Grant Blackwood Books in Order (Updated September 9, 2026)

Grant Blackwood writes international espionage and action thrillers and has also become an important collaborator inside several major adventure franchises. His own recurring hero is covert operative Briggs Tanner, while his collaborative work includes the Fargo Adventures with Clive Cussler, Tucker Wayne with James Rollins, Luke Daniels with Steve Berry, Jack Ryan Jr., and licensed Tom Clancy game fiction published under the David Michaels house name.

The cleanest Grant Blackwood reading order begins with his three Briggs Tanner novels if you want his original fiction. Readers following a franchise should keep his contributions inside that franchise rather than treating every Blackwood title as one connected story.

Pick the Blackwood world you want first

1. Start with The End of Enemies for Briggs Tanner and Blackwood’s own espionage series.
2. Start with Spartan Gold for his three Fargo Adventures with Clive Cussler.
3. Start with The Kill Switch for Tucker Wayne and Kane, written with James Rollins.
4. Start with Under Fire if you want Blackwood’s solo Jack Ryan Jr. novels.
5. Start with The 9th Man for his Luke Daniels collaboration with Steve Berry.
6. Use Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Checkmate if you are specifically reading his licensed video-game fiction written as David Michaels.

Briggs Tanner books in their complete novel order

Briggs Tanner is a veteran covert operative working in an espionage world where historical secrets, intelligence services, and geopolitical rivalries repeatedly become connected. These three novels are Blackwood’s clearest original series.

1. The End of Enemies (2001): Tanner witnesses a professional assassination and inherits a mysterious key from the dying victim, launching an international investigation that reaches from the Pacific to Beirut and toward a secret buried since World War II.
2. The Wall of Night (2002): Tanner is asked to return to China after General Han Soong, whom he failed to extract twelve years earlier, resurfaces and says Briggs is the only Western operative he will trust.
3. An Echo of War (2003): A biological weapon called Kestrel, hidden since World War I, becomes the target of Bosnian terrorists who kidnap the wife of a former CIA director and force Tanner onto a trail through the Alps.

Read all three in publication order. Each international mission has its own objective, but Tanner’s profession, contacts, and history are established from the first novel onward.

The End of Enemies gives Tanner a mystery rather than an assignment

Blackwood does not begin the series by simply handing Briggs Tanner a government briefing. Tanner sees a man murdered and receives an object whose meaning he does not understand.

The investigation gradually opens into wartime history and international espionage. That structure establishes one of Blackwood’s recurring interests: a threat in the present often makes sense only after someone reconstructs what happened years or decades earlier.

Wall of Night forces Tanner back into a failed mission

Twelve years before The Wall of Night, Tanner attempted to extract Chinese General Han Soong and his family. The operation failed at the final rendezvous, and Soong disappeared into the Chinese security system.

When Soong unexpectedly contacts the CIA years later, he refuses to trust anyone except Tanner. The sequel therefore works best after readers understand Briggs as an experienced operative rather than encountering him for the first time through his most painful unfinished mission.

An Echo of War connects 1918 with a modern biological threat

The third novel reaches farther into history. Allied soldiers discover a biological weapon in the final months of World War I and create a secret system to keep it hidden.

Decades later, kidnappers attempt to force former CIA director Jonathan Root to surrender that secret. Tanner’s mission becomes a race to prevent a historical weapon from becoming a modern mass-casualty event.

Sacrificial Lion is extra Briggs Tanner material

• Sacrificial Lion (2006): A Briggs Tanner short story published in the anthology Thriller: Stories to Keep You Up All Night, giving readers another compact espionage mission without extending the main novel sequence.

Read it after the three novels if you want every Tanner appearance. It should not be counted as a fourth full-length Briggs Tanner novel.

The Fargo Adventures Blackwood wrote with Clive Cussler

Sam and Remi Fargo are married treasure hunters whose archaeological curiosity repeatedly brings them into conflict with wealthy rivals, criminals, and people determined to control discoveries that could alter historical understanding.

1. Spartan Gold (2009, with Clive Cussler): Sam and Remi discover clues linked to a lost treasure associated with Napoleon and become involved in a race against a ruthless millionaire who believes the fortune belongs to him.
2. Lost Empire (2010, with Clive Cussler): A bell discovered off the African coast leads the Fargos toward a Confederate ship, the eruption of Krakatoa, an Aztec artifact, and a conspiracy capable of reshaping modern Mexican politics.
3. The Kingdom (2011, with Clive Cussler): A missing investigator sends Sam and Remi through Tibet, Nepal, India, Bulgaria, and China in search of a vanished man and discoveries involving fossils, ancient technology, and human origins.

These are Books 1 through 3 of the larger Fargo Adventures series. The franchise continued afterward with other collaborators, so Blackwood readers can stop after The Kingdom while complete Fargo readers should continue with the later books.

Why Spartan Gold is both a beginning and a franchise handoff

Spartan Gold is the first Fargo Adventure, so unlike Blackwood’s later Jack Ryan work it really is an entry point to the whole series.

Blackwood remained through Lost Empire and The Kingdom. After that, Clive Cussler continued Sam and Remi’s adventures with other coauthors.

Tucker Wayne and Kane books in order

Grant Blackwood collaborated with James Rollins on a spin-off centered on former Army Ranger Tucker Wayne and Kane, his highly trained Belgian Malinois. Their partnership combines military tracking, canine communication, biotechnology, and international action.

1. The Kill Switch (2014, with James Rollins): Tucker and Kane are recruited to extract a Russian pharmaceutical magnate whose biological discovery could either save millions of lives or become a weapon in the wrong hands.
2. War Hawk (2016, with James Rollins): Tucker investigates the deaths of former military colleagues and uncovers a threat involving autonomous warfare, advanced technology, and people preparing a new generation of battlefield machines.

Read The Kill Switch first. The novel establishes Tucker’s relationship with Kane and the communication system that makes the dog an active operational partner rather than simply an animal companion.

Blackwood’s Jack Ryan Jr. books

Blackwood contributed to the Tom Clancy universe in two different ways. He co-wrote Dead or Alive with Tom Clancy and later wrote two Jack Ryan Jr. novels on his own.

1. Dead or Alive (2010, with Tom Clancy): Jack Ryan, John Clark, Ding Chavez, and the Campus pursue the terrorist known as the Emir while President Jack Ryan’s political return and the younger Jack’s covert career bring several generations of the Ryanverse together.
2. Tom Clancy Under Fire (2015): Jack Ryan Jr. meets his old friend Seth Gregory in Tehran, receives a mysterious key, and becomes involved after Seth disappears and is accused of betraying an intelligence operation tied to Cold War secrets.
3. Tom Clancy Duty and Honor (2016): While on forced leave from the Campus, Jack survives an assassination attempt and follows the trail toward German security magnate Jürgen Rostock and a long-running false-flag campaign.

Under Fire and Duty and Honor are consecutive Blackwood-written Jack Ryan Jr. adventures, but they are not the beginning of Jack’s larger story. Complete Ryanverse readers should keep them in franchise order.

Why Under Fire should come before Duty and Honor

Duty and Honor refers directly to Jack’s recent covert activity and relationships from the previous phase of his life.

Reading Under Fire first establishes Seth Gregory, Ysabel Kashani, and the type of unofficial involvement that later contributes to Jack being placed on forced leave.

Luke Daniels books written with Steve Berry

Blackwood later collaborated with Steve Berry on thrillers starring CIA operative Luke Daniels, a character who also exists within the broader world associated with Berry’s Cotton Malone novels.

1. The 9th Man (2023, with Steve Berry): Luke Daniels becomes involved in a mystery surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and a hidden figure whose role could alter the accepted history of the event.
2. Red Star Falling (2024, with Steve Berry): Daniels returns for a Cold War-rooted conspiracy involving Soviet intelligence history, long-hidden secrets, and a threat whose consequences reach into the present.

Read The 9th Man first. It establishes Luke as the lead of the Blackwood and Berry collaboration before the historical intelligence puzzles expand in Red Star Falling.

Splinter Cell books Blackwood wrote as David Michaels

David Michaels was a house name used for licensed Tom Clancy game fiction. Different real authors wrote under it. Blackwood took over the Splinter Cell novels after Raymond Benson’s first two books.

1. Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Checkmate (2006, as David Michaels): Sam Fisher is called from a training assignment into a crisis involving radiological terrorism and an enemy willing to use catastrophic contamination against American targets.
2. Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Fallout (2007, as David Michaels): Fisher seeks revenge after his brother’s death while trying to stop terrorists from using a dangerous radioactive substance against New York City.

These are the third and fourth early Splinter Cell novels, not Books 1 and 2 of the franchise. Readers following Sam Fisher from the beginning should read the Raymond Benson volumes first.

EndWar under the same David Michaels name

Blackwood also wrote licensed fiction connected with Tom Clancy’s EndWar universe under the David Michaels identity.

1. Tom Clancy’s EndWar (2008, as David Michaels): A near-future global conflict places American, European, and Russian forces into a new world war shaped by advanced weapons and the military setting created for the EndWar game franchise.
2. Tom Clancy’s EndWar: The Hunted (2011, associated with the David Michaels house line): The conflict continues through another military thriller involving soldiers operating inside the dangerous political and technological environment of the EndWar universe.

Because the David Michaels name was shared by different writers, readers building a strict Grant Blackwood bibliography should verify individual editions and credits rather than assuming every book carrying that house name was written by him.

Blackwood’s own books versus inherited franchises

• Briggs Tanner: Blackwood’s original recurring espionage protagonist.
• Fargo Adventures: Clive Cussler franchise co-written by Blackwood for the first three books.
• Tucker Wayne: James Rollins spin-off co-written with Blackwood.
• Jack Ryan Jr.: Tom Clancy continuation property.
• Luke Daniels: Steve Berry collaboration inside a wider espionage world.
• Splinter Cell and EndWar: Licensed game-related fiction published through the David Michaels house identity.

A Grant Blackwood route that samples every major phase

1. The End of Enemies: Begin with Blackwood’s original espionage voice and Briggs Tanner.
2. The Wall of Night: Continue into Tanner’s failed China extraction and unfinished past.
3. An Echo of War: Finish the Tanner trilogy with a biological weapon hidden since World War I.
4. Spartan Gold: Move into treasure hunting with Clive Cussler and the first Fargo Adventure.
5. Dead or Alive: Sample Blackwood working directly with Tom Clancy inside the Ryanverse.
6. The Kill Switch: Shift to James Rollins, Tucker Wayne, and Kane.
7. Under Fire: Read Blackwood’s solo version of Jack Ryan Jr.
8. The 9th Man: Finish with the later Steve Berry collaboration and Luke Daniels.

For readers who only want Blackwood-created fiction

The simplest route is the Briggs Tanner trilogy:

1. The End of Enemies: Tanner inherits a key from an assassination victim and follows it into an old international secret.
2. The Wall of Night: A Chinese general Tanner once failed to rescue asks for him personally twelve years later.
3. An Echo of War: A World War I biological weapon becomes the object of a modern terrorist hunt.

Add Sacrificial Lion afterward for the short-fiction appearance.

Grant Blackwood’s Navy background

Blackwood is a U.S. Navy veteran who served aboard a guided missile frigate as an operations specialist and pilot rescue swimmer.

That background helps explain the maritime detail, intelligence focus, rescue situations, and military settings that recur even when he is writing characters created by other authors.

Why Blackwood’s bibliography can look larger than it really is

Several factors create duplicate-looking or confusing listings. Some books place Tom Clancy, Clive Cussler, James Rollins, or Steve Berry more prominently than Blackwood. The David Michaels books may not display Grant Blackwood’s name at all.

The Jack Ryan and Fargo titles also belong to series that continued with other writers, so a retailer may show dozens of related books even though Blackwood personally wrote only part of the franchise.

Series boundaries that matter most

Briggs Tanner has three full novels by Blackwood plus the short story Sacrificial Lion.

Fargo Adventures includes three Blackwood collaborations at the beginning of the franchise: Spartan Gold, Lost Empire, and The Kingdom.

Tucker Wayne has two Blackwood and James Rollins novels: The Kill Switch and War Hawk.

Jack Ryan Jr. includes two solo Blackwood continuation novels, Under Fire and Duty and Honor, while Dead or Alive was co-written directly with Tom Clancy.

Luke Daniels currently has two Blackwood and Steve Berry collaborations listed here: The 9th Man and Red Star Falling.

Grant Blackwood reading order FAQ

What Grant Blackwood book should I read first?

Start with The End of Enemies if you want his original fiction. It introduces Briggs Tanner and begins his three-book espionage series.

How many Briggs Tanner novels are there?

There are three full novels: The End of Enemies, The Wall of Night, and An Echo of War.

Is Sacrificial Lion a fourth Tanner novel?

No. It is a short story and should be treated as supplemental Briggs Tanner material.

Which Fargo books did Grant Blackwood write?

He co-wrote the first three Fargo Adventures with Clive Cussler: Spartan Gold, Lost Empire, and The Kingdom.

How many Jack Ryan Jr. books did Blackwood write alone?

He wrote two principal solo Jack Ryan Jr. continuation novels: Under Fire and Duty and Honor.

Did Blackwood also write with Tom Clancy himself?

Yes. He co-wrote Dead or Alive with Tom Clancy.

Who are Tucker Wayne and Kane?

Tucker Wayne is a former Army Ranger and Kane is his highly trained military dog. Blackwood co-wrote their novels The Kill Switch and War Hawk with James Rollins.

Did Grant Blackwood write as David Michaels?

Yes. He wrote licensed Tom Clancy game fiction under the shared David Michaels house name, including Splinter Cell: Checkmate and Splinter Cell: Fallout.

Are all David Michaels books by Grant Blackwood?

No. David Michaels was a shared house name used by multiple writers, so individual titles must be checked rather than assigning the entire line to Blackwood.

The cleanest Grant Blackwood shelf

Keep Briggs Tanner together from The End of Enemies through An Echo of War. That is Blackwood’s clearest original series and the best place to understand his own espionage style.

Then separate the collaborations by franchise. Fargo is Clive Cussler, Tucker Wayne is James Rollins, Jack Ryan belongs to Tom Clancy, Luke Daniels belongs with Steve Berry’s wider thriller world, and the David Michaels books belong to licensed game fiction.

That approach prevents a common problem with collaborative thriller authors: treating every book carrying their name somewhere on the cover as if all of the characters belong to the same universe.