Nelson DeMille Books in Order (John Corey, The General’s Daughter, The Deserter)

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All of Nelson DeMille’s Books in Order!

Who is Nelson DeMille?

Nelson DeMille is an American author known for his action-adventure and suspense/thriller novels who first got published at the end of the 1970s.

Since then, he wrote a good number of books, some under the pen names Jack Cannon, Kurt Ladner, Ellen Kay, and Brad Matthews.

DeMille is known for multiple series, like the John Corey series, the John Sutter series, or the Joe Ryker series, but also for his standalone books like Spencerville, The Cuban Affair or The Quest.

Three of Nelson DeMille’s novels have been adapted for TV or Cinema: The General’s Daughter, Word of Honor, and Mayday.

How to read Nelson DeMille Books in Order:

Here is the menu for this article as Nelson DeMille wrote multiple series and a lot of standalone novels:

1. The Joe Ryker series
2. The John Sutter Series
3. The Paul Brenner Series
4. The John Corey Series
5. The Scott Brodie Series
6. Nelson DeMille’s Standalone novels

The Joe Ryker series

The first series was written by Nelson DeMille (as Jack Cannon) about a former homicide detective, medically retired from the NYPD with 3 gunshot wounds, who’s now working for the FBI’s Anti-Terrorist Task Force.

The Sniper (1974) – He’s one man with a rifle, choosing his victims at random, killing with the cold skill of a pro. Detective Sergeant Ryker is going in after him: into the sleaze and decay, into the night. Somewhere in the panic-stricken city the killer and the cop will come face to face–and a last deadly battle will be waged…

The Hammer of God (1974) – A man in monk’s robes, The Hammer of God, is butchering women to cleanse the world of witches. And Sergeant Joe Ryker’s committing every sin in the book to cleanse New York of killers.

The Smack Man (1975) – When the brass teams him up with a beautiful detective and a cop posing as her pimp, Ryker’s just along for the ride-until one of his partners ends up dead. Suddenly the big-fisted cop is crashing through Manhattan’s neon hell, rousting every pimp and pusher he can find. He’s on collision course with a killer, an anyone who gets in his way is going to pay the price…

The Cannibal (1975) – Nothing surprises Sgt. Joe Ryker. Not corpses, crimes, nor sin of any kind. But when a beautiful New York call girl personally persuades him to investigate a missing persons report and a severed arm comes bobbing up in the East River, Ryker is in for a surprise. There’s someone more savage than he is in the city, someone who inhabits a nightmare world of blood and gore, someone who kills again and again in a way that goes beyond anyone’s wildest dreams.

The Night of the Phoenix (1975) – In a double-talking world of spies and cold-blooded hit men, Ryker follows a trail of blood and treachery that began in the jungles of Vietnam. He hasn’t yet found the man who’s committing the grisly murders. But the killer will soon take care of that…

The Death Squad (1975) – In South America they call it Mono Blanco: the Death Squad. In New York City they call it justice. At the stationhouse and on stakeout, in a guarded hospital room and a bloody executioner’s chamber, someone is killing criminals–and their pals–in cold blood. Some cops think the killer is Sergeant Joe Ryker. But when the death squad wastes his best friend on the force, Ryker starts dealing out some justice of his own.

The John Sutter Series

The John Sutter series is presented as The Great Gatsby meets The Godfather, a story of friendship and seduction, love and betrayal.

The Gold Coast (1988) – The upmarket and salubrious area of Long Island is the stamping ground for a dying breed of America’s super-rich. It is also the residence of John Sutter, lawyer, and his wife, Susan. Their lives are about to be turned dramatically upside down by their new ‘next-door’ neighbor – a certain Mr. Frank Bellarosa, top Mafia don, and master manipulator. It is he who will impress upon them a rule much older than the archaic etiquette of the old-money set: a favor accepted is a favor owed.

The Gate House (2008) – After ten years away, John Sutter has come home to the Gold Coast to attend the imminent funeral of an old family servant. Taking up temporary residence in the gatehouse of Stanhope Hall, John finds himself living only a quarter of a mile from Susan, who has also returned to Long Island. But Susan isn’t the only person from John’s past who has reemerged. Though Frank Bellarosa, infamous Mafia don and Susan’s ex-lover, is long dead, his son, Anthony, is alive and well, and intent on two missions: drawing John back into the violent world of the Bellarosa family, and exacting revenge on his father’s murderer.

The Paul Brenner Series

Paul Brenner, a criminal investigator/ Special Agent for the United States Army’s Criminal Investigation Division (CID).

The General’s Daughter (1992) – When a professional military woman with a pristine reputation is found raped and murdered, a preliminary search turns up certain paraphernalia, and sex toys that point to a scandal of major proportions, The chief investigator is reluctant to take the case when he learns that his partner will be a woman with whom he had a tempestuous affair and an unpleasant parting. But duty calls and intrigue begins when they learn that several top-level people may have been involved with the “golden girl” – and many have wanted her dead.

Up Country (2001) – Former army homicide investigator Paul Brenner has just gotten used to the early retirement forced on him after the disastrous end of his last case when his old commanding officer asks him to return for one final mission: investigate a murder that took place in wartime Vietnam thirty years before. Brenner reluctantly accepts out of curiosity and loyalty…and maybe a touch of boredom. He won’t be bored for long.

The Panther (2012) – Paul Brenner teams up with John Corey on a case. John Corey and his wife, FBI agent Kate Mayfield, have been posted overseas to Sana’a, Yemen-one of the most dangerous places in the Middle East. While there, they will be working with a small team to track down one of the masterminds behind the USS Cole bombing: a high-ranking Al Qaeda operative known as The Panther.

The John Corey Series

John Corey is a former homicide detective. He is medically retired from the NYPD with 3 gunshot wounds. He ended up in Long Island where his career took an unexpected turn. He’s now working for the FBI’s Anti-Terrorist Task Force.

For more information, about the plot of the books in the John Corey series, take a look at our article dedicated to the series.

0. The Bookcase (2012) – A Prequel Novella.
1. Plum Island (1997)
2. The Lion’s Game (2000)
3. Night Fall (2004)
4. Wild Fire (2006)
5. The Lion (2010)
6. The Panther (2012)
7. Radiant Angel (2015)
8. The Maze (2022)

• Getaway (short story) – Part of the anthology MatchUp offering a team-up between two famous characters from popular series.

The Scott Brodie Series

Written with Alex Demille.

1. The Deserter (2019) – When Captain Kyle Mercer of the Army’s elite Delta Force disappeared from his post in Afghanistan, a video released by his Taliban captors made international headlines. But circumstances were murky: did Mercer desert before he was captured? Then a second video sent to Mercer’s Army commanders leaves no doubt: the trained assassin and keeper of classified Army intelligence has disappeared.
2. Blood Lines (2023) – Army Criminal Investigation Agents Scott Brodie and Maggie Taylor have been separated for five months following their last assignment, a dangerous mission in Venezuela to locate and detain an infamous Army deserter. Now, in Berlin, they are reunited and tasked with investigating the murder of one of their own: CID Special Agent Harry Vance of the 5th MP Battalion, an accomplished counterterrorism agent who had been stationed in western Germany, and whose body was discovered in a city park in the heart of Berlin’s Arab refugee community.

Nelson DeMille’s Standalone novels

The Quest (1975, re-released 2013) – Civil war rages in Ethiopia. A priest waits to die in a parched prison cell; he has not seen daylight for four decades. But then a mortar shell hits the compound, and the prisoner and his secret are free. Two reporters and a beautiful photographer save this wounded man, who tells them something too incredible to believe: the location of the Holy Grail. Thus begins an impossible quest that will pit them against murderous tribes, deadly assassins, fanatical monks, and ultimately, themselves.

Hitler’s Children (1976) (written as by Kurt Ladner) – The True story of Nazi Human stud farms. During the 1930’s the Nazis wanted to turn the German population into a superace through selective breeding. Thousands of carefully selected German women encouraged to have sexual intercourse with SS men, were considered the racial and political elite of the Reich. But the Nazis also carried out wholesale kidnapping of hundreds of thousands of foreign children for the purpose of adding to Germany’s breeding stock. This is the story of one of the most grotesque crimes in history.

Killer Sharks (1976) (written as by Brad Matthews) – During WWII, Brad Matthews watched in horror as hundreds of his comrades on the torpedoed Indianapolis were torn to shreds by ravenous killer sharks. From then on, the young oceanographer vowed to devote his life to the study of nature’s most perfect killing machine.

By the Rivers of Babylon (1978) – Lod Airport, Israel: Two Concorde jets take off for a U.N. conference that will finally bring peace to the Middle East. Covered by F-14 fighters, accompanied by security men, the planes carry warriors, pacifists, lovers, enemies, dignitaries – and a bomb planted by a terrorist mastermind. Suddenly they’re forced to crash-land at an ancient desert site. Here, with only a handful of weapons, the men and women of the peace mission must make a desperate stand against an army of crack Palestinian commandos – while the Israeli authorities desperately attempt a rescue mission.

Mayday (1979) (written with Thomas H Block) – Twelve miles above the Pacific Ocean, a missile strikes a jumbo passenger jet and leaves the flight crew either crippled or dead. This is the story of how three survivors must achieve the impossible and land the plane. Master storyteller Nelson DeMille and veteran pilot Thomas Block collaborated on Mayday, the most terrifyingly realistic air disaster thriller of all time.

Cathedral (1981) – St. Patrick’s Day, New York City. Everyone is celebrating, but everyone is in for the shock of his life. IRA man Brian Flynn has masterminded a brilliant terrorist act – the seizure of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. Among his hostages: the woman Brian Flynn once loved, a former terrorist turned peace activist. Among his enemies: an Irish-American police lieutenant fighting against a traitor inside his own ranks and a shadowy British intelligence officer pursuing his own cynical, bloody plan. The cops face a booby-trapped, perfectly laid out killing zone inside the church.

The Talbot Odyssey (1984) – For 40 years Western intelligence agents have known a terrible secret: the Russians have a mole – code-named Talbot – inside the CIA. At first Talbot is suspected of killing European agents. Then a street-smart ex-cop uncovers a storm of espionage and murder on the streets of New York, while in a Long Island suburb a civic demonstration against the Russian mission masks a desperate duel of nerves and wits.

A Word of Honor (1985) – He is a good man, a brilliant corporate executive, an honest, handsome family man admired by men and desired by women. But a lifetime ago Ben Tyson was a lieutenant in Vietnam.There the men under his command committed a murderous atrocity — and together swore never to tell the world what they had done. Now the press, army justice, and the events he tried to forget have caught up with Ben Tyson. His family, his career, and his personal sense of honor hang in the balance. And only one woman can reveal the truth of his past — and set him free.

The Charm School (1988) – On a dark road deep inside the Russian woods at Borodino, a young American tourist picks up an unusual passenger with an explosive secret: an U.S. POW on the run from “The Charm School,” a sinister operation where American POWs teach young KBG agents how to be model U.S. citizens. Their goal? To infiltrate the United States undetected. With this horrifying conspiracy revealed, the CIA sets an investigation in motion.

Spencerville (1994) – Back from the Cold War, intelligence officer Keith Landry returns to his hometown of Spencerville, Ohio. Twenty-five years after their last encounter, Keith runs into his first love, Annie, now unhappily married to the town’s chief of police – an abusive alcoholic. In his efforts to reclaim Annie, Keith will have to draw on all the skills of a violent lifetime.

The Cuban Affair (2017) – Daniel ‘Mac’ MacCormick has a good life. Aged 35 and a decorated US Army veteran, he whiles away his life in stunning Key West, Florida, running a 42 foot charter fishing boat, The Maine. A ladies’ man and rule breaker, Mac has it all – apart from the money to hold on to his beloved boat. Then Mac is approached by a hotshot Miami lawyer called Carlos with an apparently irresistible offer: a fee of $2 million to run the boat into Havana and smuggle out $60 million from a stash hidden from the Castro government – cash once owned by the family of a beautiful Cuban American woman named Sara Ortega.

What should you read if you like Nelson Demille’s novels?

If you like reading Nelson Demille’s stories, you may be interested in Joseph Finder, Stephen White, Brad Thor, Dan Brown…

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