Brad Taylor Books in Order: Pike Logan Series Guide

By T.L. BransonThriller

Brad Taylor books in order are pretty straightforward if you stick with publication order, but the Pike Logan short stories make the timeline a little trickier.

The Pike Logan series follows a former elite Taskforce operator whose life has been shattered by personal tragedy. From there, Pike, Jennifer Cahill, and the Taskforce get pulled into high-stakes counterterrorism missions around the world.

For a first read, I’d start with publication order. That lets you meet the characters the way Taylor introduced them, and it keeps the short stories from spoiling bigger moments in the novels.

Jump to:

Brad Taylor Books by Publication Order

This is the simplest way to read the Brad Taylor books. Start with the Pike Logan novels, then add the short stories and novellas where you want extra Taskforce stories along the way.

Pike Logan Novels

  1. One Rough Man (2011)
  2. All Necessary Force (2012)
  3. Enemy of Mine (2013)
  4. The Widow’s Strike (2013)
  5. The Polaris Protocol (2014)
  6. Days of Rage (2014)
  7. No Fortunate Son (2014)
  8. The Insider Threat (2015)
  9. The Forgotten Soldier (2015)
  10. Ghosts of War (2016)
  11. Ring of Fire (2017)
  12. Operator Down (2018)
  13. Daughter of War (2019)
  14. Hunter Killer (2020)
  15. American Traitor (2021)
  16. End of Days (2022)
  17. The Devil’s Ransom (2023)
  18. Dead Man’s Hand (2024)
  19. Into the Gray Zone (2025)
  20. Shadow Strike (2026)

Pike Logan Short Stories and Novellas

  1. The Callsign (2012)
  2. Gut Instinct (2013)
  3. Black Flag (2013)
  4. The Dig (2014)
  5. The Recruit (2015)
  6. The Target (2016)
  7. The Infiltrator (2017)
  8. The Ruins (2018)
  9. Exit Fee (2019)
  10. The Honeymoon Heist (2023)

Brad Taylor Chronological Order

This list places the Pike Logan novels and short stories by story timeline instead of release date.

I don’t recommend this order for first-time readers. Brad Taylor has said publication order works better because the short stories were written to flesh out characters after readers already know them. Some of the short stories also reveal things that land better later in the series.

The biggest example is The Target. It comes first by timeline because it takes place before the Taskforce exists, but it doesn’t work well as an entry point because Pike and Jennifer aren’t the focus. The Recruit is tricky too. It takes place before All Necessary Force, but it can spoil later events, so I’d save this full chronological list for a reread.

  1. The Target (pre-Taskforce short story)
  2. The Callsign (before One Rough Man)
  3. One Rough Man (2011)
  4. The Ruins (after One Rough Man)
  5. The Dig (before All Necessary Force)
  6. The Recruit (before All Necessary Force, but spoiler-heavy for a first read)
  7. All Necessary Force (2012)
  8. Enemy of Mine (2013)
  9. Gut Instinct (after Enemy of Mine)
  10. The Widow’s Strike (2013)
  11. Black Flag (after The Widow’s Strike)
  12. The Polaris Protocol (2014)
  13. Days of Rage (2014)
  14. No Fortunate Son (2014)
  15. The Insider Threat (2015)
  16. The Forgotten Soldier (2015)
  17. Ghosts of War (2016)
  18. Ring of Fire (2017)
  19. The Infiltrator (after Ring of Fire)
  20. Operator Down (2018)
  21. Daughter of War (2019)
  22. Exit Fee (after Daughter of War)
  23. Hunter Killer (2020)
  24. American Traitor (2021)
  25. End of Days (2022)
  26. The Devil’s Ransom (2023)
  27. The Honeymoon Heist (after The Devil’s Ransom)
  28. Dead Man’s Hand (2024)
  29. Into the Gray Zone (2025)
  30. Shadow Strike (2026)

Who Is Brad Taylor?

Brad Taylor was born in Okinawa, Japan, and grew up on a rural Texas ranch. He attended the University of Texas before joining the U.S. Army Infantry.

Before becoming a novelist, Taylor spent more than two decades in the Army, including time in 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta. That background gives the Pike Logan books a strong military-thriller feel, especially in the Taskforce missions, tradecraft, and counterterrorism details.

His debut, One Rough Man, introduced Pike Logan and Jennifer Cahill. The series has continued from there with a mix of full-length novels and shorter Taskforce stories.

Looking for more books in order?

If you want more thriller authors and reading-order guides like this one, start with my Thriller Books in Order index.

4 thoughts on “Brad Taylor Books in Order: Pike Logan Series Guide”

  1. Wow. A lot of work put into this! Whenever I’m asked this question, I always recommend reading in publication order because the short stories flesh out the characters that are already known – and some of the short stories, such as The Recruit, if read in “chronological order” will give away spoilers for future full length novels (meaning they were published AFTER the novel in question, but set BEFORE that novel). In addition, some of the chronological order is incorrect. The Callsign is set BEFORE the activities of One Rough Man. The Target – the origin story of Aaron and Shoshana – is set before the Taskforce even exists, but reading that short story as the very first thing does nothing for the understanding of the series as a whole. It’s only AFTER Aaron and Shoshana are introduced in the full length novels that it makes sense. Hope this helps!

    Reply

    1. Amazing, thank you! A lot of research went into it, but of course it’s hard to know exactly where some things fall. I appreciate the insight! I believe that I’ve updated the chronological list according to your direction. Thanks again!

      Reply

  2. Well, my hope would have been that you wouldn’t recommend reading in chronological order, because reading The Target as the very first thing in the Taskforce series completely destroys the reason I wrote it and doesn’t include either Pike or Jennifer, but if you want to do that, then here is another correction: The Recruit is set before All Necessary Force, as it’s Decoy’s recruitment into the Taskforce and he’s a main character firmly entrenched by then. AND IT’S FULL OF SPOILERS FOR DAYS OF RAGE, five books later. But okay…I know you said I didn’t recommend reading this way, and I appreciate it, but I’d rather you just copied and pasted my first comment and said, “Here’s what the author said.” Thanks for all the work, though!

    Reply

    1. Your comment makes sense, but I would suggest a forewarning for readers who are reading The Recruit anywhere after Days of Rage. For me (and I’m currently reading the series for the first time, but reading the entire series straight through), it was immediately jarring to see one of the main characters just a few days after reading Days of Rage, and had a hard time focusing on the story because the events in Days of Rage kept coming to mind.

      As an aside, there are several different sites that offer lists of suggested reading order for the Taskforce series, and the lists vary pretty significantly. I see from your first comment that you usually suggest reading in publication order, but I didn’t find this site (and thus this note) until after I was 7 books and 4 short stories in. Can I suggest that you add a note to your website with your suggested reading order?
      Thank you, and please keep writing, your style is exquisite and your detailed, well researched prose combined with plausible problems and solutions make your book almost impossible to put down!

      Reply

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