Isaac Bell Books in Order: How to read Clive Cussler’s series?

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The main character in a crime/adventure series written by Clive Cussler/Justin Scott branded books, Isaac Bell is a detective at the beginning of the 20th century. More precisely, Isaac Bell is an investigator working for the VanDorn Detective Agency (loosely based on the famous Pinkertons). Of course, he also seeks the truth and stops criminals.

Following Clive Cussler’s death, the series didn’t stop as Jack Du Brul (who was already credited as co-author on two previous books) continued to write Isaac Bell’s adventures

How To Read The Isaac Bell Series in Order?

The novels of the Isaac Bell book series were not published in chronological order. This article is in two parts. The first is the publication order, and the second (at the end of the page) is the chronological order.

I. The Isaac Bell Books in Publication Order

  1. The Chase – In 1906, the western states of America suffer a string of bank robberies by a single man who then cold-bloodedly murders any and all witnesses, and vanishes without a trace. Fed up by the depredations of “The Butcher Bandit,” the U.S. government brings in the best man it can find: a tall, lean, no-nonsense detective named Isaac Bell, who has caught thieves and killers from coast to coast. But Bell has never had a challenge like this one.
  2. The Wrecker – Desperate for help the Southern Pacific Railroad hires the fabled Van Dorn Detective Agency. Van Dorn’s best man, Isaac Bell, quickly discovers a mysterious saboteur haunting the hobo jungles of the West. Known only as the Wrecker, he recruits vulnerable accomplices from the down-and-out to attack the railroad and then kills them afterward. Who is he? What does he want?
  3. The Spy – 1908 marks a year of ever-escalating international tension as the world plunges toward war. And with America on the brink, it comes as a devastating blow to learn of the apparent suicide of one of the United States’ most brilliant battleship-gun designers. The death becomes a media sensation, and the man’s grief-stricken daughter turns to Isaac Bell to clear her father’s name.
  1. The Race – It is 1910, the age of flying machines is still in its infancy, and newspaper publisher Preston Whiteway is offering $50,000 for the first daring aviator to cross America in less than fifty days. He is even sponsoring one of the prime candidates-an intrepid woman named Josephine Frost-and that’s where Isaac Bell, chief investigator for the Van Dorn Detective Agency, comes in.
  2. The Thief – It’s 1910 and Isaac Bell, along with fellow Van Dorn detective, Archie Abbott, is escorting a Wall Street stock swindler to his trial in New York aboard the ocean liner Mauretania. Pair intend to enjoy the open sea and make use of the leisure time to plan Bell’s wedding to Miss Marion Morgan, but are forced to change plans when two European scientists are nearly abducted and forced overboard. Bell springs into action just in time to stop the kidnapping, but his new charges are convinced they are still at risk.
  3. The Striker – It is 1902, and a bright, inexperienced young man named Isaac Bell, only two years out of his apprenticeship at the Van Dorn Detective Agency, has an urgent message for his boss. Hired to hunt for radical unionist saboteurs in the coal mines, he is witness to a terrible accident that makes him think something else is going on…that provocateurs are at work and bigger stakes are in play.
  1. The Bootlegger – It is 1921, and Prohibition is in full swing-even as millions still imbibe and ruthless criminals get rich overnight by selling them booze. Cops, Feds, and Coast Guardsmen are all susceptible to bribery. But when Isaac Bell’s boss and lifelong friend Joseph Van Dorn is shot and near-fatally wounded while chasing bootleggers, he enters the fray.
  2. The Assassin – As Isaac Bell strives to land a government contract to investigate John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil monopoly, the case takes a deadly turn. A sniper begins murdering opponents of Standard Oil, and soon the assassin-shooting with extraordinary accuracy at seemingly impossible long range-kills Bell’s best witness. Then the shooter detonates a terrible explosion that sets the victim’s independent refinery ablaze.
  3. The Gangster – It is 1906, and in New York City, the Italian crime group known as the Black Hand is on a spree: kidnapping, extortion, arson. They like to take the oldest tricks and add dynamite. When a coalition of the Black Hand’s victims hire out the Van Dorn agency to protect their businesses, their reputations, and their families, Detective Isaac Bell forms a crack squad and begins scouring the city for clues. And then he spots a familiar face.
  1. The Cutthroat – The year is 1911. Chief Investigator Isaac Bell of the Van Dorn Detective Agency has had many extraordinary cases before. But none quite like this. Hired to find a young woman named Anna Pape who ran away from home to become an actress, Bell gets a shock when her murdered body turns up instead. Vowing to bring the killer to justice, he begins a manhunt that leads him into increasingly more alarming territory. Anna was not alone in her fate–petite young blond women like Anna are being murdered in cities across America.
  2. Titanic Secret (Crossover with the Dirk Pitt Series) – In the present day, NUMA Director Dirk Pitt makes a daring rescue from inside an antiquated submersible in the waters off New York City. His reward afterward is a document left behind a century earlier by legendary detective Isaac Bell… In 1911, in Colorado, Isaac Bell is asked to look into an unexplained tragedy at Little Angel Mine, in which nine people died. His dangerous quest to answer the riddle leads to a larger puzzle centered on byzanium, a rare element with extraordinary powers and of virtually incalculable value.
  3. The Saboteurs – Isaac Bell’s wife has said that he is always in the wrong place at the right time. This is certainly the case when Bell thwarts the assassination of a U.S. Senator shortly after meeting the man. This heroic rescue is just the start of the mystery for Bell, who suspects that the would-be assassins have a much larger and more dangerous agenda–one involving the nearly-constructed Panama Canal. While the senator supports the building of the canal, there are many, including a local Panamanian insurgency known as the Red Vipers, who never want to see its completion.
  1. The Sea Wolves (written by Jack Du Brul) – As New England swelters in the summer of 1914, Detective Isaac Bell is asked to investigate the disappearance of a cache of rifles-only to discover something much more sinister. Whoever broke into this Winchester Factory wasn’t looking to take weapons, they wanted to leave something in the shipping crates: a radio transmitter, set to summon a fleet of dreaded German U-boats. Someone is trying to keep American supplies from reaching British shores, and if Bell doesn’t crack the conspiracy in time, the Atlantic Ocean will run red with blood.
  2. The Heist (written by Jack Du Brul) – In the summer of 1914, Isaac Bell attends a private meeting on Woodrow Wilson’s presidential yacht, as Wilson addresses the newly launched regional Federal Reserve banks. Just after Wilson introduces a plan for new currency notes, the yacht comes under attack from a bi-wing airplane. Bell shoots down the plane with a machine gun and saves everyone aboard, but the attack was only the first of his problems.

II. The Isaac Bell Books in Chronological Order of Events

  1. The Striker (1902)
  2. The Assassin (1905)
  3. The Chase (1906)
  4. The Gangster (1906)
  5. The Wrecker (1907)
  6. The Spy (1908)
  7. The Race (1910)
  8. The Thief (1910)
  9. The Cutthroat (1911)
  10. Titanic Secret (1911)
  11. The Saboteurs (1914)
  12. The Sea Wolves (1914)
  13. The Heist (1914)
  14. The Bootlegger (1921)

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5 Comments

  1. The striker is not number 10, but the first one in the series. I read the series and realize that Striker is the first one. Needs to be corrected. The year is 1902, not 1912.

    1. Yes, indeed. I wrote 1902 in the publication order, but 1912 in the chronological order! Sorry for that, I just updated the list to correct it. And thanks for your comment.

  2. Would it be okay to gift someone a book in the middle of the series without them reading any others? or would it not make any sense?

  3. Just started reading the Isaac Bell series with ‘The Sea Wolves’…Jan. ’23…. Surprised to find a good little page Turner.

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