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 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
13. Front Sight, 2024

Earl Swagger Books in Publication Order

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

Earl Swagger Books in Chronological Order

• The Bullet Garden, 2023
• Hot Springs, 2000
• Pale Horse Coming, 2001
• Havana, 2003

Ray Cruz Books in Publication Order

1. Dead Zero, 2010
2. Soft Target, 2011

Other Swagger Books in Publication Order

• Bob Lee Swagger: A Mysterious Profile, 2022
• Front Sight, 2024 (short story collection)
• The Gun Man Jackson Swagger, 2025

Swaggerverse Books in Publication Order

Swaggerverse Books in Chronological Order

The books reading order for all generations of Swaggers

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 series), 1994
• I, Ripper, 2015
• Basil’s War, 2021
• The Gun Man Jackson Swagger, 2025 (part of the Swaggerverse)

Novellas and Short Story Collections in Publication Order

• Stephen Longacre’s Greatest Match, 2014
• Citadel, 2015 (Bibliomysteries / Death Sentences series)
• Front Sight, 2024

Non-Fiction Books in Publication Order

• Violent Screen: A Critic’s 13 Years on the Front Lines of Movie Mayhem, 1995
• American Gunfight, 2005 (with John Bainbridge Jr)
• Now Playing at the Valencia, 2005

Bibliomysteries Books in Publication Order

Stephen Hunter Biography – About the Author

Born in 1946 in Kansas City, Missouri, Stephen Hunter grew up in Evanston, Illinois. His mother, Virginia Ricker Hunter, was a children’s books author, and his father, Charles Francis Swagger, was a Northwestern University professor, teaching speech, TV production, and film.

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.

While he grew up in a home surrounded by books, in an environment that could easily foster his creativity, he also grew up with an abusive parent. In various interviews he mentioned:

I was achingly aware of the vast distance between the ideal and the real: my father was an abusive alcoholic with tendencies toward violence and psychological destruction of his children. Having a better and more productive life than my monster father has been my most significant accomplishment.

He also mentioned that his father was pushed from a third‑floor window by two male prostitutes. Apparently Charles was gay, and the family learned about that identity only after his death.

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’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. These novels 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, The Gun Man Jackson Swagger, is a Western set in 1890, which makes this the earliest story in the whole Swaggerverse.

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.

Stephen Hunter Awards and Nominations

• Stephen Hunter won the ASNE Distinguished Writing Award (Criticism) by the American Society of Newspaper Editors in 1998
• Stephen Hunter won the Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Criticism by The Pulitzer Prizes in 2003
• Stephen Hunter won the POMA/NSSF Grits Gresham Shooting Sports Communicator Award by the Professional Outdoor Media Association and the National Shooting Sports Foundation in 2020
• Hot Springs was nominated for the Hammett Prize by the International Association of Crime Writers in 2000
• Pale Horse Coming was nominated for the Audie Award in the Best Male Narrator category by the Audio Publishers Association in 2004
• Night of Thunder was nominated for the Barry Award in the Best Thriller category by Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine in 2009