J.S. Monroe / Jon Stock Books In Order

Publication Order of Daniel Marchant Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Jon Stock is a thriller author from England who also writes mystery novels under the pseudonym JS Monroe. He is a former journalist turned full-time author that has worked for a variety of publications including the Daily Telegraph’s Weekend Section that he wrote for five years between 2005 and 2010. His first piece of non-fiction was the 1997 published “The Riot Act.” He would quit his job at The Telegraph in 2010 as he went to write a series of detective thrillers starting with “Dead Spy Running.” He also worked for several other publications including The Week Magazine and as a foreign correspondent reporting from Cochin, Kerala for “The Daily Telegraph.” As Jon Stock, he has more than six novels in the “Daniel Marchant” series of psychological thriller novels among several single standing titles. He has also written several mystery novels under the pseudonym JS Monroe the first of which was the 2017 published title “Find Me.” He currently lives with his wife and children in Wiltshire.

Having been known for writing psychological thrillers he decided to change his name and adopt a pseudonym when writing mysteries. While he did not make his identity a huge secret while writing as JS Monroe, the publishers were not informed that the author of the thriller “Find Me” was Jan Stock. The reason for taking up the pseudonym of J.S Monroe was not about identity but rather about differentiating the two genres he was writing in. It was more about branding than anything else though his new publisher has also reissued his Jon Stock titles under J.S. Monroe.

Jon Stock is a voracious consumer of books and he has said that he reads almost anything he can find his hands on. However, he prefers the literary works of writers such as Eimear McBride when he is writing his thrillers. The reason for this is that he does not want to become envious or distracted and hence literary and nonfiction works are the best in such times. He also reads non-fiction works by authors such as Adrian Owen who explores the relationship between life and death, consciousness, mind, and brain. As for his interest in writing and authorship, it was something that just happened though he always had a way with words. As a young adult, he had attended Magdalene College in Cambridge, where he graduated with a degree in English about a decade before he published The Riot Act. After graduation, he had kept himself busy with freelance journalism while also writing on the side. He started out writing feature articles and opinion pieces in the magazines and newspapers and it was thus a natural progression to telling stories in novel format. Jon had always loved to read psychological thrillers and hence that is what he started with until he decided to try something new as JS Monroe in 2017. He believed he had done almost everything he could with the genre and since at that time he had been into neuroscience started writing the manuscript for “Find Me.” In his novels as Monroe, he explores themes of identity and memory through new and fascinating lenses.

JS Monroe’s “Dead Spy Running” tells the story of a suspended MI6 officer named Daniel Marchant. Running the London Marathon, he suddenly found himself running out of time as a fellow runner had been strapped with explosives. Any drop in pace will result in a detonation that would kill everyone in the vicinity including the American ambassador to the United Kingdom. Marchant is at the forefront trying to prevent the explosives from going off but could he be in cahoots with the terrorists? Many in the US think Marchant is deceitful. After all, he is the son of a former head of the agency that had been interdicted after investigations by the CIA. The treatment accorded Marchant is similar to that of an enemy combatant as he is waterboarded like a hardened terrorist. But there are many of his friends like the new Chief that hates the increasing power of the White House and his colleague and lover that hate the American war on terror that has been dragging on for years. He runs from the CIA in a bid to find proof that his father was innocent of all charges in a quest that will take him to Wiltshire while passing through India and Poland. It was in the town that his father had once had a meeting with leaders of a notorious terror group and where the American president will shortly be visiting. But he cannot wonder if the meeting was evidence of a traitor in the MI6 or the best piece of infiltration even done on Al Qaeda by the West.

“Games Traitors Play” by JS Monroe sees Marchant pursuing one of the most wanted terrorists in the world. Salim Dhar is a hardcore terrorist wanted for trying to assassinate the American president and the CIA has been told they have to hunt him down. The West’s best intelligence network known as Echelon is in severe meltdown even though it is still searching for the faintest clue of the terrorist’s whereabouts. But only Daniel Marchant who has been declared renegade can find him. Marchant goes after Dhar who has found refuge in the Atlas Mountains near Marrakech. He spies an unmarked military helicopter and thinks someone may be protecting Dhar to use him to perpetrate tourism by proxy. Things are complicated by the fact that the CIA claims that they had already killed him. To find out the truth, Marchant needs to work with Russian intelligence, a role which will need him to assume that his father was a double agent which is something he had never believed. He now needs to confront the new realities and dark truths not only about his father but also himself. As British intelligence prepares for a terror attack, Marchant is about to learn that the biggest game of all is betrayal.

Jon Stock’s “Dirty Little Secret” opens to a situation in which the special relationship between Washington and London had been almost irreparably torn down. The world’s most wanted terrorist had staged a daring attack in the United Kingdom hitting the American target hard. The CIA believes renegade MI6 officer Daniel Marchant had something to do with the attack. But what they do not know is that Marchant has managed to convince the terrorist to work with MI6 to protect the country from future terrorist attacks. But the complication is that Marchant needs to provide help in Adhar’s quest to strike hard at targets in the United States. Will the UK agree to the Faustian pact Marchant had procured or will it declare both of them most wanted persons?