Since the debut of his first novel in 2002, Brad Thor has become the gold standard for fans of military fiction, terrorism thrillers and political thrillers. But what happens when ravenous fans polish off Thor’s terrific back catalogue?
I’m often asked by fans: who are the best writers like Brad Thor?
Brad Thor novels combine political intrigue, espionage, and compelling narratives with complex moral dilemmas that explore the human experience. He is best known for his Scot Harvath series, where a former Navy SEAL-turned-secret agent protects the country from dangerous threats, with real-world locations and geopolitical issues that make his works highly relevant and relatable.
Thor’s writing style is marked by sharp suspense, thrilling action sequences, and nuanced character development, creating an engaging reading experience. His stories explore the weighty moral dilemmas of living in a world where freedom is not always guaranteed, where the consequences of one’s choices resonate through time and space. His novels are powerful explorations of the human condition that offer a thrilling escape for readers seeking a truly immersive experience. Finally, Thor’s dedication to research and realism adds to the appeal of his work, and his social commentary on issues such as terrorism, government surveillance, and international relations makes readers think twice about the world around us.
So if you love Brad Thor, here are some writers you should check out, along with their signature books.
Dan J Ford
Signature Book: Rogue Agent
This near-future military thriller hits all the right targets. In former FBI agent/current Army criminal investigator Tom Wiseman, Dan J Ford has created a compelling thinker, and a one-man wrecking crew.
Wiseman, a Former FBI agent and current Army criminal investigator is contacted by his former mentor and Quantico trainer five years after Tom’s FBI’s career ended badly. His mentor – who Tom feels betrayed him – calls about a case involving a Saudi-born suspect who was shot and killed by the FBI. It’s tempting, but not tempting enough for Tom to reconnect – at least not yet.
Meanwhile, a United Nations helicopter carrying a governor and four crew has gone missing in Afghanistan. Tom’s job is to find it, figure out what happened, and locate any survivors. But as Tom delves deeper into the mission, it’s clear there’s far more at stake than he originally thought (including, eventually, the discovery of a suspicious weapons shipment and a shadowy cabal). It’s the beginning of an action-packed journey and intertwining plot that will lead Tom to unravel past mistakes at the FBI, whilst dealing with his current-day cabal’s assassins and contract killers.
Readers who love Brad Thor’s Scot Horvath series have come to the right place. Wiseman is a one-man wrecking crew who leaves it all on the field every day, despite suffering from crippling PTSD. One perfect line from Wiseman’s enemy perfectly sums up the enormity of Wiseman’s impact: “One man has done this to us? One lowly FBI agent?”
Ford, the author, a decorated combat serviceman himself, proves to be particularly gifted at creating believable action scenes. Throughout the book, he delivers all the goods that conspiracy thriller fans are looking for: a suspicious old case that just won’t go away, a present-day threat with national security implications, and a flawed but talented agent on a path to redemption.
Thematically, Tom’s high-functioning memory is an intriguing gift that’s mentioned more than a few times, and human cognition is a running theme in the story. Ford juxtaposes Tom’s abilities with lots of creative and colorful dialogue, as well as plenty of compelling secondary characters. And for those who love cutting-edge tech,set in the next 5-10 years, Rogue Agent also has an ‘into the looking glass’ slant that is believable and a point of difference to the thriller genre.
In a nutshell, Rogue Agent is an exceptional series debut that will leave you wanting more.
R.G. Roberts
Signature Book: Cardinal Virtues
Commander Alex Coleman is no hero. Just ask him.
It’s 2037 and Alex is one more disobeyed order away from kissing his naval career goodbye.
He used to be high speed, the kind of officer on the fast track to submarine command. Then he threw it all away trying to save a few civilian lives from his glory hungry commanding officer. No pain no gain, right? Alex isn’t sorry he did the right thing but being everyone’s favorite scapegoat isn’t fun.
Now, he’s marking time to retirement on Armistice Station, an underwater megastation where you can buy and do anything—except salvage a trashed Navy career. Alex is stuck doling out supplies to visiting Navy ships and chasing unruly sailors, just how he wanted to spend his last years in the good old U.S. Navy.
But things aren’t quiet in Alex’s underwater amusement park. France and India are expanding into the Indian Ocean and want the United States out, and Alex’s eclectic band of castoff sailors are all that’s in their way.
Armed with nothing but creativity and coffee creamer fireballs, Alex must team up with the admiral who hates him most. Together, they must escape the jaws of a closing enemy trap set by the canny French commander who ruined his career in the first place.
Can Alex outsmart her this time, or will he end up as the first POW in the next world war?
Vince Flynn
Signature Book: American Assassin
Here, we get a Mitch Rapp prequel – essentially the story of how Rapp was trained and other events leading up to the Beruit Embassy bombing of 1983. There are scenes featuring Rapp and a psychologist that have the potential to flesh out Rapp’s character, during which Rapp has the opportunity to define patriotism, revenue, retribution, and more.
Before he was considered a CIA superagent, before he was thought of as a terrorist’s worst nightmare, and before he was both loathed and admired by the politicians on Capitol Hill, Mitch Rapp was a gifted college athlete without a care in the world . . . and then tragedy struck.
Two decades of cutthroat, partisan politics has left the CIA and the country in an increasingly vulnerable position. Cold War veteran and CIA Operations Director Thomas Stansfield knows he must prepare his people for the next war. The rise of Islamic terrorism is coming, and it needs to be met abroad before it reaches America’s shores. Stansfield directs his protégée, Irene Kennedy, and his old Cold War colleague, Stan Hurley, to form a new group of clandestine operatives who will work outside the normal chain of command—men who do not exist.
Barry Eisler
Signature Book: The Night Trade
Like many longtime Barry Eisler fans, my entry point was A Clean Kill in Tokyo. To be honest, I never truly loved Eisler’s John Rain, whose dispassionate outlook on life added little narrative thrust. But Eisler’s insider knowledge of spycraft was blatantly obvious on every page, and together with his ingeniously drawn landscapes, I was hooked anyhow.
With The Night Trade, Eisler’s second Livia Lone book, his heroine has finally outclassed John Rain completely. The sex crimes detective earns a position with a government anti-trafficking task force, returning to Thailand to look for evil-doer Rithisak Sorm. Livia’s pain is palpable, but never overly sentimental. It just works.
For added fun, Eisler has airlifted former Marine sniper Dox from his previous series and teamed him up with Livia.
This is a crime thriller at its darkest. Highly recommended.
Steven Konkoly
Signature Book: The Rescue
Decker, an ex-CIA operative turned mercenary, specializes in rescuing kidnap victims. Hired by an influential US senator to liberate her daughter from a human-trafficking ring, Decker never anticipated sabotage or that the assault could go so disastrously wrong. The hostage is dead. His team is wiped out, and so are their families, including Decker’s own wife and son—eliminated one by one by the Russian mafia. And he’s survived to take the fall.
When he’s inexplicably freed soon into a ten-year sentence in federal prison, Decker suspects another setup. And private investigator Harlow Mackenzie knows he’s right. She has evidence that a power greater than the Russian mob was behind the raid that ruined Decker’s life.
The next move in a nationwide cat-and-mouse game of high-level sedition is up to them. Fueled by revenge and an obsession to clear his name, Decker has only one mission: to destroy a growing conspiracy before it’s too late.
Marc Cameron
Signature Book: Field of Fire
This is one book that Brad Thor even endorsed!
The first target is Dallas, Texas.
A deadly nerve gas called New Archangel is unleashed upon the City of Angels, claiming innocent lives, spreading nationwide panic, and fueling global fears of another attack.
In the icy reaches of rural Alaska, special agent Jericho Quinn is enlisted to hunt down the man who created the bioweapon—a brilliant Russian scientist who is trying to defect and hiding in the Alaskan wilderness.
But time is running out.
The scientist is beginning to lose his mind to dementia.
If Quinn doesn’t find him before the Russians do, the entire western seaboard and beyond will feel the wrath of New Archangel—and darkness will fall upon the earth.
Bill Brewer
Signature Book: Dawn of the Assassin
Assassins are made, not born. And yet despite countless novels dedicated to professional killers, true origin stories are rare. First-time novelist Bill Brewer delivers the goods in Dawn of the Assassin, a no-frills thriller about the making of a truly lethal asset.
Convenience store employee David Diegert might be the unluckiest person in Minnesota. Born into dysfunction, his brother is a drug dealer, and his mother, who is half-Native American, is hopelessly bullied by her sadistic husband. Accordingly, David, who has suffered the racist nickname “Tonto” throughout his small town upbringing, has developed serious anger management issues that will both plague him and fuel him for the rest of his life.
After a run-in with the local sheriff and a nearly fatal encounter with his own father, the young, unpolished hothead joins the U.S. Army. During his first deployment to Afghanistan, his anger issues get the best of him once again, as he assaults a superior officer. David’s turning point comes after a dishonorable discharge, when he wanders into a bar called The Dark Horse in Austin, Texas. There, he takes a job as a doorman, never suspecting that it will be a portal into a new life as a globetrotting killer that will take him to places he never dreamed of.
Brewer’s prose is extremely spare, reading more like a screenplay than a novel. Readers looking for lush descriptions of the book’s exotic locales should look elsewhere. Nevertheless, when it comes to David, Brewer’s stripped-down characterization feels gritty, authentic and most importantly, earned. Brewer has created a series-worthy anti-hero who ends this installment on a high note.
Daniel Silva
Signature Book: The Other Woman
Already one of the best espionage thriller novelists of all time, The Other Woman is proof that Daniel Silva keeps getting better with age.
In an isolated village in the mountains of Andalusia, a mysterious Frenchwoman begins work on a dangerous memoir. It is the story of a man she once loved in the Beirut of old, and a child taken from her in treason’s name. The woman is the keeper of the Kremlin’s most closely guarded secret. Long ago, the KGB inserted a mole into the heart of the West—a mole who stands on the doorstep of ultimate power.
Only one man can unravel the conspiracy: Gabriel Allon, the legendary art restorer and assassin who serves as the chief of Israel’s vaunted secret intelligence service. Gabriel has battled the dark forces of the new Russia before, at great personal cost. Now he and the Russians will engage in a final epic showdown, with the fate of the postwar global order hanging in the balance.
Gabriel is lured into the hunt for the traitor after his most important asset inside Russian intelligence is brutally assassinated while trying to defect in Vienna. His quest for the truth will lead him backward in time, to the twentieth century’s greatest act of treason, and, finally, to a spellbinding climax along the banks of the Potomac River outside Washington that will leave readers breathless.
Alex Berenson
Signature Book: The Prisoner
When you’ve written what is arguably the very best post-911 espionage novel, which Alex Berenson did with The Faithful Spy, sequels can be a rocky road. After all, the fate of the western world was at stake in Berenson’s debut, as was Wells’ identity. Subsequent books, however, saw Wells settle in a relationship, get a dog, and at times, carry a single plotline over the course of two books. You have to have a character arc, right?
There should be no complaints this time around, as Wells returns to his roots. But instead of the Taliban, Well is focused on ISIS.
Evidence is mounting that someone high up in the CIA is doing the unthinkable—passing messages to ISIS, alerting them to planned operations. Finding out the mole’s identity without alerting him, however, will be very hard, and to accomplish it, Wells will have to do something he thought he’d left behind forever. He will have to reassume his former identity as an al Qaeda jihadi, get captured, and go undercover to befriend an ISIS prisoner in a secret Bulgarian prison.
Many years before, Wells was the only American agent ever to penetrate al Qaeda, but times have changed drastically. The terrorist organizations have multiplied: gotten bigger, crueler, more ambitious and powerful.
Wells knows it may well be his death sentence. But there is no one else.
James Patterson
Signature Book: The President is Missing
The Bottom Line: Easily the best James Patterson novel in years. Highly recommended.
On a recent Stephen Colbert show appearance, Stephen King mused that James Patterson spends approximately 12 hours working on each book. True, Patterson has become notoriously prolific in recent years as more than 100 books a year are churned out in his name (Patterson still does the outlines).
Nobody’s saying how much time Patterson put into his collaboration with Bill Clinton, but the result is an astonishingly good piece of fiction.
Rogue U.S. President Jonathon Duncan faces impeachment for persistently escaping from the eyes of the Secret Service. Duncan is convinced that he is the only man with the insider information to stop an imminent cyberterror attack on the U.S.
To say much more would spoil the fun.
Set over the course of three days, The President Is Missing sheds a stunning light upon the inner workings and vulnerabilities of our nation. Is it filled with information that only a former Commander-in-Chief could know?
You be the judge. One thing is for sure: this is one thriller that is well worth reading.
William Tyree
Signature Book: Rogue Empire
Rogue Empire is the third installment in William Tyree’s bestselling Blake Carver series.
As dawn rises over Tripoli, counter-terrorism operative Blake Carver arrives ahead of a planned drone strike on an extremist stronghold.
But his plan to extract an embedded CIA operative turns disastrous when the mistargeted attack reduces the Chinese Embassy to rubble.
All signs point to an inside job, and Carver finds himself on the wrong end of an internal investigation.
Forced into exile, he watches helplessly as Beijing erupts in riots, an American diplomat is murdered and cyber attacks are unleashed on Wall Street. The two superpowers teeter on the brink of all-out war.
With only the help of a renegade hacker and an old flame with powerful friends, Carver must act alone to thwart the most ingenious conspiracy the world has ever known.
Michael Byars Lewis
Signature Book: Retribution
This high-flying thrill ride is the perfect entry point to Lewis’ Jason Conrad USAF series.
When budding student pilot Jason Conrad is offered the trip of a lifetime, big aerospace company Century Avionics sets to influence a few key elections, making for some not-so-friendly skies. Maniacal Philip Ashford, bent on avenging the death of his family, is on a continent-spanning killing spree. Though he sees his actions as justifiable, Jason is set on stopping Philip’s self-appointed position as judge, jury and executioner. But as you might expect, Jason finds himself in the crosshairs.
The perfect entry point for newcomers to Michael Byars Lewis’ Jason Conrad series, Retribution is book zero, a prequel to Surly Bonds and Veil of Deception. It’s not often that an author can combine business and bombings without overstuffing a plot, but Lewis is up to the task. At times, the Clinton-era politics and personal vendettas seem like a lot to juggle within a relatively fast read, but Lewis reigns in any flights of fantasy, making every word count. The narrative bounces between London, Washington and New Orleans, making for a fun- and action-filled adventure that spans everything from Mardi Gras beads to back-alley dealings.
As always, Lewis’ real-world experience as a combat pilot renders every piece of Jason’s story fully realized. Carefully crafted and thoughtful in its build-up, Retribution is a joy for fans of military and political thrillers alike.
Joel C. Rosenberg
Signature Book: The Persian Gamble
Exceptional pacing and a ripped-from-the-headlines thriller make this a top pick for military thriller fans.
Shot out of the air in enemy territory in the middle of the greatest international crisis since the end of the Cold War, former U.S. Secret Service agent Marcus Ryker finds himself facing an impossible task.
Not only does he have to somehow elude detection and capture by Russian special forces, but he must convince his own government to grant safe harbor to the one man responsible for the global mayhem―Russian double agent and assassin Oleg Kraskin. While frantically negotiating with his contacts in the White House, Marcus learns that the unstable North Korean regime plans to use the international chaos as a smokescreen to sell nuclear weapons to Iran.
With the fate of the entire free world on the line, Marcus makes a deal with the U.S. government―he will go back to work as an international operative and track down the WMDs before they end up in the hands of those with the determination and the means to use them. Marcus and Oleg worked together once before to avert a world war. Can they now find a way to stop world destruction?