvey’s girlfriend and wounding his daughter. Now Mcgarvey seeks vengeance while at the same time struggling with the growing crisis in the Far East where a mysterious underground nuclear explosion has destroyed a power station off the coast of North Korea.

Joshua’s Hammer – When a one-kiloton Russian nuclear demolition bomb the size of a suitcase ends up in the hands of Osama bin Laden, the entire world sits up and takes notice. And when the USA launches an attack on the terrorist’s base of operation in Afghanistan, killing his daughter, retaliation against America is inevitable. Now, Kirk McGarvey is in for the race of his life, and a race against time.

The Kill Zone – The President of the United States has appointed Kirk McGarvey interim director of the CIA. What should have been the culmination of McGarvey’s career, has activated a twenty-year-old Russian plot sponsored by his former archenemy, General Baranov. Now, McGarvey is in the Kill Zone.

Soldier of God – Suicide bombers are coming to America’s heartland. Their targets: our most precious and vulnerable assets, our children. Following the most terrifying lead of his life, CIA Director Kirk McGarvey traces the threat to a Saudi playboy prince, but the White House wants nothing to do with McGarvey’s assumptions.

Allah’s Scorpion – A swarm of terrorist activity has put the United States on its most heightened alert level since September 11, 2001. Investigations into each of these seemingly unrelated acts uncover the same cryptic codeword: Allah’s Scorpion. Former CIA Director Kirk McGarvey is called into action.

Dance with the Dragon – The body of CIA agent Louis Updegraf ends up on the steps of the US Embassy in Mexico. His last operation was to tap into the communications of the Chinese Embassy. He appeared to be freelancing. When his old friend Otto Rencke asks Kirk McGarvey to help figure out the connection between China and the murdered agent, it takes almost no effort to get McGarvey up and running.

The Expediter – An important Chinese intelligence general on his way to a secret meeting with Kim Jon-Il is assassinated. The two shooters are wearing the uniforms of North Korean police officers. Kim Jong-Il denies any knowledge of the shooting, but the Chinese do not believe him. A colonel in North Korea’s intelligence service shows up in person, asking Kirk McGarvey to prove that North Korea did not authorize the hit.

The Cabal – After meeting with a Washington Post reporter about a shadowy group called the Friday Club, CIA operative Todd Van Buren Givens ―son-in-law of legendary spy Kirk McGarvey―is gunned down. A devastated McGarvey is about to be drawn into the most far-reaching and perilous investigation of his career.

Abyss – NOAA scientist Dr. Eve Larsen is on the verge of a breakthrough. Not only does she have the answers to climate change, she also has the technology to stop killer storms across the planet. Former CIA director Kirk McGarvey follows a trail of assassinations and dirty money that leads to power brokers who will stop at nothing to see Dr. Larsen’s project fail.

Castro’s Daughter – Cuban Intelligence Service Colonel Maria Leon is called to the bedside of the dying Fidel Castro. She is his illegitimate daughter but has never been acknowledged by her father until now. Castro makes her promise to contact Kirk McGarvey to help her on a mysterious quest to find Cibola, the fabled seven cities of Gold.

Blood Pact – A large portion of the fabulous treasure originally stolen by conquistadors of the eighteenth century was buried in the desert of southern New Mexico by Spanish monks. A Catholic priest was sent as a spy on a Spanish military mission to find seven caches left for the Church. He kept a diary showing the locations. Now, a century and a half later, Kirk McGarvey is approached by a shadowy organization that wants the book

Retribution – On May 1, 2011, a team of twenty-four members of US SEAL Team Six swooped down on the compound of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Elements of the government of Pakistan have hired a team of German assassins to kill all twenty-four of the ST6 operators…and only one man stands a chance of stopping them: Kirk McGarvey.

“The Shadowmen” (short story) – Early in his career, Kirk McGarvey came up against the Soviet Union’s deadliest agent three times, finally killing the man. Years have passed. The Russian’s brother, Kurshin, a Spetsnaz operator twenty-five years younger than McGarvey, vows revenge.

The Fourth Horseman – Kirk McGarvey has accepted the most critical contract of his career: kill the most dangerous, heavily protected terrorist alive―a man who is about to hand two hundred Pakistani nukes over to the world’s most frightening terrorists.

“24 Hours” (short story) – The seventeen-year-old daughter of the widowed President of the United States is kidnapped. The kidnapper demand is as simple as it is impossible: The US must immediately begin a ground war in Syria. Kirk McGarvey now has a mission: find the President’s daughter. The problem: He has only twenty-four hours to do it.

End Game – A violently psychopathic assassin is on the loose. His gruesome crimes are not performed at random; a code carved into four copper panels of the legendary statue in a courtyard at CIA headquarters predicts the manner of the killings and their terrible necessity. Only Pete Boylan, Kirk McGarvey, and Otto Rencke, can uncover the truth.

Tower Down – A mercenary killer blows up a pencil tower in Manhattan, sending it crashing down and killing hundreds of people. Kirk McGarvey believes someone in the Saudi Arabian government is behind the attack. McGarvey, his partner Pete Boylan, and Otto Rencke are certain that another attack is imminent.

Flash Points – Kirk McGarvey is taking a much-needed break. Then a bomb in his car explodes just as he’s leaving the vehicle. The men who went after McGarvey are also after the President of the United States. A controversial candidate, he has just won a heated, heavily contested presidential election. Now his enemies are determined to push him out of office.

Face Off – Kirk McGarvey is lunching in the Eiffel Tower when terrorists attempt to bring the Paris icon down. He springs into action to stop the attack, only to find there’s a much larger plot at stake. One that aims to force the incompetent US President out by pitting him against Russia.

First Kill – It is the beginning of Kirk McGarvey’s career as a CIA black ops officer. Fresh out of the Air Force OSI, he receives his first assignment: assassinate a Chilean general known as the Butcher of Valparaiso, a monster who has tortured and killed more than one thousand dissidents at a soccer stadium in Valparaiso.

McGarvey – When Kirk McGarvey investigates the mysterious death of his parents so many years ago, he uncovers long-buried secrets that put him head to head and mano a mano with… Vladimir Putin.

Gambit – An American billionaire and a Russian oligarch want Kirk McGarvey dead. First, they send a South African assassin, and when Mac kills him, they commission a Canadian sniper for the kill. When Mac put him down, they hire a team of highly specialized Chinese killers called “Scorpions.” When Mac dispatches them, they send a squad of Russian special ops armed to the teeth with high-tech firepower.

Traitor – When McGarvey’s best friend, Otto, is charged with treason, Mac and his wife, Petey, set out on a desperate odyssey to clear Otto’s name. Crossing oceans and continents, their journey will take them from Japan to the US to Pakistan to Russia. Caught in a Kremlin crossfire between two warring intel agencies, Mac and Petey must fight for their lives every step of the way.