The Recommended Reading Order
If you want to read David E. Grogan's thrillers, the path is straightforward: follow the publication order. Because the books trace the life and career progression of the protagonist, Steve Stilwell, reading them in order ensures you capture the character development and evolving relationships between the recurring cast.
Steve Stilwell Books in Publication & Chronological Order
The Steve Stilwell series currently spans three legal and international suspense novels. The timeline follows Stilwell as he transitions from a long military career to civilian practice and gets swept up in cases with deep historical and global ties.
1. The Siegel Dispositions (2014)
The series begins with The Siegel Dispositions. The book introduces Steve Stilwell, who has just retired from a 22-year career as a Navy JAG officer and is opening a civilian law practice in historic Williamsburg, Virginia. His first client is Professor Felix Siegel, an Auschwitz survivor whose will contains a highly unusual provision: $1.5 million is to be split among three wartime friends, but only if they survive him. When the professor is murdered shortly after, and two of the beneficiaries turn up dead under highly suspicious circumstances, Stilwell is thrust into a race across Germany and Virginia to find the final beneficiary and identify a ruthless killer.
2. Sapphire Pavilion (2017)
The second book, Sapphire Pavilion, takes the action to Southeast Asia. When Stilwell's former Navy colleague is framed for heroin possession in Vietnam, Stilwell travels to Ho Chi Minh City to defend him. He quickly realizes his friend was targeted because of a search for the wreckage of an Air Force transport plane that went missing in 1968. Stilwell must track down a notebook containing the wreckage coordinates and a mysterious file labeled "Sapphire Pavilion." This installment introduces Casey Pantel, a former Army helicopter pilot and amputee who becomes Stilwell's trusted investigator and partner.
3. The Hidden Key (2020)
The third novel, The Hidden Key, escalates the stakes to a global treasure hunt. The mystery begins when a Navy veteran is killed after smuggling an ancient clay tablet out of Iraq, and a wealthy billionaire client of Stilwell's is assassinated in London. Left with the map-etched tablet, Stilwell and Casey Pantel must decipher its secrets while running from Russian mercenaries and shadowy entities. The search spans from the historic streets of Italy to the temples of India, testing Stilwell's legal wits and Casey's tactical skills as they chase the potential location of the biblical Garden of Eden.
Non-Fiction and Veteran Advocacy
In addition to his thriller novels, David E. Grogan is deeply committed to sharing the stories of real-life service members. In 2017, he launched the Voices to Veterans project on his website, profiling a different veteran each month. This project inspired his first non-fiction book:
- Learning to Live from Those Willing to Die: Life Lessons from the Hero Next Door (2025): A collection of inspiring profiles featuring 26 veterans from World War II to the modern conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Organized into 14 chapters, each section pairs a life lesson with a veteran's personal story of resilience, leadership, or courage. Grogan donates all Amazon royalties from this book to America's VetDogs.
What to Know Before You Start
David E. Grogan spent over 26 years in the U.S. Navy as a Judge Advocate, prosecuting court-martial cases and deploying to the Persian Gulf. This extensive real-world experience forms the backbone of his novels. Readers appreciate that the legal procedures, military protocol, and global settings—from Ho Chi Minh City to London—are rendered with high authenticity rather than Hollywood exaggeration.
While each book features a self-contained mystery that is resolved by the final page, we highly recommend reading the series from the beginning. Doing so allows you to appreciate how Steve Stilwell adjusts to civilian life, how his law practice grows, and how his partnership with Casey Pantel evolves from their first meeting in Vietnam to their full-scale partnership in the third book.