Sam Packer Reading Order
| Title | Published | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|
| Fire Hawk | 1998 | Buy |
| The Lucifer Network | 2001 | Buy |
| The Burma Legacy | 2002 | Buy |
Standalone Novels
| Title | Published | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|
| Skydancer | 1987 | Buy |
| Shadow Hunter | 1989 | Buy |
| Eagle Trap | 1993 | Buy |
| Scorpion Trail | 1995 | Buy |
| Java Spider | 1996 | Buy |
| Dark Angel | 2004 | Buy |
Geoffrey Archer worked as a television news journalist in the UK before turning to fiction. His background in journalism – particularly in covering defense and international affairs – feeds directly into his novels, which tend to center on military intelligence, covert operations, and the moral ambiguities of espionage.
His debut, Skydancer, came out in 1987 and dealt with nuclear arms and Cold War tensions. The standalone novels that followed – Shadow Hunter, Eagle Trap, Scorpion Trail, Java Spider, and Dark Angel – continued in a similar vein, each built around a specific geopolitical flashpoint or military conflict. The settings range from the Balkans to Southeast Asia, reflecting the kinds of stories Archer covered as a journalist.
The Sam Packer series, beginning with Fire Hawk in 1998, introduced a recurring protagonist for the first time in Archer’s fiction. Sam Packer is a British intelligence operative, and the three books in the series have the tightly plotted, location-driven style that characterized Archer’s earlier standalone work.