Andrew Peterson Books in Order (Updated September 9, 2026)

Andrew Peterson is an American thriller writer best known for the Nathan McBride series. McBride is a former Marine scout sniper and CIA operations officer whose covert career left him physically and psychologically scarred after a disastrous mission in Nicaragua.

Peterson has kept his thriller bibliography unusually focused. The seven published Nathan McBride novels form one continuing sequence, with Harvey “Harv” Fontana, FBI agent Holly Simpson, and other recurring characters contributing to Nathan’s development from a damaged former operative into a man repeatedly drawn back toward covert work.

Publication order is also the correct reading order. Each novel has a central mission that can be understood on its own, but Nathan’s trauma, relationships, previous enemies, and history with the CIA become increasingly important as the series progresses.

The Short Answer: Start Nathan McBride with First to Kill

Start with First to Kill. It establishes Nathan’s Marine and CIA background, his scars, his partnership with Harv, his complicated family history, and the moral limits that distinguish him from a simple hired killer.

Do not begin with Ready to Kill simply because it returns Nathan to Nicaragua. The impact of that mission depends heavily on what earlier books have revealed about the torture that ended his CIA career.

Likewise, Hired to Kill works best as book seven because its attack becomes intensely personal for Nathan and draws on relationships the reader has followed throughout the series.

Nathan McBride Books in Reading Order

1. First to Kill (2008): Former FBI director Frank Ortega asks Nathan to find his missing grandson, a deep-cover federal agent who disappeared along with a huge cache of Semtex, drawing Nathan into terrorism, corruption, and unfinished family business.
2. Forced to Kill (first released as an audiobook in 2010, later print and ebook editions): A mutilated body found in Utah bears the signature of Montez de Oca, the Nicaraguan interrogator who tortured Nathan years earlier, forcing him to confront the man responsible for his deepest scars.
3. Option to Kill (2012): A text message from kidnapped twelve-year-old Lauren leads Nathan into a rescue that becomes far more dangerous when the girl claims people inside the Witness Security Program may be involved.
4. Ready to Kill (2014): Nathan and Harv return to Nicaragua after a mysterious embassy message references a secret CIA operation, forcing Nathan back into the jungle where he was tortured and against a killer he once helped train.
5. Contract to Kill (2015): Friend Toby Haynes witnesses a double murder and asks Nathan for help, leading Nathan and Harv into an investigation of a private military contractor and a covert operation connected to violence along the US-Mexico border.
6. Right to Kill (2016): Nathan and Harv interrupt an attempt to kidnap retired CIA station chief Linda Genneken, then race to uncover why trained commandos and a series of South American assassinations are connected to an old mission.
7. Hired to Kill (2018): Coordinated terrorist attacks in San Diego and Washington reveal that Nathan’s family was deliberately targeted, leading him toward North Korean biological weapons, an ISIS camp in Mexico, and a planned attack larger than the first two.

Recommended order: Read all seven books exactly as listed. There is no alternate chronological arrangement that improves the sequence.

Nathan McBride Before the Series Begins

Nathan’s defining history predates First to Kill. He served as a Marine scout sniper before joining the CIA with his close friend Harvey Fontana.

During covert operations in Central and South America, Nathan deliberately allowed himself to be captured so Harv could escape. He then endured weeks of torture in Nicaragua before Harv found and rescued him.

The experience left deep scars across Nathan’s face and body and an equally serious psychological legacy. Peterson reveals and revisits this history across the novels rather than treating it as a single discarded origin story.

First to Kill: The Series Foundation

First to Kill was originally published in 2008 and later acquired and reissued by Thomas & Mercer.

The story begins when Frank Ortega, a former FBI director, needs help finding a missing undercover agent who happens to be his grandson. The disappearance becomes more urgent because a massive supply of Semtex explosives is missing as well.

Nathan discovers that the mission cannot be reduced to simply finding terrorists. High-ranking officials, revenge, corruption, and Nathan’s own family relationships complicate what first appears to be a straightforward recovery operation.

Why it matters later: This book establishes Nathan’s relationship with Holly Simpson and introduces the difficult intersection between his private life and the government world he thought he had left.

Forced to Kill Brings Nathan’s Torturer Back

Forced to Kill makes the trauma described in Nathan’s background immediate. Montez de Oca, the interrogator responsible for torturing Nathan during the failed Nicaraguan mission, appears to have resurfaced on American soil.

A mutilated body recovered from a remote Utah lake carries details Nathan recognizes immediately. His pursuit therefore becomes both a legitimate investigation and a deeply personal test of whether he wants justice or revenge.

Publication-date note: The book first appeared as an audiobook in 2010. Later ebook and print editions were released during Peterson’s transition to Thomas & Mercer, which is why some bibliographies assign a 2012 date and older lists sometimes show another year.

Option to Kill Changes Nathan’s Personal World

Option to Kill begins with an unusual plea for Nathan: a text message from a twelve-year-old girl who says she has been kidnapped.

He rescues Lauren, but the case expands when she explains that she is supposed to be protected by the Witness Security Program and believes officials connected with her protection may have helped the kidnappers.

Peterson uses the situation to test Nathan in a different way. He has extensive experience with weapons, surveillance, interrogation, and covert action, but virtually none with children. Protecting Lauren forces another side of his character to the surface.

Series importance: Read this before the later novels rather than treating Lauren’s story as an isolated case.

Why Ready to Kill Should Be Book Four

Ready to Kill sends Nathan back to the country associated with the worst event of his life.

A mysterious message thrown over the wall of the US embassy in Nicaragua references an old secret operation. CIA Director Rebecca Cantrell asks Nathan and Harv to investigate, placing Nathan back in the same jungle from which he barely escaped alive years earlier.

The threat becomes even more personal when Nathan learns that the killer he may be hunting was trained using techniques connected to Nathan himself.

Do not use this as a prequel. Although it revisits Nathan’s old Nicaraguan history, the novel takes place after the first three books and assumes the reader already understands his scars and psychological conflicts.

Contract to Kill Moves Toward Private Military Power

Contract to Kill begins when Toby Haynes witnesses what appears to be a double murder and suspects his employer, Tanner Mason.

Toby asks Nathan for help, and Nathan and Harv quietly investigate Mason, who serves as security chief for a major private military contractor. The deeper they look, the more complicated the supposed murder becomes.

The contractor is involved in a secret response to crime along the US-Mexico border, and Nathan has to determine whether the killings were part of an authorized covert strategy or evidence of something more dangerous.

Book five: The novel broadens Nathan’s world beyond the direct personal enemies that dominate several earlier installments.

Right to Kill Unfolds Over a Compressed Timeline

Right to Kill begins with a direct attack on retired CIA station chief Linda Genneken.

Nathan and Harv arrive during the attempted kidnapping and immediately recognize that the attackers are trained professionals rather than ordinary criminals. Their investigation raises the possibility that the raid is connected to an earlier South American rescue operation that nearly killed Nathan.

At the same time, a string of assassinations points toward a broader criminal plan with international consequences.

Series position: Keep it after Contract to Kill. Nathan and Harv’s accumulated CIA history is increasingly important by this point.

Hired to Kill Raises the Stakes Around Nathan’s Family

The seventh novel opens with deadly attacks in both San Diego and Washington, DC. Nathan soon discovers that the violence was not random and that the people behind it deliberately selected targets connected to his family.

The conspiracy expands to include sabotage at a North Korean biological-weapons facility and an ISIS training camp in northern Mexico. A third and potentially much larger attack is still being prepared.

Nathan joins forces with longtime family friend Vincent Beaumont, whose private military company provides resources for a mission involving both US Border Patrol and CIA support.

Read this last among the published novels. Nathan’s instinct for revenge collides with mission requirements that demand capturing the conspirators alive, giving the conflict more weight after six previous books have established his methods and loyalties.

Nathan McBride’s Relationship with Harv Fontana

Harvey “Harv” Fontana is more than a recurring sidekick. He and Nathan served together in the Marines and later joined the CIA, creating a partnership built long before the first novel begins.

Harv is also the man who rescued Nathan after his torture in Nicaragua. That shared history explains why Nathan trusts him in situations where he distrusts nearly everyone else.

Ready to Kill makes that old history particularly important because both men return to the environment connected with Nathan’s capture. Contract to Kill and Right to Kill also rely heavily on their established teamwork.

Holly Simpson and the Personal Continuity

FBI agent Holly Simpson becomes another recurring part of Nathan’s life beginning in the early series.

Peterson does not treat Nathan as a character who resets emotionally at the end of every mission. His relationships, capacity for trust, and attempts to build an ordinary private life continue to change as he repeatedly returns to violence.

Readers interested primarily in action can still follow each book’s central plot, but the personal material rewards publication-order reading.

Nathan’s Nicaragua Timeline

Nicaragua is central to the character even though the original torture mission takes place before the published novels.

1. Before the series: Nathan and Harv conduct CIA operations in the region, Nathan is captured, and Montez de Oca tortures him before Harv stages a rescue.
2. Forced to Kill: Montez de Oca’s possible return forces Nathan to confront the man responsible for that trauma.
3. Ready to Kill: Nathan physically returns to Nicaragua and the environment associated with his worst memories.

This does not create an alternate chronological reading order. The pre-series history is revealed naturally through the novels, so First to Kill remains book one.

Publication Order and Edition-Date Confusion

The Nathan McBride books changed publishers and formats during the early part of Peterson’s career, which causes some databases to show conflicting years.

• First to Kill: originally published in 2008 and later reissued by Thomas & Mercer.
• Forced to Kill: first released as an audiobook in 2010, with later ebook and print editions appearing afterward.
• Option to Kill: originally released in 2012 as a Kindle Serial before appearing as a conventional complete ebook and print edition.

Those edition differences do not alter the reading order. First to Kill, Forced to Kill, and Option to Kill remain books one, two, and three.

Option to Kill and Its Kindle Serial Release

Option to Kill had an unusual original release. Amazon issued it as a Kindle Serial, with episodes delivered over time before the complete novel became available in standard formats.

Same novel: The serial episodes and later complete edition should not be counted as separate Nathan McBride books.

Modern readers should simply treat the complete Option to Kill as book three.

Andrew Peterson Books in Overall Publication Order

Because Peterson’s principal fiction is one series, the overall publication list is also the Nathan McBride reading order.

1. First to Kill (2008): Nathan searches for a missing federal agent and stolen explosives while discovering that the conspiracy may reach into his own family.
2. Forced to Kill (first release 2010): The apparent return of the Nicaraguan interrogator who tortured Nathan transforms a murder investigation into a confrontation with his past.
3. Option to Kill (2012): Nathan rescues twelve-year-old Lauren and becomes responsible for keeping her alive while determining who inside or around witness protection can be trusted.
4. Ready to Kill (2014): Nathan and Harv return to Nicaragua to investigate a secret CIA warning and a killer tied directly to Nathan’s old training and trauma.
5. Contract to Kill (2015): A friend’s account of a double murder brings Nathan into the hidden operations of a powerful private military contractor.
6. Right to Kill (2016): An attempted kidnapping of former CIA station chief Linda Genneken exposes a conspiracy linked to old South American operations and simultaneous assassinations.
7. Hired to Kill (2018): Terror attacks aimed at Nathan’s family lead toward biological weapons, an ISIS camp in Mexico, and a planned mass-casualty strike.

Are There Nathan McBride Novellas Between the Main Books?

No separately required Nathan McBride novella needs to be inserted into the seven-book reading order.

Peterson has published short fiction and contributed to magazine material, but the core Nathan McBride storyline remains the seven novels listed above.

This makes the series simpler to collect than thrillers where novellas numbered 2.5 or 5.5 contain essential character events.

Is Nathan McBride Similar to Jack Reacher or Jason Bourne?

Nathan is often grouped with military and covert-action protagonists because of his size, combat skills, CIA experience, and ability to operate alone.

His defining difference within his own series is the burden of his Nicaraguan torture, his longstanding relationship with Harv, and his repeated struggle between controlled professional violence and a much darker instinct for revenge.

Readers do not need any other thriller series to understand Nathan McBride. His seven books form a self-contained continuity.

The Nathan McBride Series by Type of Mission

• First to Kill: Missing agent, stolen explosives, domestic terrorism, and federal corruption.
• Forced to Kill: Serial torture, personal revenge, Nicaragua, and Nathan’s old interrogator.
• Option to Kill: Kidnapping, witness protection, mercenaries, and protecting a child.
• Ready to Kill: CIA operations, Nicaragua, sniper skills, and Nathan’s psychological past.
• Contract to Kill: Private military contractors, covert policy, murder, and the US-Mexico border.
• Right to Kill: Kidnapping attempt, retired CIA personnel, assassinations, and South American secrets.
• Hired to Kill: Coordinated terrorism, biological weapons, ISIS, Mexico, and threats against Nathan’s family.

This variety allows individual books to have distinct plots while still maintaining one character arc.

A Seven-Book Nathan McBride Reading Plan

1. Read First to Kill to understand Nathan’s present-day life and the people who draw him back into dangerous work.
2. Continue with Forced to Kill for the confrontation with the man responsible for Nathan’s deepest trauma.
3. Read Option to Kill for a more protective side of Nathan as he tries to keep Lauren alive.
4. Move to Ready to Kill when Nathan and Harv return to Nicaragua and the physical setting behind Nathan’s scars.
5. Read Contract to Kill for the private military contractor conspiracy and a broader national-security conflict.
6. Continue with Right to Kill for a compressed mission involving Linda Genneken and unresolved CIA history.
7. Finish with Hired to Kill for the currently final published confrontation and the most direct attack on Nathan’s family.

Nathan McBride Series Status

Seven Nathan McBride novels have been published.

Hired to Kill, released July 3, 2018, is the most recent book in the series. Peterson’s official bibliography continues to identify it as book seven, and no eighth Nathan McBride novel has a confirmed publication date as of September 9, 2026.

The absence of a currently scheduled eighth book does not require readers to treat the series as formally concluded. Hired to Kill is simply the latest published installment.

Andrew Peterson Reading Order FAQs

What was Andrew Peterson’s first Nathan McBride book?

First to Kill, originally published in 2008, begins the Nathan McBride series.

How many Nathan McBride books are there?

Seven novels have been published through Hired to Kill.

Do Nathan McBride books need to be read in order?

Yes. Each mission has its own main threat, but Nathan’s psychological recovery, relationships, CIA history, and recurring characters develop in publication order.

Was Forced to Kill published in 2010 or 2012?

The first release was an audiobook in 2010. Later print and ebook editions appeared afterward, which is why bibliographies can show different dates.

Was Option to Kill originally a serial?

Yes. It was initially released in 2012 through Amazon’s Kindle Serial program before becoming available as a complete conventional edition.

Who is Harv Fontana?

Harvey “Harv” Fontana is Nathan’s longtime friend and operational partner. They served together in the Marines and CIA, and Harv rescued Nathan after his torture in Nicaragua.

Which book takes Nathan back to Nicaragua?

Ready to Kill returns Nathan and Harv to Nicaragua, where Nathan must confront the environment connected with the mission that left him scarred.

What is the latest Nathan McBride novel?

Hired to Kill, published in July 2018, remains the latest released installment.

Is Nathan McBride book eight scheduled?

No eighth Nathan McBride novel has a confirmed publication date as of September 9, 2026.

The Safest Andrew Peterson Reading Order

Andrew Peterson’s bibliography does not require complicated alternate chronologies, overlapping series, or novella placement. Begin with First to Kill and move straight through all seven Nathan McBride novels in publication order.

That sequence allows Nathan’s history with Harv, his trauma from Nicaragua, his family relationships, and his shifting attitude toward covert violence to develop naturally. It also makes later returns to old enemies and old missions more meaningful.

For now, the reading route ends with Hired to Kill. Until an eighth book is formally scheduled, the seven published novels provide the complete available Nathan McBride sequence.