
Lincoln Rhyme
thriller
Series · thriller
The Jack Reacher series by Lee Child has 33 known books (33 published) and is best read in publication order, starting with Killing Floor (1997). The latest book with a fully recorded publication date is Exit Strategy. The next announced book, Chain Reaction, is due 20 October 2026. Lee Child wrote the series; books 25-28 were co-written with Andrew Child, who has continued the series alone from book 29.
Start here: Killing Floor (1997) — then read straight through in publication order.
The date order of published books and any announced future entries — the default way to read the series.
"Killing Floor" (1997) is the book that started it all -- Lee Child's introduction of Jack Reacher, the former U.S. Army military police major who walks away from his uniform to drift across America with no home, no luggage, and an unerring instinct for trouble. It set the template Child would follow for a book a year over the next two decades.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Killing Floor"Die Trying" (1998-07-07) follows Lee Child's drifter Jack Reacher -- a former U.S. Army military police major with no home, no luggage and an unerring instinct for arriving in towns where something is badly wrong -- into another self-contained mystery, written to be picked up on its own. It runs 434 pages.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Die TryingPublished 1999-06-28, "Tripwire" is one of Lee Child's original run of Reacher novels, delivered at Child's steady one-book-a-year pace after the series launched with "Killing Floor" in 1997. Reacher investigates here with the same cold Army logic and, when talking stops working, sudden decisive violence. It runs 422 pages.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Tripwire"Running Blind" (2000-07-10, an unlisted page count) drops Jack Reacher into a fresh conspiracy or crooked operation, standalone by design like every Reacher novel -- part of what let Lee Child's series sell well over 100 million copies without demanding readers start from book one.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Running BlindIn "Echo Burning" (2001-06-05), Lee Child sends his six-foot-five ex-military-police drifter into another town with trouble under its respectable surface, narrated in the alternating first- and third-person style the series uses throughout. It runs an unlisted page count.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Echo Burning"Without Fail" (2002-05-09) follows Lee Child's drifter Jack Reacher -- a former U.S. Army military police major with no home, no luggage and an unerring instinct for arriving in towns where something is badly wrong -- into another self-contained mystery, written to be picked up on its own. It runs 416 pages.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Without FailPublished 2003-05-13, "Persuader" is one of Lee Child's original run of Reacher novels, delivered at Child's steady one-book-a-year pace after the series launched with "Killing Floor" in 1997. Reacher investigates here with the same cold Army logic and, when talking stops working, sudden decisive violence. It runs 465 pages.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Persuader"The Enemy" (2004-05-11, 472 pages) is one of the Reacher novels set during his Army career rather than his later drifting years, taking place around 1990 -- part of the small cluster of chronological outliers, alongside "The Secret," "Night School" and "The Affair," that show Reacher before "Killing Floor" begins his life on the road.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Enemy"One Shot" (2005-06-14, 436 pages) drops Jack Reacher into a fresh conspiracy or crooked operation, standalone by design like every Reacher novel -- part of what let Lee Child's series sell well over 100 million copies without demanding readers start from book one.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of One ShotIn "The Hard Way" (2006-05-16), Lee Child sends his six-foot-five ex-military-police drifter into another town with trouble under its respectable surface, narrated in the alternating first- and third-person style the series uses throughout. It runs 448 pages.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Hard Way"Bad Luck and Trouble" (2007-05-15) follows Lee Child's drifter Jack Reacher -- a former U.S. Army military police major with no home, no luggage and an unerring instinct for arriving in towns where something is badly wrong -- into another self-contained mystery, written to be picked up on its own. It runs 439 pages.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Bad Luck and TroublePublished 2008-06-03, "Nothing to Lose" is one of Lee Child's original run of Reacher novels, delivered at Child's steady one-book-a-year pace after the series launched with "Killing Floor" in 1997. Reacher investigates here with the same cold Army logic and, when talking stops working, sudden decisive violence. It runs 439 pages.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Nothing to Lose"Gone Tomorrow" (2009-05-19, 448 pages) drops Jack Reacher into a fresh conspiracy or crooked operation, standalone by design like every Reacher novel -- part of what let Lee Child's series sell well over 100 million copies without demanding readers start from book one.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Gone Tomorrow"61 Hours" (2010-03-18, 445 pages) ends on a cliffhanger that carries straight into the next novel, "Worth Dying For" -- the one deliberate exception to Lee Child's usual standalone-by-design Reacher format, so the two are best read back to back.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of 61 Hours"Worth Dying For" (2010-10-19, 440 pages) picks up directly after the cliffhanger ending of "61 Hours" -- the one mild exception to the rule that any Reacher novel can be read first, so newcomers are steered to read the two together.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Worth Dying For"The Affair" (2011-09-27, 543 pages) is set in March 1997, in the final days of Jack Reacher's Army career -- the chronological bridge, alongside "The Enemy," "The Secret" and "Night School," that leads directly into "Killing Floor" and the start of Reacher's life on the road.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The AffairIn "A Wanted Man" (2012-09-11), Lee Child sends his six-foot-five ex-military-police drifter into another town with trouble under its respectable surface, narrated in the alternating first- and third-person style the series uses throughout. It runs 445 pages.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of A Wanted Man"Never Go Back" (2013-09-03, 440 pages) is one of Lee Child's standalone Reacher novels, adapted into the second Tom Cruise Reacher film -- part of the run of self-contained mysteries that let readers join the series at nearly any point.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Never Go Back"Personal" (2014-09-02) follows Lee Child's drifter Jack Reacher -- a former U.S. Army military police major with no home, no luggage and an unerring instinct for arriving in towns where something is badly wrong -- into another self-contained mystery, written to be picked up on its own. It runs 432 pages.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of PersonalPublished 2015-09-08, "Make Me" is one of Lee Child's original run of Reacher novels, delivered at Child's steady one-book-a-year pace after the series launched with "Killing Floor" in 1997. Reacher investigates here with the same cold Army logic and, when talking stops working, sudden decisive violence. It runs 432 pages.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Make Me"Night School" (2016-11-08, 472 pages) takes place in 1996, during Jack Reacher's final stretch in Army CID -- one of the series' chronological outliers, alongside "The Enemy," "The Secret" and "The Affair," set before "Killing Floor" begins Reacher's drifting years.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Night School"No Middle Name" (2017-05-16, 448 pages) collects Lee Child's Jack Reacher short stories rather than a single novel-length case -- generally recommended as a book to save for after you already know the character, rather than a starting point.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of No Middle Name"The Midnight Line" (2017-11-07, 416 pages) drops Jack Reacher into a fresh conspiracy or crooked operation, standalone by design like every Reacher novel -- part of what let Lee Child's series sell well over 100 million copies without demanding readers start from book one.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Midnight Line"The Christmas Scorpion" (2018-10-02, 43 pages) is a short Reacher story, a brief detour from the novel-length entries that make up most of Lee Child's series but built around the same standalone, drop-Reacher-into-trouble formula.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Christmas Scorpion"Cleaning the Gold" (2019-04-15, 129 pages) is a Jack Reacher short story co-written by Lee Child with fellow thriller author Karin Slaughter, a shorter one-off outside the main novel sequence but keeping Reacher's same investigative instincts and taste for sudden violence.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Cleaning the GoldIn "Past Tense" (2018-11-05), Lee Child sends his six-foot-five ex-military-police drifter into another town with trouble under its respectable surface, narrated in the alternating first- and third-person style the series uses throughout. It runs 410 pages.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Past Tense"Blue Moon" (2019-10-29) follows Lee Child's drifter Jack Reacher -- a former U.S. Army military police major with no home, no luggage and an unerring instinct for arriving in towns where something is badly wrong -- into another self-contained mystery, written to be picked up on its own. It runs 444 pages.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Blue Moon"The Sentinel" (2020-10-27, 404 pages) marks the handover point in the Reacher series -- the first novel co-written by Lee Child's brother Andrew Child, who has led the series since, keeping Reacher's drifting, standalone-mystery format and its annual autumn release rhythm intact.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Sentinel"Better Off Dead" (2021-10-26, 460 pages) is one of the Jack Reacher novels co-written by Lee Child and his brother Andrew Child, who took over leading the series from "The Sentinel" (2020) onward, keeping Reacher's annual autumn release rhythm and self-contained mystery format going past thirty novels.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Better Off Dead"No Plan B" (2022-10-25, 384 pages) is one of the Jack Reacher novels co-written by Lee Child and his brother Andrew Child, who took over leading the series from "The Sentinel" (2020) onward, keeping Reacher's annual autumn release rhythm and self-contained mystery format going past thirty novels.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of No Plan B"The Secret" (2023-10-24, 304 pages) is set during Jack Reacher's Army career, around 1992 -- one of the handful of chronological flashbacks, alongside "The Enemy," "Night School" and "The Affair," that precede "Killing Floor" in Reacher's own timeline even though they were published decades later.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Secret"In Too Deep" (2024-10-22, 376 pages) is written solely by Andrew Child, who now leads the Jack Reacher series after co-writing it with his brother Lee Child from "The Sentinel" (2020) onward -- continuing Reacher's drifting, standalone-mystery format and the series' annual autumn release rhythm.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of In Too Deep"Exit Strategy" (2025-11-11, 336 pages) is written solely by Andrew Child, who now leads the Jack Reacher series after co-writing it with his brother Lee Child from "The Sentinel" (2020) onward -- continuing Reacher's drifting, standalone-mystery format and the series' annual autumn release rhythm.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Exit StrategyThe order the story's events happen in, novellas slotted where they belong.
"The Enemy" (2004-05-11, 472 pages) is one of the Reacher novels set during his Army career rather than his later drifting years, taking place around 1990 -- part of the small cluster of chronological outliers, alongside "The Secret," "Night School" and "The Affair," that show Reacher before "Killing Floor" begins his life on the road.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Enemy"The Secret" (2023-10-24, 304 pages) is set during Jack Reacher's Army career, around 1992 -- one of the handful of chronological flashbacks, alongside "The Enemy," "Night School" and "The Affair," that precede "Killing Floor" in Reacher's own timeline even though they were published decades later.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Secret"Night School" (2016-11-08, 472 pages) takes place in 1996, during Jack Reacher's final stretch in Army CID -- one of the series' chronological outliers, alongside "The Enemy," "The Secret" and "The Affair," set before "Killing Floor" begins Reacher's drifting years.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Night School"The Affair" (2011-09-27, 543 pages) is set in March 1997, in the final days of Jack Reacher's Army career -- the chronological bridge, alongside "The Enemy," "The Secret" and "Night School," that leads directly into "Killing Floor" and the start of Reacher's life on the road.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Affair"Killing Floor" (1997) is the book that started it all -- Lee Child's introduction of Jack Reacher, the former U.S. Army military police major who walks away from his uniform to drift across America with no home, no luggage, and an unerring instinct for trouble. It set the template Child would follow for a book a year over the next two decades.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Killing Floor"Die Trying" (1998-07-07) follows Lee Child's drifter Jack Reacher -- a former U.S. Army military police major with no home, no luggage and an unerring instinct for arriving in towns where something is badly wrong -- into another self-contained mystery, written to be picked up on its own. It runs 434 pages.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Die TryingPublished 1999-06-28, "Tripwire" is one of Lee Child's original run of Reacher novels, delivered at Child's steady one-book-a-year pace after the series launched with "Killing Floor" in 1997. Reacher investigates here with the same cold Army logic and, when talking stops working, sudden decisive violence. It runs 422 pages.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Tripwire"Running Blind" (2000-07-10, an unlisted page count) drops Jack Reacher into a fresh conspiracy or crooked operation, standalone by design like every Reacher novel -- part of what let Lee Child's series sell well over 100 million copies without demanding readers start from book one.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Running BlindIn "Echo Burning" (2001-06-05), Lee Child sends his six-foot-five ex-military-police drifter into another town with trouble under its respectable surface, narrated in the alternating first- and third-person style the series uses throughout. It runs an unlisted page count.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Echo Burning"Without Fail" (2002-05-09) follows Lee Child's drifter Jack Reacher -- a former U.S. Army military police major with no home, no luggage and an unerring instinct for arriving in towns where something is badly wrong -- into another self-contained mystery, written to be picked up on its own. It runs 416 pages.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Without FailPublished 2003-05-13, "Persuader" is one of Lee Child's original run of Reacher novels, delivered at Child's steady one-book-a-year pace after the series launched with "Killing Floor" in 1997. Reacher investigates here with the same cold Army logic and, when talking stops working, sudden decisive violence. It runs 465 pages.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Persuader"One Shot" (2005-06-14, 436 pages) drops Jack Reacher into a fresh conspiracy or crooked operation, standalone by design like every Reacher novel -- part of what let Lee Child's series sell well over 100 million copies without demanding readers start from book one.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of One ShotIn "The Hard Way" (2006-05-16), Lee Child sends his six-foot-five ex-military-police drifter into another town with trouble under its respectable surface, narrated in the alternating first- and third-person style the series uses throughout. It runs 448 pages.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Hard Way"Bad Luck and Trouble" (2007-05-15) follows Lee Child's drifter Jack Reacher -- a former U.S. Army military police major with no home, no luggage and an unerring instinct for arriving in towns where something is badly wrong -- into another self-contained mystery, written to be picked up on its own. It runs 439 pages.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Bad Luck and TroublePublished 2008-06-03, "Nothing to Lose" is one of Lee Child's original run of Reacher novels, delivered at Child's steady one-book-a-year pace after the series launched with "Killing Floor" in 1997. Reacher investigates here with the same cold Army logic and, when talking stops working, sudden decisive violence. It runs 439 pages.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Nothing to Lose"Gone Tomorrow" (2009-05-19, 448 pages) drops Jack Reacher into a fresh conspiracy or crooked operation, standalone by design like every Reacher novel -- part of what let Lee Child's series sell well over 100 million copies without demanding readers start from book one.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Gone Tomorrow"61 Hours" (2010-03-18, 445 pages) ends on a cliffhanger that carries straight into the next novel, "Worth Dying For" -- the one deliberate exception to Lee Child's usual standalone-by-design Reacher format, so the two are best read back to back.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of 61 Hours"Worth Dying For" (2010-10-19, 440 pages) picks up directly after the cliffhanger ending of "61 Hours" -- the one mild exception to the rule that any Reacher novel can be read first, so newcomers are steered to read the two together.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Worth Dying ForIn "A Wanted Man" (2012-09-11), Lee Child sends his six-foot-five ex-military-police drifter into another town with trouble under its respectable surface, narrated in the alternating first- and third-person style the series uses throughout. It runs 445 pages.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of A Wanted Man"Never Go Back" (2013-09-03, 440 pages) is one of Lee Child's standalone Reacher novels, adapted into the second Tom Cruise Reacher film -- part of the run of self-contained mysteries that let readers join the series at nearly any point.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Never Go Back"Personal" (2014-09-02) follows Lee Child's drifter Jack Reacher -- a former U.S. Army military police major with no home, no luggage and an unerring instinct for arriving in towns where something is badly wrong -- into another self-contained mystery, written to be picked up on its own. It runs 432 pages.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of PersonalPublished 2015-09-08, "Make Me" is one of Lee Child's original run of Reacher novels, delivered at Child's steady one-book-a-year pace after the series launched with "Killing Floor" in 1997. Reacher investigates here with the same cold Army logic and, when talking stops working, sudden decisive violence. It runs 432 pages.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Make Me"The Midnight Line" (2017-11-07, 416 pages) drops Jack Reacher into a fresh conspiracy or crooked operation, standalone by design like every Reacher novel -- part of what let Lee Child's series sell well over 100 million copies without demanding readers start from book one.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Midnight Line"The Christmas Scorpion" (2018-10-02, 43 pages) is a short Reacher story, a brief detour from the novel-length entries that make up most of Lee Child's series but built around the same standalone, drop-Reacher-into-trouble formula.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Christmas Scorpion"Cleaning the Gold" (2019-04-15, 129 pages) is a Jack Reacher short story co-written by Lee Child with fellow thriller author Karin Slaughter, a shorter one-off outside the main novel sequence but keeping Reacher's same investigative instincts and taste for sudden violence.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Cleaning the GoldIn "Past Tense" (2018-11-05), Lee Child sends his six-foot-five ex-military-police drifter into another town with trouble under its respectable surface, narrated in the alternating first- and third-person style the series uses throughout. It runs 410 pages.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Past Tense"Blue Moon" (2019-10-29) follows Lee Child's drifter Jack Reacher -- a former U.S. Army military police major with no home, no luggage and an unerring instinct for arriving in towns where something is badly wrong -- into another self-contained mystery, written to be picked up on its own. It runs 444 pages.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Blue Moon"The Sentinel" (2020-10-27, 404 pages) marks the handover point in the Reacher series -- the first novel co-written by Lee Child's brother Andrew Child, who has led the series since, keeping Reacher's drifting, standalone-mystery format and its annual autumn release rhythm intact.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Sentinel"Better Off Dead" (2021-10-26, 460 pages) is one of the Jack Reacher novels co-written by Lee Child and his brother Andrew Child, who took over leading the series from "The Sentinel" (2020) onward, keeping Reacher's annual autumn release rhythm and self-contained mystery format going past thirty novels.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Better Off Dead"No Plan B" (2022-10-25, 384 pages) is one of the Jack Reacher novels co-written by Lee Child and his brother Andrew Child, who took over leading the series from "The Sentinel" (2020) onward, keeping Reacher's annual autumn release rhythm and self-contained mystery format going past thirty novels.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of No Plan B"In Too Deep" (2024-10-22, 376 pages) is written solely by Andrew Child, who now leads the Jack Reacher series after co-writing it with his brother Lee Child from "The Sentinel" (2020) onward -- continuing Reacher's drifting, standalone-mystery format and the series' annual autumn release rhythm.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of In Too Deep"Exit Strategy" (2025-11-11, 336 pages) is written solely by Andrew Child, who now leads the Jack Reacher series after co-writing it with his brother Lee Child from "The Sentinel" (2020) onward -- continuing Reacher's drifting, standalone-mystery format and the series' annual autumn release rhythm.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Exit Strategy"No Middle Name" (2017-05-16, 448 pages) collects Lee Child's Jack Reacher short stories rather than a single novel-length case -- generally recommended as a book to save for after you already know the character, rather than a starting point.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of No Middle NameJack Reacher is a former U.S. Army military police major who walks away from his uniform and, ultimately, from settled life altogether. He drifts across America with no home, no luggage and no plans — just a folding toothbrush, an ATM card and an unerring instinct for arriving in towns where something is badly wrong. Each novel drops this six-foot-five drifter into a self-contained mystery: a small-town conspiracy, a kidnapping, a crooked operation hiding behind respectable faces. Reacher investigates the way he was trained to, with cold logic and total recall of Army procedure, and when talking stops working he settles matters with sudden, decisive violence.
Lee Child launched the series with Killing Floor in 1997 and delivered a book a year for over two decades; since The Sentinel (2020) his brother Andrew Child has co-written and now leads the series, keeping the annual autumn release rhythm going past thirty novels. The books alternate between first-person and third-person narration and jump freely around Reacher's timeline — some are set during his Army career in the 1990s, others in the present day. Standalone by design, they reward binge-reading but almost never require it: you can pick up nearly any entry cold, which is a large part of why the series has sold well over 100 million copies and spawned two Tom Cruise films and the hit Amazon Reacher television series.
Lee Child wrote the series; books 25-28 were co-written with Andrew Child, who has continued the series alone from book 29.
There are 30 Jack Reacher novels as of Exit Strategy (2025), plus the short-story collection No Middle Name, the standalone e-short The Christmas Scorpion (2018) and the Karin Slaughter crossover novella Cleaning the Gold (2019). Book 31, Chain Reaction, is due 20 October 2026.
Publication order, starting with Killing Floor, is the recommended default — every book stands alone. If you prefer story chronology, start with The Enemy, The Secret, Night School and The Affair, which are set during Reacher's Army years before Killing Floor.
No. The novels are deliberately self-contained. The only real pairing to respect is 61 Hours followed by Worth Dying For, which resolves its cliffhanger.
Lee Child wrote books 1-24 solo (1997-2019). Books 25-28 (The Sentinel through The Secret, 2020-2023) were genuinely co-written with his brother Andrew Child. Starting with book 29, In Too Deep (2024), Andrew Child has written the novels entirely solo -- Lee Child has confirmed on record that he did not write In Too Deep or Exit Strategy (2025) himself, even though both are still marketed under both names.
Yes. Each season of Amazon's Reacher adapts one novel: season 1 is Killing Floor, season 2 is Bad Luck and Trouble, season 3 is Persuader.
Reading order last verified .