John Puller Books In Order

Publication Order of John Puller Books

The name John Puller refers to a series of action thriller novels written by David Baldacci. The books follow the exploits of a military detective that solves army-related crimes.

+The Story
John Puller’s story began in 2011 with ‘Zero Day’, the first novel in the John Puller series. The book did not have the most positive start, not only because of the complaints that were raised about David Baldacci’s writing style also the criticisms the author attracted for writing a character that is so similar to Lee Child’s Jack Reacher that readers simply could not see past the comparisons.

By the time Puller is introduced to readers in ‘Zero Day’, the character is a war hero with an impeccable record who makes his living as a military investigator. Puller’s life in the military hasn’t been the easiest.

Even precluding the trials he faced in training as a rookie and the horrors that came with fighting in foreign lands, Puller’s family life has always been a little dysfunctional. He lost his mother when he was just a boy.

The woman just disappeared one random day and Puller never got over the case, primarily because he never got the answers to all the questions that assaulted him the day he found out that she had simply vanished.

Then there is his brother, a man that was making waves in the military and rapidly ascending through the ranks before he was arrested and convicted of treason, a development that saw him disappear into the prison system, never to be heard from again.

Puller’s challenges did not stop him from becoming a crackerjack military investigator. One of the best the army has to offer, John Puller is the guy they deploy when they have a truly mind-bending case on their hands.

Puller doesn’t just solve murders and thefts. He unravels conspiracies, destroys trafficking rings and takes on the sorts of thugs and criminals that other people would rather avoid, either because of the power they wield or the connections they have.

John Puller can be relied upon to get the job done because of his cunning. Puller’s lengthy career in the army has allowed him to accumulate a wide-ranging knowledge base that allows him to do everything from using forensic techniques to collect clues to disarming nuclear warheads.

And unfortunately for the bad guys, Puller’s talents are not restricted to his mind. When things go wrong, the investigator is not afraid to put his fists through faces. Puller can brawl with the best of them. It doesn’t matter how many enemies are out to get him or how poor the odds are, Puller won’t be intimidated.

You can always count on him to weasel his way out of the most cunning of traps. The hero’s biggest assets are his quick wits and courage. There’s nothing that Puller won’t do to get justice.

For all intent and purpose, John Puller is the typical alpha male that most action thriller fiction authors write. And it isn’t difficult to spot the similarities with Jack Reacher. Like Puller, Reacher grew up in the army.

Like Puller, Reacher is the best military investigator in the country. Like Puller, Reacher is the one agent that can be counted upon to resolve the most difficult mysteries and cases. And like Puller, Reacher tends to play by his own rules, taking drastic and borderline illegal steps to see the bad guys punished.

It could be argued that Reacher is also very typical of the average action thriller alpha male. However, Reacher was created several years before David Baldacci imagined Puller. And by the time John Puller was finally created, Reacher was an established character in fiction, having become the standard by which all action thriller adventure heroes were measured.

David Baldacci’s fans will argue that while Puller does look like a copy of Jack Reacher at the start, the sequels to ‘Zero Day’ flesh him out and eventually allow him to develop his own unique identity. But a considerable portion of the audience tends to disagree with that assessment.

The John Puller series is praised and criticised in equal parts for Baldacci’s writing style. The author loves to use very short, very succinct sentences. He does this because he believes it adds a sense of urgency to his story.

Some readers will tell you that he succeeds from their perspective while others will admit to finding the approach rather annoying. A common complaint revolves around David Baldacci’s tendency to spend entire paragraphs, pages and even chapters providing extensive explanations about irrelevant elements such as guns and shooting stances.

+The Author
David Baldacci is an American author born in 1960 and whose novels have appeared on numerous bestseller lists. David was a young child when he started writing. David remembers his mother giving him a notebook to keep him quiet.

He started jotting story ideas into it and that set the stage for his successful publishing career. A number of Baldacci’s books have been adapted into movies.

+Zero Day
John Puller is the best investigator the Army has. The war hero spends his days scrutinizing events that relate to the army.When a family that is associated with the military is murdered, Puller is deployed.

Puller goes to West Virginia believing that he is only there to find a killer. But as he starts collecting clues and interviewing suspects, it becomes clear that something more nefarious might be going on.

Puller is joined in his efforts by a local detective called Samantha. Together, they must unravel a web of lies.

+The Forgotten
John Puller is a military investigator. The army relies on him to solve complicated cases. However, this time things have become personal. His aunt was found dead and now Puller is determined to find her killer if there is one.

The police seem certain that the woman’s death was accidental. But Puller isn’t so sure. The victim wrote to Puller’s father, telling him that there was far more to her community than its quiet façade suggested.

Once Puller finally becomes convinced that his aunt’s death was no accident, he begins investigating a conspiracy with shocking implications.