Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Paid Piper | 1924 | C.S. Forester | Buy |
| 2 | A Pawn Among Kings | 1924 | C.S. Forester | Buy |
| 3 | Payment Deferred | 1926 | C.S. Forester | Buy |
| 4 | The Wonderful Week | 1927 | C.S. Forester | Buy |
| 5 | Love Lies Dreaming | 1927 | C.S. Forester | Buy |
| 6 | The Shadow of the Hawk / The Daughter of the Hawk | 1928 | C.S. Forester | Buy |
| 7 | Single-Handed | 1929 | C.S. Forester | Buy |
| 8 | Brown on Resolution | 1929 | C.S. Forester | Buy |
| 9 | Plain Murder | 1930 | C.S. Forester | Buy |
| 10 | Two-and-twenty | 1931 | C.S. Forester | Buy |
| 11 | Rifleman Dodd / Death to the French | 1932 | C.S. Forester | Buy |
| 12 | The Gun | 1933 | C.S. Forester | Buy |
| 13 | The Peacemaker | 1934 | C.S. Forester | Buy |
| 14 | The African Queen | 1935 | C.S. Forester | Buy |
| 15 | The Pursued | 1935 | C.S. Forester | Buy |
| 16 | Marionettes at home | 1936 | C.S. Forester | Buy |
| 17 | The General | 1936 | C.S. Forester | Buy |
| 18 | The Earthly Paradise | 1940 | C.S. Forester | Buy |
| 19 | The Captain from Connecticut | 1941 | C.S. Forester | Buy |
| 20 | The Ship | 1943 | C.S. Forester | Buy |
| 21 | The Sky and the Forest | 1948 | C.S. Forester | Buy |
| 22 | Randall and the River Of Time | 1950 | C.S. Forester | Buy |
| 23 | The Good Shepherd / Greyhound | 1955 | C.S. Forester | Buy |
| 24 | The Barbary Pirates | 1956 | C.S. Forester | Buy |
| 25 | Lord Nelson | 2025 | C.S. Forester | Buy |
C.S. Forester’s standalone novels span his entire career, from The Paid Piper and A Pawn Among Kings in 1924 through posthumous publications. The list includes some of his best-known work outside the Hornblower series: The African Queen (1935), a river adventure set in German East Africa during World War I; The Good Shepherd (1955), a taut account of a naval convoy crossing the Atlantic; and The General (1936), a biting portrait of military leadership during World War I.
The early novels from the 1920s and 1930s — Payment Deferred, Brown on Resolution, Rifleman Dodd, The Gun — show Forester developing his craft across crime fiction, military adventure, and historical drama before settling into the naval fiction that would define his legacy. Lord Nelson (2025) is the most recent entry, a late addition to the catalog.