Alex Ryan Books In Order

Publication Order of Nick Foley Books

Alex Ryan is the pseudonym of the writing team of Jeffrey Wilson and Brian Andrews. Both writers have a military background as both served in the American Navy. Wilson has been a combat surgeon and has toured in Afghanistan and Iraq, where he was deployed in support of the US Navy SEALS. Andrews was an officer on a nuclear submarine the 688 class. Together they have written four novels and currently live o Tampa and Kansas Florida respectively.

Brian Andrews is a husband and father who immediately went to serve in the US Navy after clearing his college studies. He had a lot of fun serving aboard a fast attack nuclear sub, though he asserts the experience also had its hairy moments. He loves to call himself an INTJ that cares a lot for the US and often loses sleep fearing that the world is changing for the worse. Andrews writes about events, places, and people that upset, inspire, and intrigue him. For Andrews the key to a good story is the creation of a world where his protagonists have to deal with the very same moral dilemmas the man in the ordinary world would face.

Jeffrey Wilson is a former Naval officer, diving instructor, jet pilot, paramedic, firefighter, actor, trauma and vascular surgeon. He has been on two tours to Iraq serving on a Joint Special Operations Task Force, and with the Marines as a combat surgeon. He currently lives with his wife Wendy, and children Connor, Jack, and Emma in Tampa Florida, though he is originally from Virginia. When he is not playing with his wife and kids or practicing vascular surgery, Jeffrey may be found hard at work churning out his next bestseller. For Wilson, characterization and authenticity are what makes his novels, as he tries to make his villains and heroes people that are driven by real conflicting emotions, motivations, and relationships with fellow characters.

Together the two authors have co-written the bestselling “Tier One” series of novels, the first novel in the series of which was the 2016 published “Tier One”. As Alex Ryan the two authors have written the “Nick Foley” mystery thriller series of novels that debuted with the critically acclaimed “Beijing Red” published in 2016. As individual authors Wilson has worked with Journal Stone Publishing and wrote three freestanding novels. Brian Andrews is best known for penning the suspense, bio-science, and topical intrigue series of novels “The Think Tank” series.

The themes of the Nick Foley series of novels closely mirror those of the “Berger & Mitry” series by David Handler or those of the award winning movie “The Hurt Locker”. These are compulsive narratives of international intrigue that incorporate modern medical science with ancient lore and the socio-political friction among individuals, agencies and nation states. Overall the Alex Ryan series of novels provide details of the developments in medical science from a military perspective, and just enough romance to make for a great mix of an international thriller and romance. The author does a great job proving that while humans may label themselves according to color, race, gender and nation states, civilizations are remarkably similar in motivation across thousands of years. Power hierarchies, bureaucracies and untreated mental illness are a reality today just as they were hundreds of years ago.

The lead in the series is Nick Foley, a former Navy SEAL that is afflicted with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). He is now trying to make ends meet and is working for an NGO in China that suddenly has to deal with a deadly outbreak.He is only twenty eight years old and hence has a little of the inexperience and innocence expected of the person at that age. As such, unlike your typical Jason Statham or Jet Li, he just not a bad-ass superman who barrels his way through any kind of obstacle placed in front of him. He is not one that shoots everything and everyone in front of him and sweeps all women off their feet. He is just an ex American military man finding his way in modern China without a knife let alone a gun. He is living in what is probably one of the most racist countries on the globe where he does not even know the local language.

In “Beijing Red”, a team of workers suddenly get afflicted with a mysterious disease. Nick with his past military experience knows this is no small or ordinary disease and hence puts in place plans to prevent a global catastrophe. But the man still has bad memories from a recent mission gone wrong, which makes him hesitate in taking action. But with lives at stake, it is a do or die situation in which he needs to quickly overcome his personal demons and act fast. Alongside him is Dr Chen Dazhing, a tough, beautiful, and brilliant scientist working for the premier Chinese Center for Disease Prevention and Control. Together they investigate and discover that the Chinese government is involved in a major conspiracy than any of them ever thought imaginable. As death continues to wreak havoc in the rural villages, Foley and Chen are in a race against geopolitics and time, trying to prevent a cunning enemy from achieving his dark objective.

In “Hong Kong Black” Nick Foley is called back into action, albeit reluctantly when Peter Yu an American CIA agent goes missing while on a mission in China. The case soon turns bizarre when Wu’s body along with tens of others are washed up onto a Chinese beach. Nick believes he is up to another bio terrorism incident that soon turns into a major syndicate involving the Chinese CDC and the Leopard Counter Terrorism unit. With the trade so lucrative Nick effectively paints a target on his back forcing him off the grid. He finds his way into the arms of Dr Dazhon Dash Chen, a brilliant microbiologist who is just as determined to find the perpetrators of the syndicate that want him dead. Each step forwards sees them drawn even tighter into the embrace of a global conspiracy that stretches back over two millennia and involved China’s first emperor. The conspiracy now threatens the world and were it to succeed, nothing would ever be the same again.

One Response to “Alex Ryan”

1. Dana Smith: 1 year ago

   I love the Nick Foley series. Not the normal door knocking down scenario but one that makes you think and holds you captive till the end of the story. Will there be more adventures of Nick and Dash. You cannot leave us hanging.

   Thank you for your service.

   Dana Smith
   AE2(RET)

   Reply