Code Name Books In Order

Publication Order of Code Name Books

“Code Name” is a series of novels by American novelist William W. Johnstone. The first novel of the Code Name series was “Code Name: Payback” that was published in 2000 to much popularity. After the success of the first novel, Johstone went on to publish six more titles in the series that ended with “Code Name; Kill Zone” published in 2005. Johnstone was born the youngest of four siblings in Southern Missouri and was brought up under strong family and moral values by his school teacher mother and minister father. He quit school aged fifteen, got kicked out of the French legion for lying about his age, joined the Carnival, and was back in school by 1957. He would go on to work in the US army, do a shift as deputy sheriff before he got into radio broadcasting, where he spent sixteen years honing his storytelling and verbal skills. However, much of his proficiency in writing western adventures came from his experiences as deputy sheriff and from his grandparents tales of the family experiences. He is also an avid knife and gun collector who spends a lot of time doing research for his many novels.

William W. Johnstone debuted his writing career in 1970 but it would be nearly a decade later before he published “The Devil’s Liss” that he believed he could make a career out of writing. Since he published his first novel he has made a big career of it, publishing more than two hundred novels in different genres that include horror, science fiction, western, suspense, and action. Johnson also wrote Dagger and Eagle Down two of his bestselling series under the pseudonym William Mason. Some of his most popular series include the “Devil”, “Dog Team”, “Order of Ashes”, “Mountain of Man”, and “Satan Influenced” series among many others. He is definitely best known for the excellent diversity that goes into his writing as he demonstrates vision in writing in different genres even as he is best known for his westerns. His prophetic narratives of the “Code Name” and “Ashes” series that predicted the “Gulf War” and the charged political climate of modern times is ahead of any book ever written during the time.

The “Code Name” series of novels follow the life and times of a covert operations team led by ex CIA operative John Barrone that uncover, investigate and track down and eliminate threats to America and their allies and also do private investigations of complex crimes. The novels are basically chase books that have the lead and his team of intelligence officers move across different countries tracking down bad elements posing a threat to US interests. The emphasis is on the action with little background information given. The action involves hair-raising car chases, gun fights in lobbies, and multiple storey office and hotel rooms, and treks through dense jungles. William Johnson incorporates not only the political but also the social aspects of life at the time of writing.

The “Code Name” series is about crime cartels with a stranglehold over international crime and mad men who rule the roost over nations that they brutally suppress. To the covert operatives, the situation demands justice that sometimes can only be achieved through what may be deemed extreme measures. Barrone the lead protagonist is a veteran intelligence operative that been involved in countless operations for the US. Barrone supposedly retired though in fact is the head of a secret force of elite special forces from intelligence and law enforcement charged with tracking down and eliminating America’s enemies. The series is set in a variety of countries from Colombia, to Mexico to Iraq in the Middle East, where Barrone and his operatives survive in harsh conditions to achieve their objective of keeping America safe. The antagonists they have to face up to range from a brutal cocaine dealer who wants to secede from Colombia to form his own country where he can produce cocaine without restriction, to New Mexican biker gangs distributing drugs in the US. Even with their blood, misery, grenades, shotguns, and drugs, the novels can be quite humorous in their dialogue. The covert operatives face up to their opponents with a nonchalance that belies the danger and threat of death, making for some of the most exhilarating of novels.

“Code Name: Death” is an excellent novel in the “Code Name” series of novels That showcases the worst that could happen when evil and mad men take over the globe and rule over countries with an iron fist. John Barrone has seen it all having been the elite agent charged with fighting the dirty back alley wars of the US for more than two decades with the CIA. But even after years out on the field tracking down and eliminating America’s enemies, his work is not done as he now heads a special team of elite operatives tracking down some of the most cunning of elements. The novel opens to the disappearance of a teenage prostitute in Los Angeles. A few months later her billionaire grandfather watches a horrible tape of his daughter starring in a pornography movie after which she is brutally murdered. Quincannon Marist has now hired Barrone to track down the human traffickers that had taken away his daughter and killed her just for kicks. What Barrone and his team unearth is the stuff of legend. The leader of the ring is a man with a two decade old grudge against the billionaire, who is powerful and depraved killer that only maximum force could take him down.

In “Code Name: Extreme Prejudice” Barrone and his team of elite special forces operatives come head-to-head with Pablo Bustamente, a South American drug lord who is determined to flood the American streets with tons of drugs, and in the process make himself a lot of money. But now that the American authorities have been catching and confiscating most of his shipments, he has decided that he will provide the ultimate lesson in humility to teach them not to mess with him. He has made a deal with Middle Eastern terrorists, who have agreed to provide him with cheap heroin, while he will use his vast network of drug dealers, gang bangers, and couriers to carry out a terrorist attack inside the US. When the US authorities catch wind of the plot, they hire Barrone and his covert operatives to infiltrate the drug cartel, find out about the deal, and eliminate Bustamante and his top lieutenants permanently.