Andrew Klavan Books in Order (Updated September 10, 2026)

Andrew Klavan is an American novelist, screenwriter, and nonfiction writer whose fiction ranges from psychological suspense and crime to young-adult action, fantasy, supernatural thrillers, and espionage. His major recurring series include Cameron Winter, the Homelanders, MindWar, Another Kingdom, Weiss and Bishop, and the John Wells novels originally published under the name Keith Peterson.

Klavan has also written many standalones, including Don’t Say a Word, True Crime, Empire of Lies, The Identity Man, A Killer in the Wind, and Werewolf Cop. The easiest way to organize his bibliography is to keep each named series together and treat the standalones separately.

Choose an Andrew Klavan series by mood

• For adult literary crime: Begin Cameron Winter with When Christmas Comes.
• For a completed young-adult chase story: Start the Homelanders with The Last Thing I Remember.
• For cyber-thriller science fiction: Begin MindWar with MindWar.
• For portal fantasy: Start Another Kingdom with Another Kingdom.
• For hard-boiled investigative fiction: Read the Keith Peterson John Wells books from The Trapdoor.
• For a standalone psychological thriller: Try Don’t Say a Word or True Crime.

Cameron Winter mysteries in order

Cameron Winter is a former government assassin who has left clandestine work behind and become an English professor. He is intelligent, emotionally damaged, and unusually sensitive to the moral patterns beneath violent crimes. His investigations often awaken memories from the covert career he would prefer to forget.

1. When Christmas Comes (2021): Cameron investigates the murder of a wealthy woman in a small town after a former colleague asks him to look beyond the apparently obvious suspect and determine what really happened.
2. A Strange Habit of Mind (2022): The death of a former student draws Winter into the world of powerful technology interests, wealth, and people whose public respectability may conceal violent behavior.
3. The House of Love and Death (2023): The slaughter of a wealthy family inside an elegant home sends Winter into an investigation where class, desire, family secrets, and calculated violence overlap.
4. A Woman Underground (2024): Winter searches for a woman from his past and finds his former life as a covert operative colliding directly with the academic existence he has tried to build.
5. After That, the Dark (2025): Winter investigates another morally complicated crime while his memories of assassination work and his effort to understand his own damaged conscience become increasingly central.
6. Find Me Nowhere (forthcoming October 20, 2026): Winter’s former recruiter asks him to investigate the apparent connection between a soldier killed near Afghanistan and the soldier’s father, who is murdered in a struggling Pennsylvania town called Nowhere.

Five Cameron Winter mysteries have been released through After That, the Dark. Find Me Nowhere is scheduled for October 20, 2026 and should remain labeled forthcoming until publication.

Cameron Winter’s past is the continuity that matters

The individual murder cases usually stand on their own, but Winter’s former life as an assassin develops from book to book. Later novels reveal more about the Recruiter, the covert organization that trained him, the people he killed, and the psychological cost of living for years as a professional instrument of violence.

That makes publication order the strongest route. A reader can understand one later mystery independently, but Winter’s emotional arc is much clearer when his memories and relationships are revealed gradually.

The Homelanders is one continuous four-book chase

The Homelanders follows teenager Charlie West, who wakes up restrained by terrorists with no memory of the previous year. He escapes only to discover that the police also want him for murder and that he has no idea which side believes the truth.

1. The Last Thing I Remember (2009): Charlie wakes in a torture room and escapes, but the world outside is almost as dangerous because he is accused of crimes he cannot remember committing.
2. The Long Way Home (2009): Charlie returns toward the people and places he knew before his memory vanished, searching for evidence that can explain how an ordinary teenager became a fugitive.
3. The Truth of the Matter (2010): Charlie begins recovering crucial memories about the terrorist group pursuing him and learns more about the mission that placed him inside their organization.
4. The Final Hour (2011): Charlie’s struggle with the Homelanders reaches its conclusion as he confronts the terrorist plan, the accusations against him, and the final pieces of the year he lost.

These four books should be read strictly in order. They function as parts of one long narrative, and each installment begins with Charlie carrying the consequences of the previous book.

MindWar turns gaming ability into a national-security weapon

Rick Dial was a star high-school quarterback until an accident damaged his legs and ended his athletic future. His intense gaming skill attracts the attention of a secret government program because a terrorist named Kurodar has created a computerized world known as the Realm.

1. MindWar (2014): Rick is recruited to enter the Realm, where his mind and gaming instincts may allow him to stop Kurodar from using a cyber system to attack the United States.
2. Hostage Run (2015): Terrorists kidnap Rick’s friend Molly and force him to choose between protecting her and returning to the Realm to prevent another attack.
3. Game Over (2016): Rick begins entering the Realm involuntarily as the virtual world breaks through into his waking life, forcing him toward a final confrontation with Kurodar and MindWar itself.

The trilogy is one connected story. Start with MindWar and continue directly through Game Over.

Another Kingdom moves between Los Angeles and a fantasy world

The Another Kingdom trilogy follows Austin Lively, a struggling Hollywood screenwriter who unexpectedly finds himself transported into a dangerous alternate realm. He does not initially know whether the fantasy world is real, whether Los Angeles is real, or whether his mind is breaking down.

1. Another Kingdom (2018): Austin begins slipping between modern Los Angeles and a medieval world where he is accused of murder and must understand why two realities appear to be competing for his life.
2. The Nightmare Feast (2020): Austin’s movement between worlds continues as political danger, supernatural forces, and unresolved questions about his identity become more difficult to separate.
3. The Emperor’s Sword (2021): The conflict between Austin’s realities reaches its conclusion as he must decide what is true and what role he is meant to play in the kingdom’s struggle.

Another Kingdom is a completed trilogy and should be read in publication order.

Weiss and Bishop are a three-book hard-boiled detective team

Jim Bishop works for private investigator Scott Weiss in a darker adult crime trilogy. The books combine private investigation, violent criminal networks, obsession, and men who repeatedly place themselves too close to people they are hunting.

1. Dynamite Road (2003): Weiss and Bishop investigate dangerous criminals operating around California while Bishop becomes increasingly personally involved with the people the agency is tracking.
2. Shotgun Alley (2004): Bishop goes undercover among violent motorcycle criminals and discovers that surviving the assignment may require crossing lines even Weiss cannot easily control.
3. Damnation Street (2005): Weiss and Bishop’s relationship with a woman linked to a serial killer brings the trilogy toward a violent conclusion where love, obsession, and professional duty are impossible to separate.

Read all three in order. The character relationships and consequences build directly from one book to the next.

The Keith Peterson books introduced reporter John Wells

Klavan published four crime novels under the name Keith Peterson featuring John Wells, a persistent newspaper reporter for the New York Star. These should not be confused with the later John Wells espionage series by Alex Berenson.

1. The Trapdoor (1988, as Keith Peterson): Reporter John Wells investigates a troubling teenage suicide and begins uncovering evidence suggesting that the death belongs to a much larger story.
2. There Fell a Shadow (1988, as Keith Peterson): Wells continues using old-fashioned reporting, interviews, persistence, and skepticism while pursuing another case where the official explanation leaves important questions unanswered.
3. The Rain (1988, as Keith Peterson): A new investigation places Wells inside a dark urban crime story and became one of Klavan’s most celebrated early books, winning an Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original.
4. Rough Justice (1989, as Keith Peterson): Wells returns for the fourth and final novel as crime reporting again brings him into direct conflict with people who would rather control the story than see it published.

The four John Wells books form a complete sequence. The Trapdoor is the safest starting point even though publication information for the three 1988 titles can sometimes make the exact release sequence look compressed.

Keith Peterson also appears on standalone fiction

Klavan used the Keith Peterson name for work beyond John Wells. The Scarred Man is a standalone psychological thriller rather than a fifth Wells book.

Gold Rush has also appeared under the Keith Peterson name in later editions. Readers should therefore identify the protagonist and original work rather than assuming that every Keith Peterson title belongs to John Wells.

Andrew Klavan standalones in a useful publication sequence

1. Face of the Earth (1980): Klavan’s early novel examines identity, relationships, and personal crisis before the crime and thriller structures that later dominate his career.
2. Agnes Mallory (1985): A literary novel centered on memory and a complicated woman gives readers an early example of Klavan outside genre conventions.
3. Mrs. White (1983, as Margaret Tracy, with Laurence Klavan): Written with his brother under a shared pseudonym, the novel is a psychological crime story about an apparently ordinary woman and the disturbing violence hidden inside suburban life.
4. Darling Clementine (1988): Klavan combines crime, relationships, and emotional instability in another early independent novel.
5. Son of Man (1988): Family, morality, and violence shape a darker standalone that does not connect to John Wells despite appearing during the same period.
6. The Scarred Man (1989, as Keith Peterson): A story told about a frightening scarred stranger gradually becomes a psychological mystery about whether the tale is memory, invention, or warning.
7. Don’t Say a Word (1991): A psychiatrist’s daughter is kidnapped, and the abductors demand that he extract information from a traumatized patient who has refused to reveal what she knows.
8. The Animal Hour (1992): A woman discovers that people no longer seem to recognize her and becomes caught in a surreal conspiracy where identity itself feels unstable.
9. Corruption (1994): Political ambition, crime, and moral compromise drive a thriller about the price paid when public and private wrongdoing become inseparable.
10. True Crime (1995): A journalist with only hours to work becomes convinced that a prisoner scheduled for execution is innocent and races to find evidence before the sentence is carried out.
11. Suicide (1996): Klavan uses an investigation into death and motive to examine whether an apparent suicide conceals a more complicated crime.
12. The Uncanny (1998): A writer drawn to supernatural stories begins investigating a strange case where folklore, belief, and reality become increasingly hard to separate.
13. Hunting Down Amanda (1999): A man becomes involved in protecting a woman and child while violent pursuers close in around them.
14. Man and Wife (2001): A man’s marriage and understanding of the woman he loves are disrupted by revelations suggesting that her past may not be what he believed.
15. Empire of Lies (2008): A former radical who has rebuilt his life becomes convinced that a terrorist plot is developing around him and must decide how far to go when almost nobody believes his suspicions.
16. The Identity Man (2010): A fugitive criminal receives a new face and identity from mysterious benefactors, then discovers that the second life he has been given comes with obligations and enemies.
17. Crazy Dangerous (2012): Teenager Sam Hopkins befriends a troubled girl whose frightening visions may contain clues to a real threat, forcing him to decide whether believing her will save lives or destroy his own.
18. If We Survive (2012): American teenagers on a humanitarian trip are trapped in a foreign country after a violent revolution and must cross hostile territory to reach safety.
19. A Killer in the Wind (2013): Former undercover cop Dan Champion is haunted by an old human-trafficking case and begins seeing signs that the criminal nightmare he thought he escaped has returned.
20. Nightmare City (2013): A teenage journalist wakes to find his town apparently deserted and begins searching for an explanation while increasingly disturbing forces close around him.
21. Werewolf Cop (2015): Detective Zach Adams pursues a criminal conspiracy while confronting a supernatural transformation that threatens his family, his moral judgment, and his ability to remain human.

Don’t Say a Word and True Crime became major film adaptations

Don’t Say a Word was adapted into a film starring Michael Douglas, while True Crime became a film directed by and starring Clint Eastwood.

The films are separate adaptations and should not be used as part of the novel reading order. Changes in characters, pacing, and plot do not alter the standalone status of the books.

Klavan’s nonfiction forms another distinct shelf

1. The Crisis in the Arts (2014): Klavan argues about the relationship between culture, artistic freedom, politics, and moral imagination.
2. The Great Good Thing (2016): A memoir traces Klavan’s movement from a secular Jewish background through personal and intellectual struggles toward Christian faith.
3. The Truth and Beauty (2022): Klavan examines the poetry, life, and spiritual development of William Wordsworth while connecting literary beauty with questions of belief.
4. The Kingdom of Cain (2025): Literature about violence and evil becomes the basis for a broader argument about conscience, darkness, art, and the search for moral truth.

What is Andrew Klavan publishing in 2026?

The fifth Cameron Winter mystery, After That, the Dark, remains the newest released novel as of September 10, 2026.

Find Me Nowhere is scheduled for October 20, 2026 as Cameron Winter book six. The announced plot brings the Recruiter back into Winter’s life and asks him to investigate two deaths separated by continents but connected by one family.

The Homelanders, MindWar, Another Kingdom, Weiss and Bishop, and Keith Peterson John Wells sequences remain complete with no new volumes announced.

Andrew Klavan bibliography questions

What is the first Cameron Winter book?

When Christmas Comes, published in 2021, introduces Cameron Winter.

How many Cameron Winter books are released?

Five have been released through After That, the Dark. Find Me Nowhere is scheduled as book six in October 2026.

How many Homelanders books are there?

Four, beginning with The Last Thing I Remember and ending with The Final Hour.

Who is Keith Peterson?

Keith Peterson is a pseudonym used by Andrew Klavan for several early crime novels, including the four John Wells reporter mysteries.

Is Klavan’s John Wells the same as Alex Berenson’s John Wells?

No. Klavan’s John Wells is a newspaper reporter published under the Keith Peterson name. Alex Berenson later created an entirely separate espionage protagonist with the same name.

How many MindWar novels are there?

Three: MindWar, Hostage Run, and Game Over.

Is Another Kingdom complete?

Yes. It is a three-book trilogy ending with The Emperor’s Sword.

A clean way through Andrew Klavan’s very different genres

Read Cameron Winter in publication order because the cases gradually reveal his assassin past. Keep the Homelanders, MindWar, Another Kingdom, Weiss and Bishop, and John Wells books in their own short sequences because each has continuing characters and escalating stakes.

Then choose Klavan’s standalones by premise. Don’t Say a Word, True Crime, Empire of Lies, A Killer in the Wind, and Werewolf Cop do not need to be arranged into one fictional chronology. His nonfiction should remain separate from all of them.