David Slaton Books in Order: How to read Ward Larsen’s series?

Written by American writer Ward Larsen, David Slaton is a thriller book series published since 2006. The story centers on David Slaton, a native-born Israeli who has been trained by Mossad to be the perfect assassin. When the series began, Slaton became a target of his former employers and used his skills to survive and uncover a dangerous conspiracy. This led him to become a premier operative for the CIA. His preparation is meticulous, and his marksmanship is unparalleled. The one thing he never saw coming–a wife, a son, and a past he can’t escape.

How to read the David Slaton Series in Order?

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

1. Assassin’s Dawn – Prequel published before Assassin’s Edge. Recruited out of university, Slaton has excelled in training, and is proving highly effective in the operational world. The motivation behind his success is clear to those who know the truth: three years earlier, the two people he held dearest fell victim to a terror attack. The killer responsible, Ramzi Tayeb, has proved maddeningly elusive. Then a chance: a Mossad operation in Central Europe aims to steal information from Ramzi’s brother, a terrorist financier who could lead to the shadowed extremist. Slaton takes the lead, but a mission to hack the man’s laptop goes horribly wrong. Slaton is withdrawing his team to safety when new information arises. Ramzi himself may soon appear. And so a new mission is born, one that is run not by Mossad, but by the most lethal operative it has ever created-an assassin destined to become a legend.

2. The Perfect Assassin – Christine Palmer, a young American doctor sailing solo across the Atlantic, makes an incredible discovery-a man narrowly clinging to his life in the frigid waters. But there is much more to this desperate survivor than meets the eye. David Slaton is a Kidon-a highly-trained, highly-precise, and highly-dangerous assassin. The Kidon is both the hunter and the hunted, and he and Christine are in grave danger. Will they win in this race against time?
3. Assassin’s Game – David Slaton has a good life. He has a new wife and a house in the Virginia suburbs. But he also has a dark past. Slaton is a former kidon, the most lethal Israeli assassin ever created. After decades of work, a brilliant scientist has taken Iran to the threshold of its dream―a nuclear-tipped ballistic missile. Mossad must eliminate the man, but with a spy lurking high in its ranks there is only one option: bring back Slaton. The kidon has vowed to never kill again, but when his wife is attacked and forced to flee across Europe, events force his hand.
4. Assassin’s Silence – When it comes to disappearing, David Slaton has few equals. So when an assault team strikes, Slaton is taken by surprise. He kills one man and manages to escape. Half a world away, in the baleful heat of the Amazon, an obscure air cargo company purchases a derelict airliner. Teams of mechanics work feverishly to make the craft airworthy. On the first flight, the jet plunges toward the ocean. The CIA assesses the two spectacles: a practiced killer leaving a trail of bodies across Europe, and a large airplane disappearing without a trace. The two affairs are increasingly seen to be intertwined. Langley realizes the killer is a man long thought to be dead, and the lost airliner has been highly modified into a tool of unimaginable terror. When their worst fears are realized, Langley must trust the one man who can save them: David Slaton, the perfect assassin.

5. Assassin’s Code – Former assassin David Slaton discovers a cryptic message: on a memory stick, a photograph of the man who will soon assume command of DGSI, France’s elite counterterrorism force. With that country reeling under a wave of ISIS attacks, Zavier Baland will be trusted to make the Republic safe again. The problem-Slaton has seen Baland’s face before. He is Ali Samir, a terrorist Slaton is certain he killed fifteen years earlier. Unable to reconcile this frightening disconnect, he attempts to raise the alarm. Slaton keeps a breakneck pace, traveling to Tel Aviv, Paris, and the deserts of Syria. In the end he uncovers a labyrinthine plot-and one that only he can stop.
6. Assassin’s Run – When a Russian oligarch is killed by a single bullet on his yacht off the Isle of Capri, Russian intelligence sources speculate that a legendary Israeli assassin, long thought dead, might be responsible. However, David Slaton―the assassin in question―is innocent. Realizing the only way to clear his name is to find out who’s truly responsible, he travels to Capri. From Switzerland to the Red Sea to Morocco, Slaton gradually uncovers a conspiracy of monumental scope. It is a plot that will change the world’s strategic order―and one that goes straight to the top of the Russian government.
7. Assassin’s Revenge – On a sunny dock in Gibraltar, Slaton returns to the sailboat he shares with his wife and young son to find them missing. The only clue to their whereabouts is a cryptic message: If he wants to see them again, he must eliminate an obscure scientist working for the International Atomic Energy Agency. Slaton races to Vienna to unravel the scheme. Soon enough, Slaton finds himself entangled in a deadly nuclear game. Working against him are a band of suicidal terrorists, supported by a North Korean government that is about to implode. That slate of actors, however, face something even more lethal: a devoted father and husband―one who happens to be the perfect assassin.

8. Assassin’s Strike – In a Syrian palace, the presidents of Russia and Iran undertake a clandestine meeting. No staff or advisors are permitted in the room. No records are kept. By necessity, however, there are two witnesses: the interpreters. The Russian, Ludmilla Kravchuk, returns to her hotel room burdened by what she has heard. When her Iranian counterpart is murdered before her eyes, Kravchuk fears she is next and goes into hiding in Syria. The CIA gets word of the defection. Desperate to uncover the purpose of the meeting, they task their newest off-the-books operator―legendary assassin David Slaton―to undertake a daring rescue.
9. Assassin’s Edge – A U.S. spy plane crashes off the northern coast of Russia at the same time that a Mossad operative is abducted from a street in Kazakhstan. The two events seem unrelated, but as suspicions rise, the CIA calls in its premier operative, David Slaton. When wreckage from the aircraft is discovered on a remote Arctic island, Slaton and a team are sent on a clandestine mission to investigate. While they comb a frigid Russian island at the top of the world, disaster strikes yet again: a U.S. Navy destroyer sinks in the Black Sea. Evidence begins mounting that these disparate events are linked, and controlled by an unseen hand. A mysterious source, code name Lazarus, provides tantalizing clues about another impending strike. Yet Lazarus has an agenda that is deeply personal, a thirst for revenge against a handful of clandestine operators. Prime among them: David Slaton.
10. Assassin’s Mark – With the help of CIA operative David Slaton, America has shaken off a series of high-tech attacks. Then, just as the threat seems to have receded, the most brazen strike of all: Marine One is brought down in the heart of the capital. The president survives the crash, but is clinging to life by a thread. Once again, Slaton gets the call. With limitless backing from the CIA, the agency’s most lethal assassin is dispatched halfway around the world. But as his mission nears completion, he finds himself targeted by a talented adversary, a ruthless young assassin who moves like a ghost, and whose motives are unclear.

If you like our article about reading David Slaton reading order, don’t forget to bookmark it! You may also be interested in the books of Robert Ludlum, Vince Flynn, and Brad Thor.