Author · guide verified September 8, 2026
Robert Ludlum Books in Order
Every Robert Ludlum book in publication order — 29 in total, spanning 1971–2005.
Robert Ludlum wrote the kind of thrillers you read with your shoulders up around your ears: shadowy conspiracies, amnesiac assassins, chase scenes that cross three countries before breakfast. A former actor and theater producer, he published his first novel in his forties and went on to sell hundreds of millions of books, most famously the Jason Bourne trilogy. He died in 2001, but 'Robert Ludlum's' name still appears on new Bourne and Covert-One novels every year — a franchise he would probably have found deeply suspicious.
Publication Order of Jason Bourne Books
| # | Title | Year | Get it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  The Bourne Identity | 1980 | Amazon US UK |
| 2 |  The Bourne Supremacy | 1986 | Amazon US UK |
| 3 |  The Bourne Ultimatum | 1990 | Amazon US UK |
Publication Order of Covert-One Books
| # | Title | Year | Get it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  The Hades Factor | 2000 | Amazon US UK |
| 2 |  The Cassandra Compact | 2001 | Amazon US UK |
Publication Order of Matarese Dynasty Books
| # | Title | Year | Get it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  The Matarese Circle | 1979 | Amazon US UK |
| 2 |  The Matarese Countdown | 1997 | Amazon US UK |
Publication Order of Paul Janson Books
| # | Title | Year | Get it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  The Janson Directive | 2002 | Amazon US UK |
Publication Order of Road to Books
| # | Title | Year | Get it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  The Road to Gandolfo | 1975 | Amazon US UK |
| 2 |  The Road To Omaha | 1992 | Amazon US UK |
Publication Order of Standalone Novels
| # | Title | Year | Get it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Scarlatti Inheritance | 1971 | Amazon US UK |
| 2 |  The Osterman Weekend | 1972 | Amazon US UK |
| 3 |  The Matlock Paper | 1973 | Amazon US UK |
| 4 |  Trevayne (As: Jonathan Ryder) | 1973 | Amazon US UK |
| 5 |  The Rhinemann Exchange | 1974 | Amazon US UK |
| 6 |  The Cry of the Halidon (As: Jonathan Ryder) | 1974 | Amazon US UK |
| 7 |  The Gemini Contenders | 1976 | Amazon US UK |
| 8 |  The Chancellor Manuscript | 1977 | Amazon US UK |
| 9 |  The Holcroft Covenant | 1978 | Amazon US UK |
| 10 |  The Parsifal Mosaic | 1982 | Amazon US UK |
| 11 |  The Aquitaine Progression | 1984 | Amazon US UK |
| 12 |  The Icarus Agenda | 1988 | Amazon US UK |
| 13 |  The Scorpio Illusion | 1993 | Amazon US UK |
| 14 |  The Apocalypse Watch | 1995 | Amazon US UK |
| 15 |  The Prometheus Deception | 2000 | Amazon US UK |
| 16 |  The Sigma Protocol | 2001 | Amazon US UK |
| 17 |  The Tristan Betrayal | 2003 | Amazon US UK |
| 18 |  The Bancroft Strategy | 2004 | Amazon US UK |
| 19 |  The Ambler Warning | 2005 | Amazon US UK |
Every title by year All 29, oldest to newest
| # | Title | Year | Get it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Scarlatti Inheritance | 1971 | Amazon US UK |
| 2 | The Osterman Weekend | 1972 | Amazon US UK |
| 3 | The Matlock Paper | 1973 | Amazon US UK |
| 4 | Trevayne (As: Jonathan Ryder) | 1973 | Amazon US UK |
| 5 | The Rhinemann Exchange | 1974 | Amazon US UK |
| 6 | The Cry of the Halidon (As: Jonathan Ryder) | 1974 | Amazon US UK |
| 7 | The Road to Gandolfo | 1975 | Amazon US UK |
| 8 | The Gemini Contenders | 1976 | Amazon US UK |
| 9 | The Chancellor Manuscript | 1977 | Amazon US UK |
| 10 | The Holcroft Covenant | 1978 | Amazon US UK |
| 11 | The Matarese Circle | 1979 | Amazon US UK |
| 12 | The Bourne Identity | 1980 | Amazon US UK |
| 13 | The Parsifal Mosaic | 1982 | Amazon US UK |
| 14 | The Aquitaine Progression | 1984 | Amazon US UK |
| 15 | The Bourne Supremacy | 1986 | Amazon US UK |
| 16 | The Icarus Agenda | 1988 | Amazon US UK |
| 17 | The Bourne Ultimatum | 1990 | Amazon US UK |
| 18 | The Road To Omaha | 1992 | Amazon US UK |
| 19 | The Scorpio Illusion | 1993 | Amazon US UK |
| 20 | The Apocalypse Watch | 1995 | Amazon US UK |
| 21 | The Matarese Countdown | 1997 | Amazon US UK |
| 22 | The Hades Factor | 2000 | Amazon US UK |
| 23 | The Prometheus Deception | 2000 | Amazon US UK |
| 24 | The Cassandra Compact | 2001 | Amazon US UK |
| 25 | The Sigma Protocol | 2001 | Amazon US UK |
| 26 | The Janson Directive | 2002 | Amazon US UK |
| 27 | The Tristan Betrayal | 2003 | Amazon US UK |
| 28 | The Bancroft Strategy | 2004 | Amazon US UK |
| 29 | The Ambler Warning | 2005 | Amazon US UK |
Robert Ludlum on screen
Matt Damon's Bourne films took Ludlum's premise and built one of the great action franchises of the 2000s — very loosely based on the books, but faithful to their paranoid energy.
- 2002The Bourne IdentityFilm — Matt Damon; followed by Supremacy (2004), Ultimatum (2007) and Jason Bourne (2016).
- 2012The Bourne LegacyFilm — Jeremy Renner; a side story using Eric Van Lustbader’s title.
- 2019TreadstoneTV series — USA Network; set in the Bourne universe.
Frequently asked
What order should I read Robert Ludlum books in?
His novels are standalones apart from the Bourne trilogy — The Bourne Identity (1980), The Bourne Supremacy (1986) and The Bourne Ultimatum (1990). Beyond that, popular starting points include The Matarese Circle, The Chancellor Manuscript and The Holcroft Covenant. The Bourne continuation novels (by Eric Van Lustbader and, since 2020, Brian Freeman) are on our Jason Bourne page.
Did Robert Ludlum write all the Bourne books?
No. Ludlum wrote the original trilogy. After his death in 2001, Eric Van Lustbader continued the series from The Bourne Legacy (2004) through 2019, and Brian Freeman has written the newer books beginning with The Bourne Evolution (2020).
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