Tom Wood Books in Order (Updated September 10, 2026)

Tom Wood is best known for Victor, an assassin-for-hire who survives through obsessive preparation, emotional control, suspicion, and an almost mathematical approach to danger. The series has grown from The Hunter into thirteen published novels, two important novellas, and a fourteenth novel, No Good Deed, scheduled for November 19, 2026.

The Victor books are designed so individual missions can stand on their own, but publication order remains the best choice. Alliances, betrayals, CIA relationships, rival assassin Raven, Victor’s debts, and the gradual emergence of his buried humanity become more meaningful when read from the beginning.

Victor’s official novel sequence without the alternate-title traps

1. The Hunter, also published as The Killer: A contract killing in Paris goes wrong and Victor becomes the target of a professional kill team, forcing the anonymous assassin to cross several countries while working out who betrayed him.
2. The Enemy: Victor enters an uneasy arrangement with the CIA and is ordered to kill three targets in two days, only to discover that the list is connected with a conspiracy that turns him from hunter into target.
3. The Game: After killing another assassin in Algiers, Victor is forced by the CIA to assume the dead man’s identity and infiltrate a mission involving mercenaries and an unknown target in Europe.
4. Better Off Dead, also published as No Tomorrow: An old friend asks Victor to protect a human-rights lawyer, making him a bodyguard for once instead of a killer while ruthless enemies pursue them through London.
5. The Darkest Day: Assassin Raven tries to kill Victor, who responds by hunting her across the world until their confrontation reaches New York during a catastrophic blackout.
6. A Time to Die: Victor is offered a chance to reduce the consequences of his crimes if he kills Serbian war criminal Milan Rados, but another survivor of Rados’s atrocities has her own reason for pursuing the same man.
7. The Final Hour: Former CIA agent Antonio Alvarez resumes his long hunt for the nameless assassin known as Victor just as Victor is trying to stop killing and Raven arrives needing his help.
8. Kill for Me: A violent feud between two sisters competing for their dead father’s criminal empire in Guatemala City gives Victor a new employer and places him at the center of repeated betrayal.
9. A Quiet Man: Victor hides in a Canadian motel after a job and becomes unexpectedly concerned about a mother and boy who disappear from a town controlled by criminals.
10. Traitor: Victor is arrested for a murder he did not commit and chooses to remain inside prison long enough to discover who arranged to put him there.
11. Blood Debt: Victor is working off an obligation to the Russian Mafia when his employer is murdered in London and evidence makes Victor look like the obvious killer.
12. Firefight (2024): Victor faces another mission where carefully controlled violence breaks down into a much less predictable confrontation and survival depends on adapting faster than the people hunting him.
13. Unlucky for Some (2025): A supposedly straightforward assassination in Malmö leaves Victor shot and wounded, trapped in a hostile city while criminals, corrupt officials, bounty hunters, mercenaries, and another elite assassin close in.
14. No Good Deed (expected November 19, 2026): Victor pauses an existing contract to repay someone who recently saved his life, but delaying the hit places him on a client’s blacklist while the favor threatens to uncover a part of his past he has kept buried.

Unlucky for Some is the latest released Victor novel as of September 10, 2026. No Good Deed is Book 14 and remains upcoming until November 19, 2026.

The Hunter and The Killer are the same first book

Tom Wood’s first Victor novel has caused more duplicate purchases than almost any other part of the series because different markets gave it different titles.

• The Hunter: The title used for many UK and later editions.
• The Killer: An alternate title used for the same novel, including the author’s earlier publication under the name Tom Hinshelwood.

Do not count these as Victor Books 1 and 2. Both begin with the same Paris assignment and the same international pursuit.

Better Off Dead has the same problem under another title

Victor Book 4 appears as both Better Off Dead and No Tomorrow.

Again, these are not separate adventures. Both follow Victor when an old friend asks him to protect a human-rights lawyer, pushing him into the unfamiliar role of bodyguard.

Why The Hunter works as more than a professional-assassin origin

Victor does not receive a conventional backstory explaining his childhood, family, training, or real identity. The reader learns who he is by watching how he behaves.

He studies exits, reflections, crowds, weapons, routines, body language, and anything that might represent a threat. When the Paris job becomes a trap, that extreme caution stops looking like paranoia and starts looking like the reason he is still alive.

The Enemy puts Victor on the CIA’s leash

The second novel changes Victor’s freedom. Instead of selecting or accepting an ordinary contract, he is forced into a working relationship with American intelligence.

Three targets and forty-eight hours sound simple enough for an assassin of his skill, but the mission has been designed around information he does not possess. Each killing reveals another layer until Victor understands that someone has also positioned him to be expendable.

Bad Luck in Berlin belongs before The Enemy

• Bad Luck in Berlin: After six months away from killing, Victor enters Berlin for his first assignment as a CIA contractor and discovers that another professional is interested in the man he is supposed to watch.

This ebook novella occurs before The Enemy. Chronological readers can place it between The Hunter and The Enemy, but it is not necessary before reading Book 2.

Gone By Dawn fills the gap after The Enemy

• Gone By Dawn: Wounded and running through Bulgaria after the events surrounding The Enemy, Victor delays his escape when a young woman shows him unexpected kindness and he discovers that her small town is hiding something dangerous.

The novella takes place between The Enemy and The Game. It was written later, so either chronological placement or publication-era placement works.

The Game makes Victor impersonate the assassin he just killed

Victor begins by eliminating another professional in Algiers. The CIA then makes the dead assassin useful in an unexpected way.

Victor has to assume the man’s role and join a team of mercenaries without knowing the true objective. His survival depends not only on combat ability but on convincingly performing another killer’s place inside an operation whose participants are all dangerous.

Better Off Dead tests whether Victor can keep someone alive

Victor’s professional expertise is built around ending lives. Protecting one is a different problem.

When an old friend asks him to guard a human-rights lawyer, he cannot simply eliminate every potential risk. He has to anticipate attacks, move another person safely through danger, and accept responsibility for someone whose survival matters more than completing a contract.

Raven changes the series by giving Victor a true professional equal

The Darkest Day introduces Raven as another elite assassin. She is dangerous precisely because she understands the same habits of surveillance, concealment, anticipation, and killing that normally give Victor an advantage.

She does not disappear after one confrontation. Her relationship with Victor continues to affect later books, including The Final Hour, where she needs his help.

A Time to Die gives Victor a target he can almost call deserving

Milan Rados is a former Serbian commander accused of atrocities who has escaped international justice and built a criminal empire.

Victor normally kills because someone pays him or because survival requires it. Rados is different because killing him can also be framed as justice, though another survivor of his crimes has a far more personal claim on that revenge.

The Final Hour asks what happens when Victor stops being only a killer

Antonio Alvarez has spent years trying to identify and capture the nameless assassin responsible for numerous deaths.

At the same time, Victor has begun withdrawing from the profession because caring about people has made him vulnerable and caused mistakes. Raven’s request for help forces him back toward the life he was trying to leave just as Alvarez receives another chance to find him.

Kill for Me drops Victor into someone else’s family war

Two sisters are fighting for control of the criminal territory once ruled by their father in Guatemala City.

Victor is useful enough to change the balance of that conflict, which means everyone has a reason either to control him, deceive him, or remove him before the other side can use him.

A Quiet Man is deliberately smaller and more personal

Victor hides in a Canadian town because he wants only a few quiet days after a job across the border.

He unexpectedly becomes familiar with a mother and her young son. The boy reminds Victor of aspects of his own childhood, which makes their disappearance difficult for him to ignore even though investigating violates almost every rule he normally follows for staying anonymous.

Traitor locks Victor inside a place designed to contain dangerous men

Victor is arrested for a murder he did not commit. The obvious expectation is that a man with his abilities will escape.

Instead, the prison becomes an investigative environment. Victor wants to understand who framed him, and the people incarcerated beside him gradually realize that the supposedly trapped new prisoner may be the most dangerous person in the building.

Blood Debt turns obligation into servitude

Victor has survived long enough to understand that debts can be more dangerous than enemies. In Blood Debt, he owes the Russian Mafia and intends to work until the obligation is settled.

His employer’s murder changes everything. Victor has motive, opportunity, and a reputation for killing, so rival criminals quickly treat him as the likely assassin while a power struggle erupts around the vacant position.

Firefight restored Victor as the active flagship series

Firefight is officially Victor Book 12 and was released in the UK on November 28, 2024.

Its importance for collectors is straightforward: it follows Blood Debt. Differences in North American availability and release schedules do not change the series numbering.

Unlucky for Some makes being wounded Victor’s biggest disadvantage

Victor goes to Malmö for what should be a controlled assassination of an organized-crime heir.

Being shot changes the equation. He is forced to hide and recover in a city where multiple enemies can search for him at the same time, including criminals seeking revenge, corrupt officials, bounty hunters, mercenaries, and another assassin capable of challenging him directly.

No Good Deed turns a favor into Victor’s next impossible calculation

Victor dislikes favors because favors create obligations. Someone recently saved his life, however, and Victor takes repayment seriously.

Helping that person means delaying an existing assassination contract. His client does not tolerate delays, placing Victor on a blacklist while the supposedly simpler personal mission threatens to reveal something about the history he has spent his life concealing.

No Good Deed is scheduled for November 19, 2026. It should remain outside the released list until that date passes.

Victor chronological order with the two novellas inserted

1. The Hunter: Victor survives the Paris betrayal that introduces him.
2. Bad Luck in Berlin: Victor begins work as a CIA contractor.
3. The Enemy: The CIA sends Victor after three targets in two days.
4. Gone By Dawn: A wounded Victor crosses Bulgaria after Book 2.
5. The Game: Victor impersonates a dead assassin to infiltrate a mercenary mission.
6. Better Off Dead: Victor becomes a bodyguard for an old friend.
7. The Darkest Day: Raven hunts Victor before Victor turns the pursuit around.
8. A Time to Die: Victor targets Serbian war criminal Milan Rados.
9. The Final Hour: Alvarez resumes his pursuit while Raven needs Victor’s help.
10. Kill for Me: Victor enters a Guatemalan criminal-family war.
11. A Quiet Man: A mother and child disappear from Victor’s Canadian hiding place.
12. Traitor: Victor allows prison to become the setting for finding whoever framed him.
13. Blood Debt: His work for the Russian Mafia becomes a murder accusation.
14. Firefight: Victor returns for another operation where control quickly breaks down.
15. Unlucky for Some: Victor is wounded in Malmö and hunted by enemies on every side.
16. No Good Deed: The announced next mission forces Victor to choose between a debt and a contract.

Publication order is still easier for a first read

Tom Wood has made clear that the Victor novels were designed to stand independently. A reader can pick up a middle installment and understand the immediate mission.

Publication order is still better because Victor changes in small ways rather than through dramatic reinvention. The significance of friendship, loyalty, debt, Raven, CIA manipulation, and the fragments of personal history revealed over time becomes clearer when those changes arrive in sequence.

Victor’s lack of a conventional biography is intentional

Victor has no public surname, no normal home life, and no easily explained personal history. Even people who employ him often know very little about the man carrying out their contracts.

The mystery is part of the character. Rather than giving readers a single origin novel that explains everything, Wood reveals small pieces through Victor’s behavior, memories, reactions, and the rare relationships he allows to become meaningful.

The Rule of Three and A Knock at the Door belong to Tom Wood under other names

Tom Wood also writes psychological suspense under pseudonyms because those novels are intentionally different from the Victor thrillers.

1. The Rule of Three, published as Sam Ripley: A disturbing urban legend claims that tragedy arrives in threes and that one young woman is destined to become the next victim, turning superstition into a paranoia-driven psychological thriller.
2. A Knock at the Door, published as T. W. Ellis: A separate psychological suspense novel moves away from professional assassins and uses domestic fear, uncertainty, and an apparently ordinary intrusion to create danger.

These books should not be placed inside the Victor sequence simply because Tom Wood wrote them.

Why some Victor editions appear years later in North America

Victor’s publishing history varies by country. UK, European, Australian, New Zealand, American, and Canadian editions have not always appeared on the same schedule.

That can make a newer North American edition look like a newly written installment even when UK readers received the same story earlier. Follow Victor numbering rather than sorting solely by the copyright or retailer date shown on one regional edition.

A five-book Victor sampler before committing to all fourteen

1. The Hunter: Meet Victor at his most isolated and understand the tradecraft that keeps him alive.
2. The Game: See how dangerous Victor becomes when he must impersonate another professional killer.
3. The Darkest Day: Meet Raven and watch Victor confront an assassin who can genuinely challenge him.
4. A Quiet Man: Read a more personal story where helping a mother and child requires Victor to violate his own survival rules.
5. Unlucky for Some: Jump to the newest released phase and see how vulnerable Victor becomes when injury removes his normal physical advantage.

If the sampler works for you, return to Book 2 and fill the gaps in publication order. The series rewards familiarity with Victor’s gradual character development.

Current Victor release status

As of September 10, 2026, thirteen Victor novels are published through Unlucky for Some, first released in November 2025.

No Good Deed is Victor Book 14 and is scheduled for November 19, 2026. Readers should not mark it as released before that date.

Questions that prevent the most common Victor reading mistakes

What Tom Wood book should I read first?

Start with The Hunter. It introduces Victor and remains the best entry point to the entire series.

Are The Hunter and The Killer different books?

No. They are alternate titles for the same first Victor novel.

Are Better Off Dead and No Tomorrow different?

No. They are alternate titles for Victor Book 4.

Where does Bad Luck in Berlin go?

Chronologically it falls before The Enemy, during Victor’s early period working as a CIA contractor.

Where does Gone By Dawn go?

It takes place after The Enemy and before The Game.

Do I have to read Victor in order?

Individual novels are designed to stand alone, but publication order gives the best understanding of Victor’s relationships and gradual personal changes.

How many Victor novels are published?

Thirteen are published as of this update. No Good Deed will become Book 14 when it is released.

What is the latest Victor book?

Unlucky for Some is the latest released Victor novel. It was first published in November 2025.

When is No Good Deed released?

The current UK publication date is November 19, 2026.

Who is Tom Hinshelwood?

Tom Wood originally published under his longer surname, Tom Hinshelwood. That is another reason older copies of The Killer can look like a book by a different author.

Who are Sam Ripley and T. W. Ellis?

They are pseudonyms Tom Wood uses for psychological thrillers that are deliberately different from Victor.

The Victor shelf that avoids buying anything twice

Begin with The Hunter and do not buy The Killer as a separate Book 2. Follow with The Enemy, The Game, and Better Off Dead, remembering that No Tomorrow is simply another title for Book 4.

Continue through The Darkest Day, A Time to Die, The Final Hour, Kill for Me, A Quiet Man, Traitor, Blood Debt, Firefight, and Unlucky for Some. Add the two novellas where desired.

Then place No Good Deed at the end after its November 19, 2026 release. This keeps Victor’s story intact while avoiding the regional-title and publication-date traps that make the series look more complicated than it is.