Olen Steinhauer Books in Order (All the Old Knives, The Yalta Boulevard Sequence, Milo Weaver)

All of Olen Steinhauer’s Books in Order!

Who is Olen Steinhauer?

Olen Steinhauer is an American author who specializes in spy fiction, being the author of a dozen published books in that genre and being the creator of the TV series Berlin Station, a show about a fictional Central Intelligence Agency branch operating in Berlin.

Olen Steinhauer’s first published book was The Bridge of Sighs, the first of the Ruthenia Quintet, a series of thrillers set during the Cold War. He also wrote the Milo Weaver Series, and several standalone books like All the Old Knives.

How to read Olen Steinhauer’s Books in Order?

The Yalta Boulevard Sequence (aka the Ruthenia Quintet)

1. The Bridge of Sighs (2003) – It’s August, 1948, three years after the Russians “liberated” the nation from German Occupation. But the Red Army still patrols the capital’s rubble-strewn streets, and the ideals of the Revolution are but memories. Twenty-two-year-old Detective Emil Brod finally gets his chance to serve his country, investigating murder for the People’s Militia. The first victim is a state songwriter, but the facts point to a political motive. Emil would like to investigate further, but his colleagues in Homicide are suspicious or silent: He is on his own in this new, dangerous world.
2. The Confession (2004) – Eastern Europe, 1956: Comrade Inspector Ferenc Kolyeszar, who is a proletariat writer in addition to his job as a state militia homicide detective, is a man on the brink. Estranged from his wife, whom he believes is cheating on him with one of his colleagues, and frustrated by writer’s block, Ferenc’s attention is focused on his job. But his job is growing increasingly political, something that makes him profoundly uncomfortable. When Ferenc is asked to look into the disappearance of a party member’s wife and learns some unsavory facts about the party member’s life, the absurdity of his position as an employee of the state is suddenly exposed.
3. 36 Yalta Boulevard (2005) – State Security Officer Brano Sev is the secretive member of the homicide department of the capital’s people’s militia. No one else quite trusts him, but it is part of his job to do what the authorities ask, no matter what. So when he gets an order to travel to the village of his birth in order to interrogate a potential defector, he goes. When a man turns up dead shortly after he arrives, and Brano is framed for the murder, he assumes this is part of the plan and allows it to run its course. But when the plan leads him into exile in Vienna, he finally begins to ask questions.

4. Liberation Movements (2006) – The year is 1975, and one of the People’s Militia homicide investigators is on a plane out of the capital, bound for Istanbul. The plane is hijacked by Armenian terrorists, but before the Turkish authorities can fulfill their demands, the plane explodes in midair. Two investigators—Gavra Noukas, a secret policeman, and Katja Drdova, a homicide detective—are assigned to the case. Both believe that Brano Sev, their enigmatic superior and himself a career secret policeman, is keeping them in the dark both about the details of the case and all its players and about the true motives of their investigation, but they can’t figure out why. That is, until they learn that everything is connected to a seven-year-old murder, a seemingly insignificant murder that has had far-reaching consequences.
5. Victory Square (2007) – The revolutionary politics and chaotic history of life inside Olen Steinhauer’s fictionalized Eastern European country have made his literary crime series, with its two Edgar Award nominations along with other critical acclaim, one of today’s most acclaimed. Finally having reached the tumultuous 1980s, the series comes full circle as one of the earliest cases of the People’s Militia reemerges to torment all of the inspectors, including Emil Brod, now the chief, who was the original detective on the case. His arrest of one of the country’s revolutionary leaders in the late 1940s resulted in the politician’s conviction and imprisonment, but Emil was too young in those days to understand what it meant to go up against someone so powerful-and win. Only now, in 1989, when he is days from retirement and spends more time looking over his shoulder than ahead, does he realize that what he did may get him-and others-killed.

The Milo Weaver Series

Milo Weaver used to be an undercover agent for the CIA with no home and no identity, what is known as a “tourist.” He wanted to leave this life of secrets and lies behind him, preferring a desk job instead. But complex circumstances drag him back to the field, in a web of mysteries. See our Milo Weaver reading order for more information.

1. The Tourist (2009)
2. The Nearest Exit (2010)
3. An American Spy (2012)
4. The Last Tourist (2020)

Standalone novels

• The Cairo Affair (2014) – Sophie Kohl is living a nightmare. Minutes after she confesses to her husband, a mid-level American diplomat in Hungary, that she had an affair while they were in Cairo, he is shot and killed. Stan Bertolli, a Cairo-based CIA agent, has fielded his share of midnight calls. But his heart skips a beat when, this time, he hears the voice of the only woman he ever truly loved ask why her husband has been assassinated. Omar Halawi has worked in Egyptian intelligence for years, and he knows how to play the game. But the murder of a diplomat in Hungary has ripples all the way to Cairo, and Omar must follow the fallout wherever it leads.
• All the Old Knives (2015) – Six years ago in Vienna, terrorists took over a hundred hostages, and the rescue attempt went terribly wrong. The CIA’s Vienna station gathered intel during those tense hours, assimilating facts from the ground and from an agent on the inside. So when it all went wrong, the question had to be asked: Had their agent been compromised, and how? Two of the CIA’s case officers in Vienna, Henry Pelham and Celia Harrison, were lovers at the time, and on the night of the hostage crisis Celia decided she’d had enough. She left the agency, married and had children, and now lives in idyllic Carmel-by-the-Sea. Henry is still a case officer in Vienna, and has traveled to California to see her one more time, to relive the past, maybe, or to put it behind him once and for all. But neither of them can forget that long-ago question: Had their agent been compromised? If so, how? Each also wonders what role tonight’s dinner companion might have played in the way the tragedy unfolded six years ago.
• The Middleman (2018) – One day in the early summer of 2017, about four hundred people disappear from their lives. They leave behind cell phones, credit cards, jobs, houses, families–everything–all on the same day. Where have they gone? Why? The only answer, for weeks, is silence. Kevin Moore is one of them. Former military, disaffected, restless, Kevin leaves behind his retail job in San Francisco, sends a good-bye text to his mother, dumps his phone and wallet into a trash can, and disappears. The movement calls itself the Massive Brigade, and they believe change isn’t coming fast enough to America. But are they a protest organization, a political movement, or a terrorist group? What do they want? The FBI isn’t taking any chances. Special Agent Rachel Proulx has been following the growth of left-wing political groups in the U.S. since the fall of 2016, and is very familiar with Martin Bishop, the charismatic leader of the Massive Brigade. But she needs her colleagues to take her seriously in order to find these people before they put their plan–whatever it is–into action.

If you like Olen Steinhauer, you may also want to check out our guide to John le Carré’s books, a big inspiration for the author. Don’t hesitate to follow us on Twitter or Facebook to discover more book series.