With the recent release of Amazon’s thriller series, Reacher, I felt like it was a good time to put together a list of some of my favorite thriller novel series of all time. I also just noticed that every one of them has been adapted to the screen (big, small, or both), although that wasn’t a factor in deciding which ones to include.
So, without further ado, check out this list of 7 great thriller series to add to your reading list this summer.
Jack Reacher (Lee Child)
We’ll kick it off with the one that inspired the article in the first place. The Jack Reacher series came out in 1997 with Killing Floor. Little did anyone expect that in 2022, we would have the 27th book in the series already in the works.
The series has even outlasted its original author Lee Child, the pen name of author Jim Gran. Now it's being written by his brother Andrew Grant, beginning with book #26 - Better Off Dead.
The series is much like a modern-day western where the stranger wanders into town and gets into various adventures, dispatching bad guys before riding off into the sunset. That stranger is Jack Reacher, retired Army military police commander of a special investigative unit.
In just about every novel, the story starts with Reacher making his way to a new town where trouble inevitably finds him. He works through a mystery and hands out his own form of frontier justice. Then, he moves on to the next town in his next book. It is a bit formulaic, but if you like the formula (which I and many people do) it’s a winner.
Harry Bosch (Michael Connelly)
How about another thriller series that has been adapted for the screen by Amazon? Say hello to LA police detective, Harry Bosch.
The Harry Bosch series, written by author Michael Connelly, kicked off in 1992. It continued with its 23rd novel in 2021. Harry is a veteran homicide detective with the LAPD, an Army vet from Vietnam, and divorced father. He also happens to be a brilliant detective and man of action.
The novels follow the format of a police procedural. We follow Bosch and his fellow LAPD detectives (with many recurring partners and co-workers) as they take on complex and high-profile murders in Los Angeles.
Bosch has a rigid moral code that often puts him in conflict with authority, like the police force or government. These conflicts tend to inform the plots of the various novels. They are also well-written and while sometimes formulaic, offer a variety of twists and turns over the course of those 20+ novels.
Alex Cross (James Patterson)
James Patterson introduced readers to Washington D.C. Metro Police Department detective Alex Cross, in 1993. The first novel, Along Came a Spider, was adapted into a feature film in 2001 starring Morgan Freeman in the role of Alex Cross.
The books focus on the various cases Cross has to solve while maintaining a relationship with his family. Unfortunately, his family takes second priority to catching killers. The series includes many recurring characters, including Cross’ children, partners in the police department, and even a villainous mastermind who appeared in multiple early books.
Cross’ wife was murdered by an assassin. He also finds himself in various romantic relationships throughout the series, with one later becoming his second wife. His job is constantly putting both himself and his family in jeopardy, so you have to wonder how long any of his relationships can last. The books are written in Patterson’s well-established writing style, which his fans love.
Lucas Davenport (John Sandford)
Also known as the Prey series, this 32-book series by John Sandford features Minneapolis Police Department detective, Lucas Davenport. Over the course of the novels, Davenport quits the police department, is later appointed Deputy Chief, joins the MN Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, and eventually becomes a U.S. Marshal.
This series was adapted for the big screen. Mind Prey became a TV movie in 2009 and Certain Prey a feature film in 2011.
The first novel came out in 1989, introducing Davenport as a maverick detective and part-time computer programmer. Throughout the series, he takes down serial killers and other violent criminals, working with a recurring cast of partners and friends.
Some of those characters have gone off to have their own series, by Sandford as well. The writing is solid and the cases interesting, with the characters always being the main focus.
Jack Ryan (Tom Clancy)
Now we’re getting back to a serious 1980s classic thriller series with Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan books. It gets a bit tricky to really explain how many books are in the series. The definite Jack Ryan books stopped at 18, but the Jack Ryan universe continued for another 17 novels (so far).
Clancy died in 2013, but the Ryanverse novels continue written by a few different authors, including Mark Greaney, Grant Blackwood, Mike Maden, Marc Cameron, and Don Bentley. The series kicked off of the famous, Hunt for Red October in 1984.
Jack Ryan starts off the series as an analyst for the CIA with no field experience. He will go on to spend all too much time in the field, working against complex terrorist plots and foreign governments looking to destabilize the U.S. Ryan will later become President of the U.S., so let’s say his career is fairly successful.
The novels are great Cold War and post-Cold War espionage thrillers with tons of action and a liberal dose of democratic values. They are all exciting and well-written. They have also been adapted numerous times to both the large and small screen, with the latest being the series Jack Ryan on Amazon.
Jason Bourne (Robert Ludlum)
Robert Ludlum gave readers just 3 Jason Bourne novels before his death. However, follow-up author Eric Van Lustbader has delivered 11 more continuation novels in the story of the covert special forces operator.
Bourne is actually David Webb, a former Marine Captain who ends up working for a secret CIA operatio. He eventually takes on the identity of Jason Bourne, a known assassin, who Webb had killed while he was undercover as an agent known as Delta.
But, this is all backstory. When we're first introduced to Bourne, he has amnesia. The novel series follows Bourne recovering his memory first, and then being pulled back into becoming an assassin for the government. It is the epitome of the action-spy-thriller.
Kenzie and Gennaro (Dennis Lehane)
American novelist Dennis Lehane had delivered any number of strong novels over his career, but for his long-time fans, his series about private detectives Patrick Kenzie and Holly Gennaro are real favorites.
The 6-novel series kicked off in 1994 and wrapped up in 2010, with a follow-up novel, 10 years after the prior release. The fourth novel, Gone Baby Gone, was adapted to the big screen in 2007.
The series covers the exploits of the two Boston-based PIs who started out as childhood friends and eventually went into business together as investigators. They are more hard-boiled detective novels that also delve into the personal relationship between the two characters and some of their less than savory friends.
Over the years, they take on serial killers, crooked cops and politicians, the Boston mob, and other dangerous criminals. Lehane is an excellent writer, putting these novels possibly a notch above a few of the others on this list from a purely literary standpoint. They are also a ton of fun to read.
Honestly, there were a bunch of other great series I could have included. I stopped at 7, but if you want a few more to consider.
Bob Lee Swagger (Stephen Hunter)
In my opinion, the first three books are excellent and then the series goes sideways a bit. But those first three are excellent and some of the side series (Earl Swagger, etc.) are equally strong.
Kyle Swanson (Jack Coughlin & Donald A. Davis)
An exciting and entertaining about Marine Corp sniper Kyle Swanson. He takes on terrorists and other serious bad guys across the 10 novels in the series at this point.
Joe Ledger (Jonathan Maberry)
Joe Ledger is the hero in this ongoing series about bioterrorism. He ends up being the leader of a clandestine US government agency focused on pursuing technological threats to the country and the world by terrorist organizations. It verges into science fiction territory at times, but still remains solidly focused in the real-ish world.
