Stephen Hunter Books In Order – Complete List

New York Times bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize winner Stephen Hunter is b popular Bob Lee Swagger military thriller series started back in 1993, a series which continues till today. Reading the Stephen Hunter books in order is a joyride for anyone who enjoys the author’s many blockbuster novels, especially his Bob Lee Swagger series.

Here are the Stephen Hunter books in order for his Bob Lee Swagger series and the rest of his fiction and non-fiction work. The books are all listed in publication order with the chronological order in brackets next to each book.

Latest Stephen Hunter Books

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Bob Lee Swagger Books in Publication Order

1. Point of Impact, 1993
2. Black Light, 1996
3. Time to Hunt, 1998
4. The 47th Samurai, 2007
5. Night of Thunder, 2008
6. I, Sniper, 2009
7. Dead Zero, 2010
8. The Third Bullet, 2013
9. Sniper’s Honor, 2014
10. G-Man, 2017
11. Game of Snipers, 2019
12. Targeted, 2021

Earl Swagger Books in Order of Publication

1. Hot Springs, 2000
2. Pale Horse Coming, 2001
3. Havana, 2003
4. The Bullet Garden, 2023

Ray Cruz Books in Publication Order

1. Dead Zero (Ray Cruz #1, Bob Lee Swagger #7), 2010
2. Soft Target, 2011

Other Books / Swagger Collections in Order of Publication

• Bob Lee Swagger: A Mysterious Profile, 2022
• Front Sight, 2024

Bob Lee Swagger Universe in Chronological Order

The books reading order for all three generations of Swaggers

1. Hot Springs
2. Pale Horse Coming
3. Havana
4. The Bullet Garden
5. Point of Impact
6. Dirty White Boys
7. Black Light
8. Time to Hunt
9. The 47th Samurai
10. Night of Thunder
11. I Sniper
12. Dead Zero
13. Soft Target
14. The Third Bullet
15. Snipers Honor
16. G-Man
17. Game of Snipers
18. Targeted

Standalone Books in Publication Order

• The Master Sniper, 1980
• The Second Saladin, 1982
• Target (novelization of the film with the same title featuring Matt Dillon and Gene Hackman), 1985
• The Spanish Gambit (reissued as Tapestry of Spies), 1985
• The Day Before Midnight, 1989
• Dirty White Boys (prequel to events in Black Light, although not part of the Bob Lee Swagger series), 1994
• I, Ripper, 2015
• Basil’s War, 2021

Novellas and Short Story Collections in Order of Publication

• Stephen Longacre’s Greatest Match, 2014
• Citadel, 2015 (Bibliomysteries / Death Sentences series)

Non-Fiction Books in Publication Order

• American Gunfight, 2005 (with John Bainbridge Jr)
• Now Playing at the Valencia, 2005
• Violent Screen: A Critic’s 13 Years on the Front Lines of Movie Mayhem, 2012

Bibliomysteries Books in Publication Order

• The Book of Virtue (By: Ken Bruen), 2012
• Pronghorns of the Third Reich (By: C.J. Box), 2012
• The Book Thing (By: Laura Lippman), 2012
• The Book Case (By: Nelson DeMille), 2012
• An Acceptable Sacrifice (By: Jeffery Deaver), 2012
• Death Leaves a Bookmark (By: William Link), 2012
• The Final Testament (By: Peter Blauner), 2013
• Rides a Stranger (By: David Bell), 2013
• The Long Sonata of the Dead (By: Andrew Taylor), 2013
• The Book of Ghosts (By: Reed Farrel Coleman), 2013
• The Compendium of Srem (By: F. Paul Wilson), 2014
• What’s in a Name? (By: Thomas H. Cook), 2014
• Remaindered (By: Peter Lovesey), 2014
• The Sequel (By: R.L. Stine), 2014
• The Gospel of Sheba (By: Lyndsay Faye), 2014
• The Nature of My Inheritance (By: Bradford Morrow), 2014
• It’s in the Book (By: Mickey Spillane), 2014
• The Scroll (By: Anne Perry), 2014
• The Book of the Lion (By: Thomas Perry), 2015
• The Little Men (By: Megan Abbott), 2015
• Condor in the Stacks (By: James Grady), 2015
• Mystery, Inc. (By: Joyce Carol Oates), 2015
• Every Seven Years (By: Denise Mina), 2015
• From the Queen (By: Carolyn Hart), 2015
• The Travelling Companion (By: Ian Rankin), 2016
• Citadel (By: Stephen Hunter), 2016
• Reconciliation Day (By: Christopher Fowler), 2016
• Dead Dames Don’t Sing (By: John Harvey), 2016
• The Haze (By: James W. Hall), 2016
• Hoodoo Harry (By: Joe R. Lansdale), 2017
• The Pretty Little Box (By: Charles Todd), 2018
• Seven Years (By: Peter Robinson), 2018
• The Hemingway Valise (By: Robert Olen Butler), 2018
• The Last Honest Horse Thief (By: Michael Koryta), 2018
• The Caxton Private Lending Library & Book Depository (By: John Connolly), 2018
• The Dark Door (By: Lisa Unger), 2022

Stephen Hunter Biography – About the Author

Born in 1946 in Kansas City, Missouri, Stephen Hunter grew up in Evanston, Illinois.

He always wanted to be a writer. In school, he was never a good athlete and would not excel at most topics except for creative writing, where the teacher would always pick his assignments to read in class.

This formed Stephen in a way that he would become a best-selling author a few years from then. It would give him an identity and a purpose for his later work.

He went to the Northwestern University – Medill School of Journalism, from where in 1968 he graduated with a journalism degree. Incidentally, this is the same university where his dad used to teach speech before he was killed in 1975.

After his graduation, he went to the army being drafted for 2 years and served as a ceremonial soldier in Washington, D.C., where he, later on, worked as a journalist for Pentagon News, a military newspaper.

In 1971 Stephen Hunter got a job as a journalist at the Baltimore Sun, where he worked at the copy desk for the next 10 years. In 1982 he became a chief film critic for the same magazine, staying in this position for the following 16 years.

In 1997 he moved to Washington Post working again as a movie critic, where he remained for 11 years the Chief Film Critic. During his work at the WP, in 2003 Stephen Hunter won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, a category that was in the Pulitzer since around 1975.

While working as a journalist, Stephen Hunter also started writing his first books. His debut novel is a standalone novel titled The Master Sniper, which he published in 1980. He then followed up with several other standalone books until Point of Impact, the first novel in the Bob Lee Swagger military thriller series was published in 1993.

Knowing about Bob Lee Swagger’s love for firearms, it is not surprising to learn that Stephen Hunter loves firearms as well. He is, in fact, a hobbyist shooter.

In 2008 Stephen Hunter retired from his movie critic job, after having worked in the newspaper business for 38 years, and is now writing full-time. So far there are over 30 of Stephen Hunter’s books published to date, including his series, short stories, novellas, standalone novels, and nonfiction books. Most of Stephen Hunter’s novels in the series focus on the Swagger Universe.

The Bob Lee Swagger series led to two additional spin-off series, one written about Bob’s father Earl, formerly titled the Earl Swagger trilogy, which includes 4 books, and one about his son, Ray Cruz. The Ray Cruz books are part of the Swagger universe as well, but with Ray as the main character.

Dirty White Boys, a standalone novel, is part of the Swagger universe and loosely based on a real-life rampage by Oklahoma prison inmates.

In addition to his thriller novels, the author has also written three non-fiction books, all on political and military topics.

His latest Swagger family book, Front Sight, includes stories of three generations of Swaggers: Charles Swagger in 1934 in The Night Train, Earl Swagger in 1947 in Johnny Tuesday, and current times Bob Lee Swagger in Five Dolls for the Gut Hook.

Stephen Hunter Books Adaptations

Point of Impact was adapted into the 2007 action thriller film Shooter, starring Mark Wahlberg and Michael Peña as Nick Memphis.

Point of Impact was also made into a TV series in 2016 titled Shooter with Ryan Phillippe as Bob Lee Swagger.