Tom Wood Books In Order - Complete List

New York Times bestselling author Tom Wood is known for his Victor The Assassin thriller novels. Reading the Tom Wood books in proper order means picking up his thriller series featuring Victor, the perfect anti-hero with his strange moral codes which you can’t but be impressed by. He keeps reminding me in a way of Dexter – the serial killer who by any societal moral standards everyone should hate and abhor, yet you can’t but love (the two characters are very different from each other, however).

Here are all the Tom Wood books in order of publication, with the reading order in brackets. As the two novellas come in different places in the chronology vs. their publication order, the book series is also listed in chronological order.

Latest Tom Wood Books

**Firefight** (Victor the Assassin #12), 2024

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Victor The Assassin Books in Publication Order

The Hunter (#1), 2010 (aka The Killer)
Bad Luck In Berlin (#1.5), 2011
The Enemy (#2), 2011
The Game (#3), 2013
Better Off Dead (#4), 2014 (aka No Tomorrow)
The Darkest Day (#5), 2015
A Time to Die (#6), 2016
The Final Hour (#7), 2017
Gone by Dawn (##2.5), 2018
Kill for Me (#8), 2018
A Quiet Man (#9), 2021
Traitor (#10), 2022
Blood Debt (#11), 2023
Firefight (#12), 2024

Victor The Assassin Books In Chronological Order

The Hunter (#1), 2010
Bad Luck In Berlin (#1.5), 2011
The Enemy (#2), 2011
Gone by Dawn (##2.5), 2018
The Game (#3), 2013
Better Off Dead (#4), 2014
The Darkest Day (#5), 2015
A Time to Die (#6), 2016
The Final Hour (#7), 2017
Kill for Me (#8), 2018
A Quiet Man (#9), 2021
Traitor (#10), 2022
Blood Debt (#11), 2023
Firefight (#12), 2024

Short Stories and Novellas in Order of Publication

Bad Luck In Berlin, 2011
Gone by Dawn, 2018

Standalone Novels Written as T.W. Ellis

A Knock at the Door, 2020 (later republished with his name)

Standalone Novels Written as Sam Ripley

The Rule of Three, 2023

Short Story Anthologies in Publication Order

Victor the Assassin Book Overviews

The Hunter (2010)

Victor is a freelancer, a professional, a killer—the best there is. He’s in Paris to perform a standard kill and collect for an anonymous client. The contract is simple, and routine, and Victor completes it with trademark efficiency, only to find himself in the middle of an ambush and fighting for his life.

Faced with powerful and determined enemies, and caught in the crossfire of an international conspiracy unfolding across four continents, Victor is forced to go on the run across a winter-ravaged Europe. Pursued by the authorities, hired assassins, and intelligence agencies from both sides of the Atlantic, he discovers that no place is safe for him anymore and there is no one he can trust. The novel is filled with adrenaline charged action worthy of the big screen.

Bad Luck In Berlin (2011)

Victor’s been out of commission for six months—but as dangerous as ever and still at the top of his game. A former assassin-for-hire now locked in an uneasy alliance with a CIA special unit, Victor is in Berlin preparing for what was supposed to be a simple assignment: taking out the scout of a notorious crime lord. But life—and death—is full of surprises.

The Enemy (2011)

Victor, a former assassin-for-hire, has joined forces with a CIA special unit. His first assignment: Three strangers. Three hits. Fast and clean. Victor’s a natural for this. It should have been simple. But with each hit Victor is plunged deeper into an unimaginable conspiracy where no one, least of all the people he knows, can be trusted.

The Game (2013)

In sweltering Algiers, ultra-efficient hitman Victor executes a fellow assassin. But when the CIA comes calling, Victor must pose as his victim to identify the dead man’s next mark, a mission that takes him across Europe to the bloody streets of Rome.

Better Off Dead (2014)

When Victor is called to meet with an old friend who ultimately betrayed him, what he thought was an ambush is in fact a plea for help. As a Russian gangster, Norimov is accustomed to death threats, but now an unknown enemy wants more than his life.

The Darkest Day (2015)

While carrying out a hit on a terrorist financier, Victor finds himself the target of an assassin, Raven, who proves to be just as deadly as he is. Never one to let such a thing go, Victor sets about hunting down his attacker and those who sent her.

A Time to Die (2016)

Now that professional assassin Victor is indentured to British Intelligence, he is tasked with eliminating the worst of the worst. One such man is Milan Rados, a former Serbian paramilitary commander wanted for war crimes and now head of an organized criminal network in Belgrade. He has escaped justice once already, so it’s Victor’s job to take the justice to him.

The Final Hour (2017)

Antonio Alvarez, a high-ranking US intelligence official, is determined to clean house and find the legendary killer who slipped away from him during an operation in Paris. There’s only one person Victor can turn to for help: a lethal female assassin whose life he once saved. And now Victor wants her to return the favor—by killing him…

Kill for Me (2018)

For years, two sisters have vied for the turf of their dead crime boss father. Across the streets of Guatemala City, bodies have piled up; the US Drug Enforcement Agency, operating far from its own borders, is powerless to stop the fighting.

But now one sister has a weapon that could finally win the war – a cold, amoral hitman known, fittingly, as ‘Victor’.

A Quiet Man (2021)

The assassin known as Victor is hiding out in a small motel in Canada after a job across the border. A few days laying low and he’ll be gone and leave no trace behind.

He doesn’t count on getting to know a mother and her boy who reminds him of his own troubled childhood when he befriends the young boy, Joshua and his mother Michelle, who works there. When both vanish, only Victor seems to notice.

Traitor (2022)

When Victor is arrested for a murder that, for once, he didn’t commit, escape must surely be inevitable for a hitman of his ferocity.

Yet someone wants Victor put away, and he finds himself behind bars, incarcerated by police who have no idea of the monster they are dealing with and have, apparently, tamed.

Blood Debt (2023)

To make amends for past mistakes, the enigmatic assassin known only as Victor is now in servitude to the world’s most dangerous criminal enterprise, the Russian Mafia. Although a hired gun without loyalties, Victor never picks a fight he cannot win so he intends to pay off his debt, however long it takes.

Yet when his new employer is shot dead in London, Victor has both the means and the motive to make him the most likely suspect.

Firefight (2024)

Victor is in Bucharest, Romania, to kill two targets meeting to exchange stolen intelligence his client wants back. It should be a simple task – until he realizes the second of his targets is a former ally. Even for a man of Victor’s twisted morality, he’s not prepared to kill someone to whom he owes his life.

Who is Victor the Assassin?

Victor is an enigmatic and lethal assassin for hire who operates in the shadows, leaving no trace of his existence. He has a mysterious past, and he can easily remove any connections to his previous life. A true loner, he has no family, last name, or any personal history. Victor works on his own and does the contract killings on his own terms.

Victor’s adaptable appearance helps his chameleon-like ability. He can be pretty much anyone, so it’s almost impossible to track him, since they can’t recognize him. He can easily evade his pursuers and can stay one step ahead of everyone who wants to kill him.

Professional assassin Victor is a complex character. His morality is almost non-existent. He is extremely ruthless, and he has a high attention to detail. He is extremely obsessed with keeping a low profile, which helps him always remain undetected.

However, interestingly enough, everyone can’t but be drawn to Victor because his strong charisma makes it difficult not to root for him. He is clearly a complex antihero with a strange moral compass, and readers love antiheroes. He is committed to his work and he can outsmart all his enemies, which is another trait everyone loves about him.

He is known under the name Victor, but he has several aliases that he can use to protect his real identity while helping him blend in different environments and evade the authorities. No one knows even his name.

He is different from, say, Jack Reacher, Mitch Rapp or even Jason Bourne, who do their things “for the right reasons.” The author always loved bad guys more than good guys, so for Tom Wood writing the character of Victor, the absolute villain, felt natural. Victor is careful in his dealings with other people. You could say he is paranoid, trusts no one, and for him, everyone around him is a threat. One of his mottos is, when in doubt, just kill the other person to get your peace of mind. For him, every job is a straight transaction.

Thus he never comes close to anyone, never forms any meaningful connections, and has no real friends. He doesn’t have anyone to confide in and has no love interest. He is truly isolated, and this is exactly what he likes.

The series is perfect for readers of works by Robert Ludlum and Lee Child.

Tom Wood Biography – About the Author

Tom Wood, real name Tom Hinshelwood, was born in Burton Upon Trent in Staffordshire in England in 1978. He is currently living in London. Before becoming a full-time writer he held several jobs, including becoming a freelance video editor and filmmaker.

Tom Wood mentioned in several interviews that he always loved storytelling. Creative writing was his favorite topic in class at school, however, the idea of becoming a full-time author didn’t occur to him until he was already in his twenties.

His first novel, The Hunter (originally published as The Killer), introduces us to Victor, a ruthless assassin who works for the highest bidder. A character that by our moral standards everyone should hate, yet everyone ends up loving. The book is an action-packed cat-and-mouse thriller from the twenty first century from the very first page.

The Hunter was originally published as The Killer under his real name. Debut author Tom Hinshelwood shortened his name to Tom Wood since the higher-ups thought the family name was too long.

The Tom Woods books are all fast-paced and they are written in a cinematic style. The author mentioned that this style of writing suits the pacing of his novels and it suits Victor’s hitman jobs as well. There is no fluff, no extra in Tom Wood’s Victor the Assassin series. Sometimes they feel almost like a movie script. Straight to the point.

Tom Wood’s books also include two standalone novels written under other pseudonyms. As T.W. Ellis, he originally published A Knock at the Door in 2020. Eventually, the novel has been republished under his real name.

Tom Wood released a new novel, The Rule of Three, in 2023 under the name Sam Ripley.

Tom Wood Books Adaptations

In 2014, Tom Wood’s Victor series was discussed to be adapted into a movie for the big screen with the title The Killer by Studiocanal. Pierre Morel who directed Taken (played by Liam Neeson) will be directing the new movie as well.
In August 2024, it was announced that Matthew Fox is set to star in The Assassin, which is a television series adaptation of the book series. The TV series is in development by Max.

Tom Wood Books In Order – Complete List