Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pandemic | 2013 | Joe McKinney | Buy |
| 2 | Slaughterhouse | 2014 | Joe McKinney | Buy |
| 3 | Die Laughing | 2015 | Joe McKinney | Buy |
| 4 | Alamo | 2016 | Joe McKinney | Buy |
| 5 | Crucible | 2018 | Joe McKinney | Buy |
| 6 | Forlorn Hope | 2022 | Joe McKinney | Buy |
The Retreat series began in 2013 with Pandemic and ran through six books over nearly a decade, with Forlorn Hope closing the series in 2022. The military setting distinguishes it from McKinney’s other zombie series – where Dead World followed police officers and civilians, The Retreat places soldiers at the center of the collapse.
Books like Slaughterhouse, Alamo, and Forlorn Hope carry the kind of titles that signal what readers are in for: these are books about people fighting hard against impossible odds in desperate circumstances. The Alamo entry is particularly on-the-nose for a series written by a San Antonio author, and McKinney leans into the Texas history and symbolism.
The long gap between Crucible in 2018 and Forlorn Hope in 2022 gave the series an unusual structure, but the final book brought the sequence to a close. Readers who want military horror with a sustained narrative arc and a definitive ending will find The Retreat delivers both.