Ross Thomas Books In Order

Publication Order of Arthur Case Wu Books

Publication Order of Mac McCorkle Books

Publication Order of Philip St. Ives Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Ross Thomas is an American author of crime fiction and mystery and thriller novels. He was born in Oklahoma City in the U.S. on February 19, 1926. He has commonly used the pen name Oliver Bleeck to write several novels. He is known for writing intelligent and gripping thrillers that go on to expose mechanisms of professional politics.

Ross Thomas served in the Philippines serving in the infantry when the second world war was going on. He had a great many professions before he became a writer, working as a foreign correspondent reporter, a public relations specialist, a union spokesman, as well as a political strategist in Germany, the United States, and Nigeria.

Ross Thomas began writing novels in 1965. It was only two years before he would win the Edgar Award for writing a Best First Novel for his debut book, The Cold War Swap. He wrote this first book in only six weeks. His novel Briarpatch won the Edgar Award for Best Novel in 1985. At the time of his death, he was an author of well over 20 novels.

He is the author of the Mac McCorkle fiction series. It includes the first novel, The Cold War Snap, which won several awards and ends with the fourth book which is titled Twilight at Mac’s Place. It was published in 1990, several years after the first three which were published in the mid-sixties and early seventies. He wrote an original screenplay called Jimmy the Rumour, which he wrote for Robert Evans, a producer. It is the story of a man who is born without an identity and makes his living as a thief who takes from other thieves.

He is also the author of the Philip St. Ives mystery series. It features five novels, starting with the 1969 publication of The Brass Go-Between and ending with No Questions Asked in 1976. He is the author of the Arthur Case Wu series, which features three books. He is also the author of several standalone novels, which include The Seersucker Whipsaw, Missionary Stew, and Ah, Treachery!.

Ross Thomas is also the author of two nonfiction books, a 1969 book that he authored with William H. Crook called Warriors for the Poor: The Story of V.I.S.T.A. (Volunteers in Service to America). The second is a book called Spies, Thumbsuckers, Etc., that came out in 1989.

He died on December 18, 1995, in Santa Monica, California, of lung cancer. It was just two months before he would have reached his seventieth birthday. He was honored with the Gumshoe Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002 after his death. He was only one of two authors that had received the award after passing, the other being Evan Hunter in 2006. He is most well known for his thrillers that go into the internal workings of professional politics.

The Cold War Swap is one of Ross Thomas’s most celebrated books. It is the first book in the Mac McCorkle series. Two Americans are running a bar at the height of the Cold War tensions. It is called Mac’s Place and they are running it in the smack dab middle of the West German capital.

There are two partners, Mac McCorkle and Michael Padillo. Michael Padillo doesn’t seem to be around the bar quite as often as his partner McCorkle is. Instead, he keeps going off on business trips that happen at random times. But his partner knows better than to ask questions about where Michael goes. In fact, he doesn’t really have to because he already suspects what is probably very close to the truth: Padillo has a second calling as a secret agent for the United States.

Instead of prying into what Padillo is doing, McCorkle stays quiet. He knows better than to ask a ton of personal questions of his partner and add more stress, and on top of that Padillo can’t be blabbing about his official job to anyone, maybe even his partner. International tensions are strained and when you are something close to a spy it is better to avoid the path of telling everyone and seeing what happens when your cover is blown.

McCorkle doesn’t mess with Padillo’s job and lets him take off work whenever. But when he gets a call for help from his partner, he must answer the call to help his friend. Mac has no idea what he is in for when he answers the call, and together they embark on a crazy journey that they are going into absolutely blind.

Together the two are in for a bunch of twists and Mac may have gotten into more than he bargained for. Can the two bar owners and operators come out on top? Or is Padillo’s profession one that may have consequences deadly enough to take them both down? Read this exciting book to find out!

Cast a Yellow Shadow is the second book in the Mac McCorkle series. Published in 1967, Mac is back once more along with his friend Michael Padillo. This time Padillo has pulled him into yet another misadventure that McCorkle agrees to help out on (although after the last adventure, he has no idea why).

This exciting follow-up novel to the thrilling debut of the Mac McCorkle series is full of intrigue and political dangers around every corner. Once more, Mac and his old friend are drawn into something that promises to be treacherous, dangerous, and very compromising. Now their friend Fredi has been kidnapped, and the kidnappers are using him as the leverage that will propel Michael into helping them out with a political assassination that could have incredible consequences.

Mac comes back to the familiar area of Washington, D.C. from Germany. He is not returning home alone; he has on his arm a beautiful wife and wants to get back to living a life that is actually quiet and not riddled with risk seemingly everywhere you go. Mac is going back to what he knows in every possible way, keeping a saloon in an upscale and nice neighborhood. Then, of course, everything goes completely sideways.

When his friend is stabbed and Mike’s wife is kidnapped, Mac really has his hands full. But things are just getting started as he begins to encounter plots of assassination, double agents, and more. Once again Mac is pulled into a fast-paced political world where everyone has an agenda and they aren’t afraid to use force to get what they want. Can Mac and Michael work their way out of this mess, or will it engulf everyone they care about? Pick up this dazzling thriller and find out!