John A. Connell Books In Order – Complete List
John A. Connell is the bestselling author of the engaging Mason Collins historical crime thriller series. Here are the John A. Connell books in order for his series and a standalone novel titled Good Night, Sweet Daddy-O, equally a historical crime thriller story.
Mason Collins Books in Publication Order
Mason Collins is an ex-police detective in Chicago who is working now as a U.S. Army criminal investigator in the American Zone of Occupation.
- Madness in the Ruins, 2015 (aka Ruins of War)
- Haven of Vipers, 2016 (aka Spoils of Victory)
- Bones of the Innocent, 2019
- To Kill A Devil, 2020
- Where the Wicked Tread, 2021
- Upon A Bloodstained Land, 2022
Standalone Novels in Publication Order
Mason Collins Books Overview
Winter, 1945. Munich is in ruins, and a savage killer is stalking the city.
U.S. Army investigator Mason Collins enforces the law in the American Zone of Occupation. This post is his last chance to do what he loves most—being a homicide detective.
But he gets more than he’s bargained for when the bodies start piling up, the city devolves into panic, and the army brass start breathing down his neck.
Then the murderer makes him a target. Now it’s a high-stakes duel, and to win it Mason must bring into deadly play all that he values: his partner, his career—even his life.
A fairytale town with gingerbread houses has become the Dodge City of post-WW2 Germany. And the gang running things are ex-Nazis and crooked U.S. Army officers.
Not the best place for U.S. Army detective Mason Collins to keep his head down, serve out his time, so he can go home.
While investigating a rash of murders, Mason discovers a web of coconspirators more dangerous than anything he’s ever encountered.
Witnesses and evidence disappear, someone on high is stifling the investigation, and Mason must feel his way in the darkness if he is going to find out who in town has the most to gain—and the most to lose…
Mason Collins grapples with secrets and murder as he races against time to save the lives of abducted teenagers in a case as twisted as the streets of Tangier’s medina.
Summer, 1946. Just as assassins from a shadowy organization close in for the kill, a flamboyant stranger offers Mason a way out: He must accompany the stranger to Morocco to investigate the abductions of teenage girls. Girls that vanished without a trace.
Once Mason lands in Tangier, he discovers that nothing—or no one—is what it seems. This playground for the super rich is called the wickedest city in the world, and he realizes those who could help him the most harbor a terrible secret.
But just as Mason begins to unravel the mystery, the assassins have once again picked up his trail. Now, Mason must put his life on the line to find the girls before it’s too late. If he lives that long…
1946, Vienna. When a shadowy organization fails to assassinate Mason Collins, they go after his colleagues, his friends, and the love of his life. Mason knows the only way to stop the killings is to cut off the head of the snake.
Armed only with the alias, Valerius, Mason treks across Franco’s Spain to war-torn Vienna to eliminate the man ordering the hits. But tracking him down seems to be an unsurmountable task; everyone speaks his name with awe and fear, but no one knows if he’s real or a gangland myth.
Mason, desperate for answers, abandons his strict moral code, leading him down a very dark path, and to succeed in hunting one devil, he makes a pact with another.
But what Mason doesn’t know is that, even if he does find his way in the darkness, the man they call Valerius has something special in store for him.
It is 1947. Mason is on the hunt for the man behind his worst nightmares, the Gestapo commander who, during the war, executed a little girl Mason had sworn to protect. The image of her lifeless body in the blood-stained snow torments him nightly.
Now he has a chance to erase those haunting images. He’s tracked the man to the notorious Italian route for escaping Nazi war criminals. The problem is the man is fleeing justice with several other Nazi fugitives, who are bent on abducting a mysterious woman and her young son.
Mason’s troubles escalate when he agrees to escort the woman and her son to safety, while helping to smuggle a convoy of Jewish refugees down through Italy to a ship awaiting in Naples. Like a pack of wolves, the Nazis nip at the heels of the convoy in order to capture the woman and child. It finally becomes clear that the only way to stop them and get his man is through one final showdown.
Mason is ready to make the ultimate sacrifice for retribution, for forgiveness, to exorcise his demons. Maybe then he can look at the girl in his mind’s eye and find forgiveness. Maybe he can join the love of his life in Naples and truly open his heart to her.
Maybe… but first he has to survive.
Mason lands in Palestine and is caught in an ever-tightening spiral of violence, where one false step could get him killed.
Former U.S. Army detective Mason Collins accompanies a group of Jewish refugees on board an illegal ship bound for Palestine. It is April 1947, a little over a year before the formation of the State of Israel, and hostilities in the region are reaching a boiling point. The British, Jews, and Arabs are all fighting for dominance. Bombings, armed attacks, and assassinations are rife.
Mason joins Laura, the love of his life, in Jerusalem. She’s pregnant with his child, and his priority is to get them out of the volatile region. But she has gone into hiding and is in fear for her life because of evidence she possesses pointing to a terrifying conspiracy. Then a skilled assassin picks up their trail.
To keep Laura safe, he decides the best option is to run, and then tragedy strikes, putting Laura in the hospital with her life hanging by a thread.
Enraged, Mason vows to hunt down those responsible. But how can he hunt for killers in a war zone? Who does he turn to when he can’t tell friends from foe?
John A Connell Biography
John A Connell was born in Atlanta, Georgia. Until the age, of 13 he lived in Columbus, Ohio, NYC, and D.C., after which he moved back to his place of birth.
He enrolled at the Georgia State University where, being fascinated by the human thought, he initially enrolled for a degree in Psychology, However, eventually he switched majors to Anthropology, finally graduating with a BA in Anthropology and a minor in Psychology.
To finance his college studies, John A. Connell held several odd jobs and professions, rading from being a stock boy in a brassiere factory, courier for medical offices, a repairer of newspaper vending machines, an apprentice machinist, and a printing-press operator.
After he graduated from the university, he played and sang in jazz and rock bands. At the same time, he also wrote short stories. Eventually, he switched careers to working in film productions as a cameraman. Later on, he became a camera operator and assistant aerial cinematographer, a job that took him around the globe.
While working as a cameraman in various places, John A. Connell gradually rekindled his love for storytelling. Thus, in his spare time he would often write short stories, a hobby that eventually led him to transition into a full-time writer after studying creative writing.
He married his French wife while he was working as a camera operator, and the family promptly moved to Europe. Initially, they moved to Paris, a move that helped him realize his long-term wish to explore Europe, however, eventually they moved to Madrid, Spain, where the family is currently living.
The most important work by John A Connel is his series Mason Collins, which currently includes six books, withe latest, Upon A Bloodstained Land, published in 2022.
The series features Mason, a former Chicago homicide detective, who fought in WWII and was captured as a prisoner. He is now a U.S. Army criminal investigator in Berlin, Germany.
John A Connell Awards and Nominations
- Madness in the Ruins was nominated for the Barry Award for Best First Novel in 2016
- Where the Wicked Tread was nominated for the ITW Award / International Thriller Writers Award for Best E-Book Original in 2022