Joseph Finder Books In Order – Complete List
New York Times bestselling author Joseph Finder is best known for his thrilling Nick Heller series. However, with more standalone novels than series entries, reading the Joseph Finder books in order means catching up on both his popular series and a wide range of standalone thrillers. Below, you’ll find a complete list of Joseph Finder’s books in chronological and publishing order to help you read everything the author has published so far.
Latest Joseph Finder Books

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Nick Heller Books In Publication Order
Former Special Forces soldier, currently a high-powered intelligence investigator
- Vanished, 2009
- Buried Secrets, 2011
- Plan B, 2011
- Guilty Minds, 2016
- House on Fire, 2020
Nick Heller Short Stories
- Plan B, 2011
- Good and Valuable Consideration, 2014 (included in FaceOff anthology with Lee Child– Jack Reacher vs Nick Heller)
Harold Middleton Books in Publication Order
A serial thriller co-authored with other prominent writers
- The Copper Bracelet, 2009
- The Chopin Manuscript, 2007
Standalone Novels in Publication Order
- The Moscow Club, 1991
- Extraordinary Powers, 1994
- The Zero Hour, 1996
- High Crimes, 1998
- Paranoia, 2004
- Company Man, 2005
- Killer Instinct, 2006
- Power Play, 2007
- Suspicion, 2014
- The Fixer, 2015
- The Switch, 2017
- Judgment, 2019
- The Oligarch’s Daughter, 2025
- Town of Spies, TBA
Short Story Anthologies in Publication Order
- Agents of Treachery, 2010
- Watchlist: Two Serial Thrillers in One Killer Book, 2010 (with Jeffery Deaver)
- Mystery Writers of America Presents The Mystery Box, 2013 (edited by Brad Meltzer)
- FaceOff, 2014
- Mystery Writers of America Presents Ice Cold: Tales of Intrigue from the Cold War, 2014 (edited by Jeffery Deaver and Raymond Benson)
- Suspense Magazine June 2014, 2014 (with David Baldacci)
- The Big Book of Espionage, 2020 (with Jeffery Deaver)
Non-Fiction Books
- Red Carpet, 1983
Joseph Finder Biography
Joseph Finder was born in Chicago in 1958 but traveled through many countries during his early years including to the Philippines and Afghanistan before his family returned to the US. Once back at home, he lived in Bellingham, Washington and outside Albany, New York.
He attended Yale University, majoring in Russian studies with Summa Cum Laude, and Phi Beta Kappa. In 1980 he also played bass in the Yale Whiffenpoofs group.
He also attended the Harvard Russian Research Center from where he received a Master’s degree, focusing on international affairs. Later on, he went back to teach on the faculty there. During his academic years, he came into contact with the intelligence community, particularly due to his expertise in the politics of Cold War era and Russia.
As a child, he loved reading books, and he devoured all the Jan Flemming novels with James Bond. In college he began reading Robert Ludlum, and this is when he decided that writing novels was something he would pursue later on.
The author’s first book, published in 1983, when he was merely 24 years old, is called Red Carpet, a non-fiction novel, which is sadly no longer in print – can be only bought second hand. It is a book with a lot of controversy around it. If you can get hold of a copy, I urge you to read it.
His first official novel was published in 1991 with the title The Moscow Club. From then on, his reputation as a thriller author was established.
Currently, the latest Nick Heller book is House on Fire, released in 2020. In an interview, Joseph Finder mentioned that the novel was inspired by the opioid crisis. When he learned that nearly half a million Americans have died from opioid overdoses, and that many pharma companies worked with doctors to lie to their patients that the pills were harmless and could be taken without worry, they would prescribe them without even thinking twice, he decided to write a story where Nick Heller would be emotionally invested in his case when Nick’s friend, Sean, died of an opioid overdose.
This set Nick on the path to investigating the very company that would sell opioids and become wealthy in the process. Nick is anyway a character who likes to see beyond the surface of things, so for him investigating came extremely naturally, especially when he was enraged by the unnecessary death of his friend.
Joseph Finder is an author who seems to predict major political happenings in the world. The Moscow Club was published a few months before the actual coup against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev happened. The book predicted that coup in its storyline. Also, Extraordinary Power, the author’s second published novel dealing with the hunt for a CIA mole was released a few days before an actual mole and traitor, Aldrich Ames, was found.
His next novels also eerily predicted something that would come to pass. The Zero Hour has as topic the FBI hunt for a terrorist in New York.
His father died at the age of 97, while Joseph was writing The Fixer, and this heavily influenced the way the book would end up being written. The author realized that there were many things he didn’t know about his parents, and the actual story would become about a son learning about the real-life of his own dad. For this reason, Joseph Finder considers this book to be his most personal one.
In his standalone stories, he picks some smaller issues that would grow into the elephants that make the suspense in the stories. For example, in The Fixer, the story starts by Rick opening the wall at the back of a closet where he discovers hidden cash. In an interview, the author mentioned that he got the idea of ordinary people doing small things that would alter the course of their entire lives from Alfred Hitchcock. Suspicion, another Joe Finder book, is about Danny Goodman, a struggling writer who has a daughter in school, and he can’t afford to pay her tuition.
When one day a billionaire dad, who is also the father of his daughter’s best friend, offers him a loan, he takes it, and that changes the course of his whole life as well.
Interestingly enough, Joseph Finder’s standalone books are different from his Nick Heller stories. In the series, Nick is often involved in cases that turn into conspiracies, while the standalone ones turn literally the main character’s life upside down.
I already had several of his stand alone books at home, and even his second Nick Heller book, however, I do like to read the Joseph Finder books in proper chronological order, so I was waiting to get hold of the first book in the series, which I did recently. I figured since I’ve already compiled the list for my own use, probably others will find it useful as well.
Compared to the author’s earlier works, the newer Joseph Finder books are very different in terms of writing. The author focuses on character development more and he wants to create fully fleshed-out characters that actually speak to the readers. The newer stories also focus more on human emotions, while the earlier works were mostly about the plot and the pacing.
Currently, Joseph Finder is a member of several writing organizations, including ITW (International Thriller Writers), MWA (Mystery Writers of America), and PEN International. He is also a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers and Council on Foreign Relations and has written on espionage and international affairs for several publications, including TheDailyBeast.com, Forbes, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The New
Republic.
In 2023, Joseph Finder signed a two-book deal with Harper, the result of which we can already see in January 2025 with The Oligarch Daughter, which is the first novel in this deal. The story follows “an ordinary American” who is on the run after he has fallen in love with the daughter of a famous Russian oligarch since now he has the Intelligence agencies of both countries on his tail.
The second novel will be titled Town of Spies, with a yet unknown date of publication, possibly 2026.
Joseph Finder Books Adaptations
Two of Joseph Finder’s novels have been adapted into major movies:
- High Crimes – 2002 movie adaptation starring Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman
The film follows a high-powered attorney who defends her husband in a military court. While doing this, she uncovers dangerous dark secrets. - Paranoia – 2013 movie adaptation featuring Liam Hemsworth, Gary Oldman, and Harrison Ford
This thriller centers on a young tech employee who is pressured into being a spy between rival corporations.
Joseph Finder Awards and Nominations
Over the years, Joseph Finder has received several notable awards and nominations.
- Received the Barry Award for Best Thriller for Paranoia in 2005
- Was nominated for the Barry Award for Best Thriller for Company Man in 2006
- Was nominated for the Barry Award for Best Thriller for Killer Instinct in 2007
- Received the International Thriller Writers Award for Best Novel for Killer Instinct in 2007
- Was nominated for the International Thriller Writers Award for Best Novel for Vanished in 2010
- Received the Strand Magazine Critics Award for Best Novel for the second Nick Heller novel Buried Secrets in 2011
- Was nominated for the International Thriller Writers Award for Best Novel for Buried Secrets in 2012
- Received the Barry Award for Best Thriller for Suspicion in 2015
- Was nominated for the International Thriller Writers Award for Best Hardcover Novel for Suspicion in 2015
- Was nominated for the Barry Award for Best Thriller for Guilty Minds in 2017
- Was nominated for the Shamus Award for Best P.I. Novel for House on Fire in 2021
Thank you so much for the detailed background on Finder. A friend of mine put me on to Finder. I have read The Switch and Company man-two books my local half price bookstore happened to have, but I was looking for a list of all his novels in publishing order. Thank you for taking the time to provide this. I appreciate it.