Pike Logan Books in Order: How to read Brad Taylor’s series?

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Ex-Delta Force Commander and Assistant Professor of Military Science, Brad Taylor is now the author of the Pike Logan Series (and the short stories “taskforces” taking place in the same universe). After a 21-year-career, Taylor retired and started a new one, this time as a writer. He published his first book, “One Rough Man,” in 2011 and found immediate success, launching the Pike Logan series.

The story of the Pike Logan series resolves around Nephilim “Pike” Logan is an agent and one of the founding fathers of the Task Force, a secret group of elite agents controlled by the National Security Council. After losing his family, Logan was pushed out. That’s when he met the young Jennifer Cahill. She saved his life, he did the same soon after. They ended up forming a good team, working for their own company, and helping the Task Force by taking on complicated missions.

How to read the Pike Logan Series in Order?

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

  1. One Rough Man – Pike Logan was the most successful operator on the Taskforce – until a personal tragedy. Pike knows what the rest of the country might not want to admit: The real threat is one or two men, controlled by ideology, operating independently, in possession of a powerful weapon. Buried in a stack of intercepted chatter is evidence of two such men. Too bad for them, Pike Logan has nothing left to lose.
  2. The Dig (short story) – Pike Logan has been given the chance to rejoin the Taskforce. But before he becomes an operator again, he’s determined to get Jennifer Cahill into the Taskforce as well, though no one else seems willing to give a female civilian a shot.
  3. All Necessary Force – A shadowy trail leads the Taskforce to Egypt – where an attack leaves one member dead and another barely alive. Pike Logan and his young partner, Jennifer Cahill, are forced to helm the increasingly convoluted and dangerous mission: a mission that tests both Jennifer’s ability to justify her actions, and Pike’s tenuous ability to stay in control.
  4. The Callsign (short story) – It’s a Prequel, but it’s probably better to be familiar with pike before reading it. While executing a full mission profile exercise on U.S. soil, a target of opportunity appears before the Taskforce is deemed mission capable. Forced to execute, Pike and his team are sent to Yemen to track their first real target. The future of the Taskforce depends on their success, but when Pike is challenged by one of his own, their clear-cut mission teeters on the brink of disaster.
  5. Enemy of Mine – A tentative peace between Israel and Palestine has been brokered by the United States. But the Taskforce hears of an assassination attempt on the American envoy sent to solidify the treaty. The Taskforce must devote every resource to saving his life – and preventing another bloody outbreak of violence.
  6. Gut Instinct (short story) – With his injuries on the mend, Pike is forced to let Jennifer take the lead when another Taskforce team asks for her help. But when her stint spying on two women suspected of involvement in a terrorist plot leads her in another direction, the team leader won’t take her seriously.
  7. The Widow’s Strike – Invented by nature and genetically manipulated by man, a highly lethal virus has just fallen into the wrong hands. Angered by sanctions placed against its nuclear program, a rogue state is determined to release the virus.
  8. Black Flag (short story) – On leave after a dangerous mission with the Taskforce, operators Knuckles and Brett have joined Pike Logan and Jennifer Cahill in Charleston, South Carolina. Their goal is to learn more about Grolier Recovery Services, the archeological research agency that the Taskforce team uses as sophisticated cover for their work.
  1. The Polaris Protocol – As an investigative reporter working on the Mexican drug cartels, Jack Cahill has unknowingly gotten caught between two rival groups. His desperate call to his sister is his last before he’s kidnapped. In their efforts to rescue Jack, Pike and Jennifer uncover a plot much more insidious than illegal drug trafficking.
  2. The Recruit (short story) – When Taskforce operator Knuckles brings his old friend Decoy to Lima, Peru, he wonders if he’s made a mistake. Knuckles’ only objective is to assess Decoy’s covert surveillance skills on an orientation deployment, the final step before any recruit is accepted into the extralegal counterterrorist organization known as the Taskforce.
  3. Days of Rage – Intent on embroiling the US in a quagmire that will sap its economy and drain its legitimacy, Russia passes a potential weapon of mass destruction to Boko Haram, an extreme Islamic sect in Nigeria. Trying to uncover who might be stalking them, Pike Logan and the Taskforce have no idea what has been set in motion.
  4. No Fortunate Son – When veteran operator Pike Logan and partner Jennifer Cahill receive a letter from the umbrella cover company for their real employer, the Taskforce – they expect orders for their next mission. Instead, they learn that their latest actions have gotten them fired.
  5. The Insider Threat – While world powers combat ISIS on the battlefield, a different threat is set in motion by the group. Off the radar of every Western intelligence organization, they intend to commit an act of unimaginable barbarity. Only Pike Logan and the Taskforce stand in the way of an attack no one anticipates.
  1. The Forgotten Soldier – A Special Forces soldier is killed on an operation in Afghanistan, and complicit in the attack is a government official of an allied nation. While the US administration wants to forget the casualty, one Taskforce member will not. When he sets out to avenge his brother’s death, his actions threaten to not only expose the Taskforce’s activities. Pike Logan understands the desire, but also the danger.
  2. Ghosts of War – Pike Logan and Jennifer Cahill travel to Poland, hired to verify artifacts hidden for decades in a fabled Nazi gold train, only to find themselves caught amid growing tensions between East and West. On the brink of war, Pike and Jennifer discover that there is a separate agenda in play.
  3. The Target (short story) – 1998. A year after a disastrous mission in Amman, Jordan, Israeli operative Aaron Bergman and his Samson team feel more like outcasts than ever. Fearful that his team is about to be disbanded, Aaron is thrown another curve: a cast-off operative named Shoshana, who nobody in the Mossad trusts, and who all feel is a traitor.
  4. Ring of Fire – When the Panama Papers burst onto the public scene, the data theft has left the Taskforce potentially vulnerable, leaving a trail that could compromise the unit. Back in the good graces of the new president, Pike Logan and Jennifer Cahill are ordered to interdict the next leak as well, in order to control the damage.
  5. The Infiltrator (short story) – Taskforce operators Pike Logan and Jennifer Cahill are used to traveling all over the world for counterterrorist missions, but this time they’re in the Old City of Jerusalem under happier circumstances. Their friends Aaron and Shoshana, former operatives with Israeli Mossad, are getting married.
  6. Operator Down – Beginning to untangle a web that extends through both the American and Israeli intelligence community, Pike is forced to choose between his Israeli friends and his Taskforce mission, even as the execution of a coup begins to form.
  7. The Ruins (short story) – Deep in the Maya Biosphere Reserve, a huge protected tract of rainforest in northern Guatemala, lies the mythical Temple of Priests. Only one man knew of the temple’s location, but he was killed before he could relay the coordinates. Now, newly reinstated Taskforce operator Pike Logan has the grid location of the ruins, and he’s convinced Jennifer Cahill to travel to Guatemala in search of the Mayan temple her uncle died trying to find.
  1. Daughter of War – Hot on the trail of a North Korean looking to sell sensitive US intelligence to the Syrian regime, Pike Logan and the Taskforce stumble upon something much graver: the sale of a lethal substance called Red Mercury. Unbeknownst to the Taskforce, the Syrians plan to use the weapon of mass destruction against American and Kurdish forces, and blame the attack on terrorists.
  2. Exit Fee (novella) – Pike Logan and Jennifer Cahill are no strangers to international conflict, but this time they’re facing a threat much closer to home. Amena, the young Syrian refugee they have taken into their care, is having trouble settling into her new life in South Carolina. As they all struggle to figure out the bounds of their new life, a fight with Pike sends Amena running to the streets of Charleston, where she befriends a girl and her Serbian guardian who may not be as harmless as they seem.
  3. Hunter Killer – While Pike Logan and Jennifer Cahill prepare to join their team on a counter-terrorist mission in the triple frontier-the lawless tri-border region where Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay meet-they are targeted in Charleston, South Carolina. A vicious explosion kills a friend, and the perpetrators have set it up to look like an accident. While the authorities believe this was not foul play, Pike knows the attack was meant for him.
  4. American Traitor – Whilst aiding an ex-Taskforce member on the run from Chinese agents, Pike Logan uncovers a plan to bait Taiwan into all-out war by destabilizing their government and manipulating their artificial intelligence controlled defence system. With the threat of conflict reaching boiling point, Logan alone realises that all is not what it seems.
  5. End of Days – When a paragliding trip over the picturesque mountains of Switzerland results in the brutal murder of the former head of Israeli intelligence, Mossad brings in terrorist hunters Aaron and Shoshana to investigate. But they’ll need help to find out who was behind the attack and what they’re planning next. Taskforce operators Pike Logan and Jennifer Cahill have been trapped in Charleston, South Carolina during COVID-19, so when Aaron and Shoshana show up on their doorstep with Israeli passports and a new mission, they jump at the chance to assist their friends.

 

  1. The Devil’s Ransom – Afghanistan has fallen. Taskforce operative Pike Logan’s mission is to extract a man who has done more for the US in Afghanistan than perhaps anyone else. But Logan’s goal is jeopardized when a ransomware attack hits every entity in the Taskforce. And when a connection is discovered between the hack and the Taliban, Logan is tasked with hunting the perpetrators down. He has no idea that this was just a test run, and that the real attack is coming soon, engendered by a former NSA specialist in the US Government, who wants to return to the bipolar world of the Cold War.
  2. The Honeymoon Heist (novella) – Between the delectable meals, the gorgeous Mediterranean seaside, and historical sites, Pike and Jennifer are enjoying their time with Amena in the Italian village of Positano, grateful for the reprieve from their day jobs—protecting U.S. interests from terrorist threats. But their relaxing vacation runs into trouble when Amena and Pike uncover what appears to be a priceless Renaissance painting hidden in a grotto and soon find themselves in the center of a black market art scheme.
  3. Dead Man’s Hand – To finally end the war between their nations, a rogue band of Ukranian partisans known as the Wolves teams up with members of Russia’s military intelligence to assassinate Vladimir Putin. But Putin is aware of the traitors in his midst and assigns the loyal commander of the Russian National Guard to root them out. It’s a mission Victor Petrov is expected to undertake after he prevents Sweden from joining NATO—by assassinating a deputy minister of foreign affairs. After receiving intelligence about the threat in Sweden, the United States sends Pike Logan to identify Petrov’s target—only for him to get caught in the crossfire between Putin’s agents and the Wolves. When the smoke clears, Pike makes no effort to stop the Wolves on their ultimate mission, believing it just, until he discovers that their operation has unimaginable consequences.

If you like the Pike Logan reading order, you may also want to see our guide to the Mitch Rapp series, or the Scot Harvath books. Don’t hesitate to follow us on Twitter or Facebook to discover more book series.

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10 Comments

  1. I read a lot of books and I prefer to read them in the order the author intended. I was extremely happy with your service and you included the short stories where they were intended to be. Other sites place the short stories at the end of the list of books instead of where they were supposed to be. It’s very confusing.
    I will continue to use your site and I hope you will accept my thanks to you for your absolutely fantastic service to avid fans of reading books. I just hope you cover other types of books because I read everything from military true stories and fiction to fantasy to history to science fiction to classic novels. I try to have a wide range of interests so I can have a varied look at the world.
    Once again, thank you for your service.
    Sincerely,
    Zelion David Cagle

  2. Please bring back soshanna and aron! They are great! And never take away jennifer and knuckles and kurt! Love your books! I Just finished operator down and it was one of the best!

  3. The Ruins was published just after Operator Down. It is book 12.5 on my list by published date. The actual story seems to occur immediately after One Rough Man, (The very first book) and before The Dig.
    In The Dig, we hear references to what happened in The Ruins, but The Ruins is actually published four years later.

  4. Is there a list and description of the Taskforce team members? I ran across Brett in “Days of Rage” and can’t remember him in previous novels. Also, is he the only team member without a call sign?

  5. Love this series of books, am an avid reader of Dpecial Ops type books but Brad Taylor is the most knowledgeable and able author of this genre I have found, Vince Flynn included..
    Have to admit my book browsing is more in Thrift stores, where I discovered One Rough Man.. lucky me. Found Days of Rage, All Nessecary Force, and Widows Strike on EBay
    He’s the only author I’m prepared to pay full coverage price for…. Well worth it, thanks for your guide to thd order in which to read as thd main characters all have a “history “ that’s important to know.. Great work folks, snd keep em coming Brad, I live in S Carolina and would love to shake his hand one day… jim

  6. “The Recruit” should be earlier in the reading order. It can’t occur at the point it is currently located because the events in “Days of Rage” preclude it from happening.

    1. Thanks for your comment. I updated the list and put “The Recruit” before “Days of Rage”. Some readers think it’s better after because of the ending of the short story. What do you think about that?

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