Tom Wood Books In Order – Complete List

Last Updated on September 20, 2023

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.

New Tom Wood Book

Victor The Assassin Books In Publication Order

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

Victor The Assassin Books In Chronologycal Order

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

Tom Wood Short Stories and Novellas

• Bad Luck In Berlin, 2011
• Gone by Dawn, 2018

Standalone Novels Writing as T.W. Ellis

• A Knock at the Door, 2020 (later republished under his own name)

Standalone Novels Writing as Sam Ripley

• The Rule of Three, 2023

Who is Victor?

In the thriller novels, Victor is an enigmatic and lethal assassin who operates in the shadows, leaving no trace of his existence. His past is shrouded in mystery, and he has managed to erase any connections to a previous life. He is a true loner, devoid of any family, last name, or personal history. Victor thrives in the solitary world of contract killing, and he lives and operates entirely on his own terms.

Victor’s physical appearance is as adaptable as his identity. He possesses a chameleon-like ability to change his appearance, making it nearly impossible for anyone to track him down. He uses this skill to evade his pursuers and to stay one step ahead of anyone who might want to get too close.

Professional assassin Victor is a complex character with a morality that’s fading into obscurity. He is unapologetically ruthless and will do whatever it takes to complete his assignments. His meticulous attention to detail and obsession with maintaining a low profile set him apart from other assassins. He is driven by a relentless pursuit of perfection in his craft, always seeking to improve his methods and remain undetected.

Despite his cold and calculating nature, readers find themselves drawn to Victor. There is an undeniable charisma and intrigue surrounding him that makes it difficult not to root for this antihero. His unwavering commitment to his work and his ability to outsmart his adversaries make him a compelling character.

While he is known as Victor, he operates under numerous aliases to protect his true identity. These aliases help him blend into different environments and evade the authorities. His ability to seamlessly switch between identities is a testament to his resourcefulness and adaptability.

His lack of trust extends to all those he encounters. He regards everyone as a potential threat and maintains a strict policy of never forming personal connections. He has no friends, no confidants, and no emotional attachments. This isolation is both a source of strength and a burden, as it allows him to remain anonymous but also leaves him profoundly alone.

The true motivation behind Victor’s career as an assassin remains a mystery. No one knows what drives him to pursue a life of cold-blooded killing, and he guards his secrets fiercely. He is a man of few words, and his actions speak louder than any explanations he could provide. His inscrutable nature adds to his enigmatic allure.

His journey through the shadowy world of contract killing is one of constant danger, moral ambiguity, and relentless pursuit. He is the embodiment of the ultimate lone wolf, and readers are captivated by his ability to navigate a world where trust is a liability and survival depends on being one step ahead of the game.

In the end, despite his flaws and the darkness that surrounds him, Victor is the perfect antihero, leaving readers torn between rooting for him and fearing his deadly capabilities.

What Is the Latest Book by Tom Wood?

The latest novel is yet another one in the Victor series and is titled Blood Debt, released in November 2023.

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.

Tom Wood mentioned in several interviews that he always loved writing. 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.

Before he became a writer, Tom Wood was a freelance video editor, but prior to that, he held several other jobs as well.

His first novel, The Hunter (published in 2011), 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 Hunter was originally published as The Killer under his real name, Tom Hinshelwood. However, the higher-ups thought the family name was too long, so Tom shortened his author name to Tom Wood.

Tom Wood’s Victorseries will be adapted into a movie with the title The Killer by Studiocanal. Pierre Morel who directed Taken (played by Liam Neeson) will be directing the new movie as well. If it will be anything like Taken or District B13 or Non-Stop and Gunman, or even like The American Assassin, which was made into a movie in 2017 based on the same title novel by Vincy Flynn, it will be awesome.

Tom Wood’s 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 books. Sometimes they feel almost like a movie script. Straight to the point.

Victor is an assassin, a hitman. He is also an antihero with a strange moral compass. He has no crisis of conscience or remorse and has no qualms about killing anyone who needs killing and is not troubled by nightmares in his sleep thereafter.

He is a very compelling character because he’s different from, say, Jack Reacher, Mitch Rapp or even Jason Bourne, all 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 very careful in his dealings with other people. You could say he is even paranoid, and one of his mottos is, when in doubt, just kill the other person to get your peace of mind.

The Tom Wood Victor series is a fascinating one, and it’s interesting that these days there are many authors writing about assassins, about hitman working for the government, or a secret agency, or even for themselves. Jason Bourne and Jack Ryan might have been the first popular spy thriller heroes, but since then, many great authors, including Tom Wood, have brought their own spin onto the genre, much to the delight of their fans.

In The Final Hour, Victor comes face to face with someone from his past: Raven, who owes him a debt from before. Not only that, but he is in the crosshairs of some very powerful national and international enemies, including the CIA. So when Victors knows that the only way for him to escape is to fake his own death, he knows that he needs help.

And currently, the only person he can trust (at all) is Raven. And Raven knows that the only way to repay her debt to Victor is by helping him die.

Just as the previous Tom Wood’s Victor novels, The Final Hour is fast-paced nonstop action. There are very few breathing moments before the action picks up again with chases and hunts left and right.

Victor is a meticulous person and even paranoid. He won’t take action before he plans his next moves down to the smallest of details. And that is in all the Tom Wood series, not only in the latest book.

If you’re wondering whether you should read the author Tom Wood books in proper order for his Victor series, I suggest you do. Victor is a strange character, but one that rapidly grows on you. However, you do need to start at the beginning to really try to figure him out.

In A Quiet Man, enigmatic assassin Victor returns and is busy hiding in a small Canadian motel where he meets a woman working there and her son, and he soon befriends them. When they both go missing, it is Victor’s next mission to track them down and bring them back safely.

Tom Wood’s books also include two standalone novels, both 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.

Under the name Sam Ripley, the author Tom Wood released a new novel in 2023 with the title The Rule of Three.