Steve Berry Books In Order – Complete List

Steve Berry is a New York Times bestselling author of his Cotton Malone adventure novels. He also wrote several similar-style standalone books as well, along with his Cassiopeia Witt Adventures and the new Luke Daniels series.

Here are the Steve Berry books in order for his series and his standalone books, listed by year of publication.

Latest Steve Berry Books

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Cotton Malone Books in Publication Order

1. The Templar Legacy (#1), 2006
2. The Alexandria Link (#2), 2007
3. The Venetian Betrayal (#3), 2007
4. The Charlemagne Pursuit (#4), 2008
5. The Paris Vendetta (#5), 2009
6. The Balkan Escape (#5.5), 2010
7. The Emperor’s Tomb ( #6), 2010
8. The Devil’s Gold ( #6.5), 2011 (included in The Jefferson’s Key)
9. The Jefferson Key (#7), 2011
10. The Admiral’s Mark (#0.5), 2012 (prequel novella)
11. The Tudor Plot (#7.5), 2013
12. The King’s Deception (#8), 2013
13. The Lincoln Myth (#9), 2014
14. The Patriot Threat ( #10), 2015
15. The 14th Colony ( #11), 2016
16. The Lost Order (#12), 2017
17. The Devil’s Due, (#12.5), 2017
18. The Bishop’s Pawn (#13), 2018
19. The Malta Exchange (#14), 2019
20. The Warsaw Protocol (#15), 2020
21. The Kaiser’s Web (#16), 2021
22. The Last Kingdom (#17), 2023
23. The Atlas Maneuver (#18), 2024
24. The Medici Return (#19), 2025

Cotton Malone Short Stories in Order of Publication

• The Balkan Escape, 2010
• The Devil’s Gold, 2011
• The Admiral’s Mark, 2012
• The Tudor Plot, 2013
• The Devil’s Due, 2017

Cassiopeia Vitt Adventure Books in Publication Order

with M.J. Rose

1. The Balkan Escape (0.5), 2020 (prequel short story to Emperor’s Tomb)
2. The Museum of Mysteries (#1), 2018
3. The Lake of Learning (#2), 2019
4. The House of Long Ago (#3), 2020
5. The End of Forever (#4), 2021

Luke Daniels Books in Publication Order

with Grant Blackwood

1. The 9th Man (#1), 2023
2. Red Star Falling (#2), 2024

Standalone Novels in Order of Publication

• The Amber Room, 2003
• The Romanov Prophecy, 2004
• The Third Secret, 2005
• The Columbus Affair, 2012
• The Omega Factor, 2022
• The List, 2025

Novellas and Short Stories in Order of Publication

• The Devil’s Bones, 2014 (novella) with James Rollins (included in FaceOff)
• Past Prologue, 2018 (novella) with Diana Gabaldon (MatchUp Collection)

Anthologies in Order of Publication

• Thriller: Stories to Keep You Up All Night, 2006 (edited by James Patterson)
• First Thrills, 2010 (edited by Lee Child)
• Suspense Magazine January 2010, 2010
• First Thrills: Volume 2, 2010 (edited by Lee Child)
• FaceOff, 2014
• MatchUp, 2017 (edited by Lee Child)
• Stories from Suffragette City, 2020

Who Is Cotton Malone?

Cotton Malone’s real name is Harold Malone. Initially, he worked for the Navy Jag as a lawyer, after which he entered the world of espionage when he went to work for the Magellan Billet, a covert U.S. Justice Department agency. Now, a retired person, he moved to Copenhagen and opened a rare bookstore. With selling antiquarian books, he hoped to live a quiet life abroad.

However, his quiet life was not meant to be fore long because he was suddenly pulled back into action by his old colleagues, which is when some old secrets from his past surfaced.

Malone is knowledgeable about history, law, and espionage, which makes him well-suited for the new missions. Thus, due to his past job and his experience in dealing with dangerous cases, he is often called to travel around the world for his “new” part-time job. Thus his life as a retired agent turned bookseller is anything but ordinary.

Steve Berry Biography – About the Author

Steve Berry was born in 1955 in Georgia where he was also raised. He is currently living in St. Augustine, Florida.

He graduated from the Walter F. George School of Law at Mercer University, after which he became a trial lawyer. He held this position for 30 years, out of which he kept the elective office for 14 years.

He is the perfect example of the motto ‘never give up trying until you succeed’. He started writing fiction novels in 1990 and it took him no less than 12 years and being rejected 85 times with his 5 manuscripts before he finally got published by Ballantine Books in 2003 with The Amber Room.

When asked why did he not simply give up after all these rejections, he said that a lot of credit is due to the Catholic school nuns who taught him discipline and perseverance to write novels and search for a suitable publisher for his works.

Of course, the fact that the world became ready for his work had also something to do with his luck. He openly admits that Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code was the book that made publishers seek other works that complement it, and The Amber Room easily fit that classification. And it became published and it became a hit. And soon other books followed.

He worked as a lawyer until 2008. It was after were here 8 Steve Berry books published that the author finally retired from his daytime job to write books full-time. His books have appeared in the New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly.

Steve Berry’s books have so far been published in over 40 languages selling in 51 countries, and the author has so far over 18 million novels published overall.

While the Cotton Malone books are the most popular of Steve Berry’s fiction works, he first started writing standalone thriller novels including The Amber Room, The Romanov Prophecy, and The Third Secret. The Romanov Prophecy was, in fact, the first book I’ve read by the author, which invariably led me to his famous adventure thriller series.

The Templar Legacy, Steve Berry’s first Cotton Malone novel, was declared by a 2010 NPR survey one of the top 100 thrillers ever written.

Currently, the Cotton Malone historical mystery/adventure series includes 14 main books and a few short novellas. The Bishop’s Pawn is published early 2018, and as usual, it features Malone dealing with an ancient historical puzzle. This time, the case revolves around Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination, which was also the very first case Malone investigated some 18 years ago, where the story takes the reader back as well.

The revelations about the American icon’s assassination are so explosive that they could ruin a lot of lives, including some innocent ones. Still, Cotton Malone wants to see the case through to the very end.

In The Malta Exchange, Malone enters the world of the Vatican with its corrupt cardinals, he meets rogue Maltese Knights and is on the trail of those famous letters between Winston Churchill and Benito Mussolini. Even though Cotton is now a retired spy and current rare bookseller, he won’t stay away when a new, dangerous mission presents itself to the team.

The character is a former Justice Dept. operative who now is the proud owner of a bookstore in Copenhagen, Denmark. While he wants to lead a quiet life with his books, Malone invariably gets drawn back to the old and dangerous situations he used to be involved in as an active operative.

Cotton Malone is a very ordinary guy thrown into dangerous situations. Steve basically modeled him after his own character, except the author doesn’t’ shoot guns or put himself into perilous situations that Malone always finds himself in all the time.

The author had the first idea for him while he was sitting in a cafe in Copenhagen. One could say that Malone was born in Denmark.

For his books, he does a lot of research, often half a year of research even before he sits down to write the novel, followed by additional months of work. Steve Berry likes to keep as close to true life as possible, even though his books are all fiction.

The Steve Berry book list in chronological order includes all the Cotton Malone novels as well as his historical adventure standalone books. The author has also written three separate novellas, one in collaboration with James Rollins, published as The Devil’s Bones, the second one, another short novella titled The Devil’s Due, and the third, Past Prologue, in collaboration with the famous time-travel romance author, Diana Gabaldon, known for her Outlander series.

In fact, this book is a merging of two worlds: Diana’s Outlander world with Berry’s current Cotton world, where Malone gets to meet first-hand the dashing Jamie Fraser. If you also like the Outlander short stories books, this story is a delight to read, at least it was for me. The story, Past Prologue, mixes the modern-day historical thriller style with Diana Gabaldon’s time traveling world.

While there is no time travel in it, many readers have wondered how the two people from completely different timelines could come together. Well, Jamie is in his home court, while Cotton Malone is reimagined as a soldier fighting in the Jacobite Rising during the during the Battle of Culloden in 1746. Basically they unite to protect a vital document which is tied to intriguing mysteries that could easily alter the course of our history. It’s an intriguing short tale worth reading, especially since it can be read extremely quickly.

In addition to writing books, he is also a founding member of the ITW group which includes over 2600 authors from all corners of the world. He was also co-president of the group for 3 years.

With his wife Elizabeth, Steve has also created a foundation called History Matters dedicated to preserving historical treasures, which is one of his main loves in life, a love that he shares with his wife.

Steve Berry’s work in historical preservation has been recognized several times, with the American Library Association naming him a spokesperson for National Preservation Week both in 2012 and 2013.

Besides his famous series, Steve Berry has also several stand alone novels worth reading, including The Amber Room, the Romanov Prophecy, and The Columbus Affair. The List is a new stand alone novel published in July 2025.

What Are the New Steve Berry Books

His latest books are The Medici Return as part of the Cotton Malone series (February 2025) and a standalone novel titled The List (July 2025).

Steve Berry Awards and Nominations

Over the years, Steve Berry has received or was nominated for several notable awards for his books and literary achievements.

• Steve Berry received the Annual Fiction Contest (State Bar of Georgia) twice before being published
• He received the Georgia Writer’s Association Author of the Year Award for The Romanov Prophecy in 2005
• He also received the Amelia Book Island Festival Stellar Award in 2005
• The Charlemagne Pursuit was selected as one of the Library Journal’s 5 Best Thrillers of the Year in 2008 and was nominated for the CrimeFest: eDunnit Award in 2010
• The Templar Legacy was named one of NPR’s Top 100 Thrillers in 2010
• Steve Berry received the Amelia Island Book Festival Literary Leader Award in 2010
• He received the Royden B. Davis Distinguished Author Award from the University of Scranton in 2011
• Steve Berry was the American Library Association’s National Spokesperson for Preservation Week in 2012 and 2013
• He received the Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award from Poets & Writers in 2013 and the International Thriller Writers Silver Bullet Award in 2013, along with the Anne Frank Center Human Writes Award in 2013 for a body of work exploring ideals synonymous with Anne Frank
• The Lincoln Myth was named one of Suspense Magazine’s Best Books in 2014
• Steve Berry received the Cobb Library Foundation Author of the Year Award (Carol and Jim Ney Literary Award) in 2015
• The Patriot Threat was recognized with the Audie Award (Audio Publishers Association) for Best Thriller/Suspense Audio Production in 2015
• FaceOff (co-edited by Steve Berry) was nominated for the Anthony Award for Best Anthology/Collection in 2015
• Steve Berry received the Florida Writers Association Writer of the Year Award in 2017
• In addition, he and his wife, Elizabeth, received the San Jacinto Star Award (Texas) in 2017 for their philanthropic work with History Matters
• The Lost Order was recognized as RT Book Reviewers’ Thriller of the Year in 2018