Eric Van Lustbader Books in Order - Series Guide

Eric Van Lustbader is a New York Times bestselling thriller author best known for the Nicholas Linnear series, the Evan Ryder series, the Jack McClure / Alli Carson books, and his continuation of Robert Ludlum’s Jason Bourne series. His novels have been translated into 24 languages, and he was chosen by the Ludlum estate to continue the Bourne series after the author’s death.

HIs thriller series usually start with characters whose past is already dangerous. Nicholas Linnear has to deal with his Japanese upbringing, martial-arts training, the Yakuza, and business enemies who know too much about him. Jack McClure is pulled into presidential and intelligence cases after the kidnapping of the president-elect’s daughter. Evan Ryder works in a newer spy world where assassins, extremist groups, disinformation, and advanced technology push the series into the techno-thriller genre.

This page lists all Eric Van Lustbader books in order, including the Nicholas Linnear series, China Maroc books, Jason Bourne continuation novels, Testament series, Jack McClure / Alli Carson series, Evan Ryder series, standalone novels, fantasy series, short stories, and graphic novels.

Reading order last verified: July 2026

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Where to Start with Eric Van Lustbader

→ New to Eric Van Lustbader’s thrillers? Start with The Ninja. It introduces Nicholas Linnear, his best-known original character, and it’s a good way to get to read his classic thriller style that involves Japan, martial arts, family history and organized crime.
→ Want a shorter 1980s thriller series? Try Jian, the first China Maroc book. It is a two-book series, so it is easier to read than the full Nicholas Linnear book.
→ Coming for the Jason Bourne series? Read Robert Ludlum’s original Bourne trilogy first if you want the full character setting. If you only want Lustbader’s continuation, start with The Bourne Legacy and continue in publication order.
→ Want newer spy-thrillers? Start with The Nemesis Manifesto, the first Evan Ryder novel. It has modern intelligence, black-ops, disinformation and technology having a major role.
→ Prefer political thrillers set in Washington? Start with First Daughter, the first Jack McClure / Alli Carson book.
→ Want religious-conspiracy thrillers? Start with The Testament.
→ Prefer fantasy? While it’s not his main genre, there are two fantasy series the author wrote. Start with The Sunset Warrior or The Ring of Five Dragons for the later Pearl Saga.

Nicholas Linnear Series (Books in Order)

The Nicholas Linnear series, also called The Shadow Warrior series, follows Nicholas Linnear, a martial artists raised in Japan who later moves to the US and starts a new life there. In The Ninja, Nicholas has left the advertising world in New York and is wondering what to do with his life when a murder brings him back to his training in Japan and the enemies he thought would never meet again. In the later books, he keeps getting pulled between Tokyo and New York, business deals and Japanese criminal groups and his family dark history. The later Nicholas Linnear ebook short stories, The Death and Life of Nicholas Linnear and The Oligarch’s Daughter, continue Nicholas’s adventures after the original series ended.

Nicholas Linnear Short Stories

The Death and Life of Nicholas Linnear, 2014
The Oligarch’s Daughter, 2016

China Maroc Series (Books in Order)

The China Maroc series follows Jake Maroc, a martial arts expert and former agent for the Quarry, a secret U.S. government agency. In Jian, Jake is caught between the political interests of China, Russia, and America who fight for control around Hong Kong, with the the strategy game wei qi / Go a main part of the plot. Shan takes Jake deeper into Asia, where he is sent to a sacred mountain related to China’s future.

Jian, 1985
Shan, 1988

Jason Bourne Series (Books in Order)

Eric Van Lustbader continued Robert Ludlum’s Jason Bourne series starting with The Bourne Legacy until The Bourne Initiative, with Bourne getting involved in new conspiracies and global threats, with the usual Ludlum formula. These books should be read after Ludlum’s original Bourne trilogy as they are a direct continuation of the series.

Testament Series (Books in Order)

The Testament series follows Braverman “Bravo” Shaw, a medieval-religion scholar whose father, Dexter Shaw, dies before he can explain the secret work he has been doing for years. Bravo then learns that his father belonged to the Order of Gnostic Observatines, a hidden group that has guarded ancient Christian documents for centuries. In The Testament, Bravo follows his father’s clues with Jenny Logan, a Guardian assigned by the Order, while the Knights of St. Clement try to get to the documents first. The later books bring Bravo’s sister Emma deeper into the story, and the series opens up a larger fight involving the Testament of Lucifer, the Fallen, and the danger hidden in those texts.

The Testament, 2006
The Fallen, 2017
Four Dominions, 2018
The Sum of All Shadows, 2019

Jack McClure Books / Alli Carson Series (Books in Order)

The Jack McClure / Alli Carson series follows former ATF agent Jack McClure, whose dislexia helps him in seeing patterns that others can’t see. In First Daughter, Jack is grieving the death of his daughter Emma, when his old friend Edward Carson, the incoming U.S. president, asks him to find his kidnapped daughter, Alli. Alli had been Emma’s best friend, so he can’t say no, as this makes the case personal for him. In the next books, Jack and Alli work together to uncover major cases of corruption, international trade slave, cyberstalking and other dangerous situations, in which Alli’s life also changes as the series goes on.

Evan Ryder Series (Books in Order)

The Evan Ryder series follows Evan Ryder, a field agent who begins the series working for a black-ops arm of the Department of Defense. In The Nemesis Manifesto, Evan learns that other agents are being killed and that she might be one of the next targets. This puts her on the trail of Nemesis, a group that tries to destroy the United States from within. Later, she leaves the government agency, choosing to work as a private spy, and the series changes slightly from spy thriller to techno-thriller and sci-fi like threats like Omega, a weaponized quantum technology.

Sunset Warrior Cycle Series (Books in Order)

The Sunset Warrior Cycle series follows Ronin, a swords man who is living in the Freehold, an underground society which was built after an ecological disaster froze the upper world and made it a wasteland of ice. As the series progresses. Ronin flees the underground world with his lover, and goes aboveground where he travels through strange cities and seas and eventually becomes the Sunset Warrior. This is a fantasy series, very different from Eric Van Lustbader’s thriller books.

Pearl Saga Series (Books in Order)

The Pearl Saga is the author’s second fantasy series, set on Kundala, a world conquered by the V’ornn more than a century before the story begins. The V’ornn rule by force and technology, while the Kundalans hold onto older spiritual and magical traditions that have been weakened by conquest. The series follows the search for the Pearl, the Ring of Five Dragons, the Storehouse Door, and the danger released when old magic is disturbed.

The Ring of Five Dragons, 2001
The Veil of a Thousand Tears, 2002
The Cage of Nine Banestones, 2003, also titled Mistress of the Pearl

Standalone Novels

Sirens, 1981
Black Heart, 1983
Zero, 1987
French Kiss, 1989
Angel Eyes, 1991
Black Blade, 1993
Dark Homecoming, 1997
Pale Saint, 1998
Art Kills, 2001 (Chapbooks)
Any Minute Now, 2016

Short Stories and Novellas

Art Kills, 2001
The Other Side of the Mirror, 2017
Taking the Veil, 2018 (with J.A. Jance)

Short Story Collections and Anthologies

The Berkley Showcase: Vol. 2, 1980
Gallery of Horror, 1983
Vampires: The Greatest Storie s, 1991
Excalibur, 1995
Peter S Beagle’s Immortal Unicorn, 1995
David Copperfield’s Tales of the Impossible, 1995
David Copperfield’s Beyond Imagination, 1996
Murder for Revenge, 1998
999: Twenty-nine Original Tales of Horror and Suspense, 1999
Out of Avalon: An Anthology of Old Magic & New Myths, 2001
Thriller: Stories to Keep You Up All Night, 2006 (edited by James Patterson)
Dead Man’s Hand, 2007
By Blood We Live, 2009
Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe, 2011
Suspense Magazine August 2011, 2011
Suspense Magazine June 2014, 2014
MatchUp, 2017 (edited by Lee Child)

Graphic Novels

Batman: The Last Angel, 1994

Eric Van Lustbader Biography

Eric Van Lustbader is an American author who wrote thrillers, fantasy novels, short stories, and graphic novels. He also continued the Jason Bourne series after Robert Ludlum’s death.
Official website: ericvanlustbader.com

Born on December 24, 1946, in Greenwich Village, New York City, Eric Van Lustbader grew up with the Carradine (David and Keith) brothers and lived across the famous Lauren Bacall. He attended New York’s Stuyvesant High School and graduated from Columbia College where he got his degree in sociology. He also got licensed in elementary and early childhood education. In addition, he also has a second-level Reiki degree.

Before becoming a full-time writer, he worked in the New York City public school system, and held licenses in elementary and early childhood education. He then moved into the music business, working for Elektra Records and CBS Records, and wrote for Cash Box magazine. During that period he wrote about artists including Elton John, Santana, Roxy Music, Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie, and The Who.

Eric Van Lustbader published his first book, The Sunset Warrior, in 1975. It was the first book in a fantasy series series set in a post-apocalyptic world destroyed by nuclear war. Later he wrote a second fantasy series, Pearl Saga, but after switching genres to thriller, he became a bestselling author with The Ninja in 1980. It introduced Nicholas Linnear, stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for 24 consecutive weeks, and became the start of the author’s best-known original thriller series.

He later wrote several other thriller series, including the China Maroc books, the Testament series, the Jack McClure / Alli Carson series, and the Evan Ryder series. He also wrote short stories and the novella Art Kills. In 2000, DC Comics asked him to write a Batman graphic novel; the result was Batman: The Dark Angel, which his official biography notes was chosen as a Monthly Choice by the Quality Paperback Book Club.

However, a major turning point in Eric Van Lustbader’s career was when the estate of Robert Ludlum asked him to continue the Jason Bourne series after Robert Ludlum’s death. Lustbader had known Ludlum through their shared agent, and he has said that Ludlum liked The Ninja while he himself was a fan of The Bourne Identity. His first Bourne continuation, The Bourne Legacy, was published in 2004, and then he wrote eleven Bourne novels in all before moving away from the franchise and returning to his own characters with Evan Ryder.

In addition to his novels, Eric Van Lustbader has also written several screenplays and worked as a consultant for several films. The Ninja was sold to 20th Century-Fox in 1980, with major producers attached, but the project was eventually shelved. The later Bourne film franchise is separate from Lustbader’s novels, though the 2012 film The Bourne Legacy shares the title of his first Bourne continuation novel.

As an advocate for literacy, Eric Van Lustbader has worked with several literacy organizations, he was on the Board of Trustees of the City & Country School in Greenwich Village and chaired its Strategic Planning Committee. He was also a long-term member of the International Thriller Writers. In addition, he also worked with the National Coalition Against Censorship.

Eric Van Lustbader received several awards for his books, including the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award for Best Thriller in 2006, for his novel The Testament. In 2013, he received the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. His books have been translated into over 20 languages and are bestsellers worldwide. Ninja was a New York Times Bestseller for 24 consecutive weeks.

He lives on the eastern end of Long Island with his wife, Victoria Lustbader, who is also an author and editor.

Edited by

Marika

Founder of Mystery Sequels, a reference site focused on listing mystery and thriller books in the correct reading order. I maintain and update the site’s bibliographies as new titles are released, ensuring accuracy and consistency across author and series pages.