Joshua Hood Books in Order (Updated September 9, 2026)

Joshua Hood writes military, espionage, covert-operations, rescue, and survival thrillers informed by his experience in the 82nd Airborne Division and later law-enforcement work. His principal recurring characters are Mason Kane in the Search and Destroy series, former Treadstone operative Adam Hayes, and retired Air Force pararescueman Travis Lane.

Hood’s bibliography is compact enough to separate cleanly. Search and Destroy contains two Mason Kane novels, Treadstone contains four Adam Hayes novels written in Robert Ludlum’s fictional universe, The Guardian begins the Travis Lane line, and Burn Out introduces smokejumper Jake Slade in a separate thriller.

The most important rule is not to place Hood’s Treadstone books directly after Robert Ludlum’s original Jason Bourne trilogy as though Adam Hayes were simply another Bourne installment. The novels share the wider Treadstone universe, but Hood’s four-book sequence has its own protagonist and should begin with The Treadstone Resurrection.

Four Doors Into Joshua Hood’s Thrillers

1. Start with Clear by Fire for Mason Kane, rogue black-operations soldiers, the War on Terror, and Hood’s original debut series.
2. Start with The Treadstone Resurrection for Adam Hayes and Hood’s four-book contribution to Robert Ludlum’s Treadstone universe.
3. Start with The Guardian for Air Force pararescueman Travis Lane and a rescue operation deep in the Congo Basin.
4. Read Burn Out if you want a self-contained thriller about smokejumping, wildfires, murder, and cartel violence in Northern California.

Readers do not need to complete one of these lanes before beginning another. Mason Kane, Adam Hayes, Travis Lane, and Jake Slade belong to separate storylines.

Search and Destroy Books in Order

The Search and Destroy series follows Mason Kane, an elite soldier from an off-the-books program whose refusal to participate in a criminal operation transforms him from trusted operative into a hunted man.

1. Clear by Fire (2015): Mason Kane refuses an order to murder an innocent Afghan family, forcing him to flee his former Anvil Program comrades while he and Special Operations operative Renee Hart uncover a conspiracy reaching toward the highest levels of government.
2. Warning Order (2016): Still trying to clear his name, Mason agrees to work with the CIA, but an ISIS-linked operation and a conspiracy connected to the President’s inner circle force him off the grid again.

Read these two in order. Warning Order directly depends on Mason’s status after Clear by Fire, including his damaged reputation and continuing relationship with Renee Hart.

Clear by Fire Sets Up Everything Mason Kane Is Fighting

Mason begins as a member of the secret Anvil Program rather than as an independent action hero. His conflict starts when the unit’s mission crosses a moral boundary and he refuses to participate.

That decision drives both books. He is labeled a terrorist by the same country he served and must prove that the conspiracy extends beyond a single rogue commander.

Do not begin with Warning Order if you want Mason’s complete arc. The second book assumes that the reader already understands why he is on a government blacklist.

Warning Order

Warning Order moves Mason from fugitive status into an uneasy arrangement with the CIA. The deal offers him a way to clear his name, but it also puts him back inside the kind of black-operations world that destroyed his earlier career.

When an ISIS-connected asset leads an old friend into danger, Mason goes outside the mission and discovers another conspiracy involving a highly capable terrorist cell and figures close to the White House.

Current endpoint: No third Search and Destroy novel has been published through September 9, 2026.

Treadstone Novels in Order

Hood’s Treadstone novels star Adam Hayes, a former operative created for this continuation of Robert Ludlum’s larger intelligence universe. Adam has the training and conditioning associated with Treadstone, but he is a separate protagonist from Jason Bourne.

1. Robert Ludlum’s The Treadstone Resurrection (2020): Former operative Adam Hayes has left Treadstone for a quiet life as a carpenter, but an attack triggered by a former colleague’s message forces him to uncover why people from his covert past want him dead.
2. Robert Ludlum’s The Treadstone Exile (2021): Adam retreats to Africa hoping to escape the revived program, only to become trapped among competing factions and intelligence secrets that pull him back into covert action.
3. Robert Ludlum’s The Treadstone Transgression (2022): Adam accepts what should be a limited support role for another operation, but when the mission collapses and his team is killed, he becomes the surviving loose end that multiple factions want eliminated.
4. Robert Ludlum’s The Treadstone Rendition (2023): During the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, Adam answers a plea from Abdul Nassir, a man who once saved his life and now possesses evidence of a massacre committed by rogue CIA contractors.

Publication order is also the correct story order. Adam’s attempts to leave covert work, repair his family life, and escape the demands of Treadstone develop across all four books.

Adam Hayes Is Not Jason Bourne

The Treadstone name naturally creates confusion because Jason Bourne is the character most closely associated with the program.

Joshua Hood’s series instead follows Adam Hayes, another operative shaped by Treadstone training. The books use Robert Ludlum’s wider universe while giving Adam his own family, personal history, missions, and reasons for wanting to escape covert service.

Separate protagonist: Readers can start The Treadstone Resurrection without reading every Jason Bourne continuation by other authors.

The Treadstone Resurrection

The Treadstone Resurrection establishes Adam after his attempt to leave the program. He is working as a carpenter in rural Washington and trying to live outside the violent system that trained him.

A mysterious message from a former colleague and an immediate attack make that separation impossible. Adam has to reactivate the skills he hoped never to use again while determining whether the threat comes from old enemies or from within the intelligence structure itself.

Start here: This book supplies the family and Treadstone background needed for the sequels.

The Treadstone Exile

The Treadstone Exile follows Adam after the revival of Operation Treadstone. He retreats to Africa because he wants distance from the program and the life it represents.

The attempt fails when warring factions and high-level secrets place him in another international crisis.

Book two: Read it after The Treadstone Resurrection, not as a separate Africa-set thriller.

The Treadstone Transgression

By the third book, Adam is thinking more seriously about ending field operations and concentrating on his wife and young son.

He accepts a mission that appears limited enough to bring him home in time for his son’s birthday. The operation is destroyed, leaving Adam as the survivor whose continued existence threatens whoever engineered the betrayal.

Continuity matters: Adam’s tension between family and Treadstone duty has accumulated across the earlier novels.

The Treadstone Rendition

The Treadstone Rendition takes place during the final days of the American presence in Afghanistan.

Adam has promised his wife he is finished with dangerous field work, but Abdul Nassir, an Afghan who saved Adam’s life years earlier, needs help escaping the country. Nassir also holds photographic evidence connected to a massacre by rogue CIA contractors.

Book four and current endpoint: No fifth Joshua Hood Treadstone novel is currently scheduled.

Do Hood’s Treadstone Books Need to Be Read in Order?

Yes. Each installment has a mission that can be described independently, but Adam’s personal story is continuous.

• Adam repeatedly tries to leave Treadstone behind.
• His relationship with his wife develops across the series.
• His son becomes increasingly important to his decisions.
• Recurring intelligence relationships carry consequences from one mission into the next.

Start with The Treadstone Resurrection and continue straight through The Treadstone Rendition.

The Guardian and Travis Lane

The Guardian introduces a third major Hood protagonist, Travis Lane, a medically retired Air Force pararescueman whose financial responsibility for his family pushes him into private military work.

1. The Guardian (2023): Travis joins Broadside Solutions to help save his family’s farm, but his first private rescue assignment sends him into the Congo Basin to recover a kidnapped American and turns into a fight for survival.

Blackstone identifies The Guardian as Travis Lane series book one. No second Travis Lane novel has been published or given a confirmed release date through September 2026.

Why Travis Lane Is Different from Mason Kane and Adam Hayes

Mason Kane begins inside a secret military program and Adam Hayes is trying to escape the CIA’s Treadstone world. Travis Lane begins from a different problem: his military career has ended and his family needs financial help.

Broadside Solutions offers him a way to use his rescue and combat skills in private work. The first mission then puts the pararescue idea at the center of the action rather than conventional intelligence tradecraft.

Separate continuity: No Mason Kane or Adam Hayes book is required before The Guardian.

Burn Out

Burn Out is a separate action thriller built around wildland firefighting and organized crime.

• Burn Out (2024): After four years in prison, Jake Slade earns a place among the US Forest Service’s elite smokejumpers, only for a wildfire rescue to expose murders, a disgraced DEA investigation, and a cartel hit man in California’s Emerald Triangle.

Standalone: Jake Slade is not Mason Kane, Adam Hayes, or Travis Lane, and Burn Out does not require any of Hood’s earlier thrillers.

Why Burn Out Works as a Separate Starting Point

Most of Hood’s earlier books revolve around soldiers, covert operatives, intelligence programs, or private military rescue. Burn Out keeps the action framework but changes the professional world to wildland firefighting.

Jake’s effort to rebuild his life after prison gives the novel its own background, while smokejumper training and wildfire conditions create the initial danger before the story expands into murder and cartel violence.

Readers can therefore use Burn Out as a one-book test of Hood’s style without committing to a series.

Joshua Hood Thrillers in Publication Order

For readers who want Hood’s principal thriller bibliography by year, the order is:

1. Clear by Fire (2015): Introduces Mason Kane as a hunted former black-operations soldier trying to expose the conspiracy that turned his own unit against him.
2. Warning Order (2016): Continues Mason’s effort to clear his name through a CIA arrangement that leads into an ISIS-linked plot and another government conspiracy.
3. Robert Ludlum’s The Treadstone Resurrection (2020): Launches Adam Hayes as a former Treadstone operative forced to reactivate his lethal training when killers from his past find him.
4. Robert Ludlum’s The Treadstone Exile (2021): Takes Adam to Africa as his attempt to escape the revived program places him inside another international conflict.
5. Robert Ludlum’s The Treadstone Transgression (2022): Leaves Adam as the surviving loose end after a supposedly simple Treadstone support mission is destroyed.
6. Robert Ludlum’s The Treadstone Rendition (2023): Sends Adam into Afghanistan during the American withdrawal to rescue an old friend carrying evidence against rogue CIA contractors.
7. The Guardian (2023): Introduces retired Air Force PJ Travis Lane through a private rescue mission in the Congo Basin.
8. Burn Out (2024): Introduces smokejumper Jake Slade and turns a wildfire search-and-rescue operation into a confrontation with murders and cartel violence.

The list shows Hood’s development as a thriller writer, but it should not replace the individual series orders. Warning Order belongs directly after Clear by Fire, and the four Treadstone books should remain together.

The 2026 Clear by Fire Edition Is Not a New Joshua Hood Novel

A new trade paperback edition of Clear by Fire was released in September 2026.

Do not count that as a new book. Clear by Fire was originally published in 2015. The 2026 release is a later edition of the same Mason Kane story.

This is especially important when building a publication list from retailer pages because a newly issued paperback can appear beside genuinely new fiction.

Search and Destroy Versus Treadstone

Both series feature highly trained operatives, but they have different foundations.

• Mason Kane: A soldier from the secret Anvil Program who becomes a fugitive after refusing an illegal order.
• Adam Hayes: A former Treadstone operative trying to build a normal life after leaving the CIA black-operations program.

Do not place The Treadstone Resurrection after Warning Order as if it were Search and Destroy book three. It begins a completely different series.

The Robert Ludlum Name on Hood’s Books

The four Treadstone novels are written by Joshua Hood but use characters, organizations, and concepts from the fictional universe created by Robert Ludlum.

That is why editions often display titles such as Robert Ludlum’s The Treadstone Resurrection even though Hood is the author of the novel itself.

Authorship distinction: Robert Ludlum died in 2001. Hood wrote these later Treadstone novels as authorized continuations within the Ludlum universe.

A Reader’s Route Through Joshua Hood

1. Clear by Fire: Begin here if you want Hood’s earliest action-thriller voice and a two-book military conspiracy story.
2. Warning Order: Continue immediately because Mason Kane’s fugitive status and attempt to clear his name carry forward.
3. The Treadstone Resurrection: Start a new continuity here with Adam Hayes.
4. The Treadstone Exile: Continue Adam’s attempt to escape the program through a new international crisis.
5. The Treadstone Transgression: Read third as Adam’s family life and repeated attempts to retire become increasingly important.
6. The Treadstone Rendition: Finish the currently published Adam Hayes sequence with the Afghanistan extraction mission.
7. The Guardian: Move here for a different hero and rescue-focused private military thriller.
8. Burn Out: Read independently when you want Hood’s wildfire and smokejumper thriller.

Current Joshua Hood Series Status

The Search and Destroy series currently contains two books, ending with Warning Order.

The Joshua Hood Treadstone sequence contains four books and currently ends with The Treadstone Rendition.

Blackstone identifies The Guardian as Travis Lane book one, but no second Travis Lane novel has a confirmed publication date.

Burn Out, published August 13, 2024, remains Hood’s newest confirmed original thriller as of September 9, 2026. The September 2026 trade paperback of Clear by Fire is a reissue rather than a new novel.

Questions About Joshua Hood’s Reading Order

What was Joshua Hood’s first thriller?

Clear by Fire, originally published in 2015, was his debut military thriller and the first Mason Kane book.

How many Search and Destroy books are there?

There are two: Clear by Fire and Warning Order.

Should Warning Order be read after Clear by Fire?

Yes. Warning Order continues Mason Kane’s effort to clear his name after the events that made him a fugitive in Clear by Fire.

How many Joshua Hood Treadstone books are there?

Four: The Treadstone Resurrection, The Treadstone Exile, The Treadstone Transgression, and The Treadstone Rendition.

Do the Treadstone books need to be read in order?

Yes. Adam Hayes’s family life, intelligence relationships, and repeated efforts to leave Treadstone develop continuously across the four books.

Is Adam Hayes Jason Bourne?

No. Adam Hayes is a separate former Treadstone operative created for Hood’s series within Robert Ludlum’s wider fictional universe.

Is The Guardian part of Treadstone?

No. The Guardian introduces Travis Lane, an Air Force pararescueman who joins a private rescue company. It has its own continuity.

Is there a second Travis Lane book?

No second Travis Lane novel has been published or officially scheduled as of September 9, 2026.

Is Burn Out part of the Travis Lane series?

No. Burn Out follows smokejumper Jake Slade and is separate from Travis Lane.

What is Joshua Hood’s latest novel?

Burn Out, published in August 2024, is his latest confirmed original novel. The September 2026 edition of Clear by Fire is a reissue of his 2015 debut.

Where Each Joshua Hood Book Belongs

Keep Mason Kane together by reading Clear by Fire and Warning Order. Then treat Adam Hayes as a completely new route beginning with The Treadstone Resurrection and continuing through all four Treadstone novels.

The Guardian begins the separate Travis Lane line and can be read without any Ludlum background. Burn Out stands alone with Jake Slade and is the simplest choice if you want one Joshua Hood thriller without starting a series.

This series-first approach keeps the character arcs intact while avoiding the common mistake of treating every military or covert-operations novel as part of the same fictional continuity.