Everything You Need to Read and Watch if You Like John Wick

Posted on March 20, 2023

by Amy H

As assassins with book binding hobbies go, the character John Wick is pretty awesome. Melding martial arts and vengeance, the John Wick films have become and art form in and of itself.

Here’s what to read and watch if you enjoy seeing Wick take down an army of assassins in John Wick 4 (and any of the Wick movies, for that matter).

Action Series

Charlie Hardie Series by Duane Swierczynski

Charlie Hardie is an ex-cop still reeling from the revenge killing of his former partner’s entire family. Languishing in self-imposed exile, Hardie has become a glorified house sitter with an illegally squatting B-movie actress who rants about hit men who specialize in making deaths look like accidents. Unfortunately, she turns out to be the next name on their list and Hardie finds himself squared off against a small army of the most lethal men in the world: The Accident People. Go here for the Charlie Hardie series in order.

Gray Man Series by Mark Greaney

To those who lurk in the shadows, he’s known as the Gray Man. He is a legend in the covert realm, moving silently from job to job, accomplishing the impossible and then fading away. And he always hits his target. Always. But there are forces more lethal than Gentry in the world. Forces like money. And power. And there are men who hold these as the only currency worth fighting for. In their eyes, Gentry has just outlived his usefulness. Gentry is going to prove that, for him, there’s no gray area between killing for a living and killing to stay alive. Go here for the Gray Man Series in order.

IQ Series by Joe Ide

A resident of one of LA’s toughest neighborhoods uses his blistering intellect to solve the crimes the LAPD ignores. They call him IQ. He’s a loner and a high school dropout, his unassuming nature disguising a relentless determination and a fierce intelligence. He charges his clients whatever they can afford, which might be a set of tires or a homemade casserole. To get by, he’s forced to take on clients that can pay.  Either way, IQ gets the job done.  Go here for the IQ Series in order.

John Lago Series by Shane Kuhn

John Lago is an intern at one of the biggest law firms in Manhattan. He clocks eighty hours a week doing the grunt work no one else wants to do and he doesn’t make a dime. But John isn’t trying to claw his way to the top of the corporate food chain. He was hired to assassinate one of the firm’s high profile, heavily guarded partners. The firm is actually a front for one of the most elite assassin training programs in the world—and John is soon pitted against the strongest adversary he has ever faced: Alice, a federal agent assigned to investigate the same firm partner John’s been hired to kill. Go here for the John Lago Series in order.

Nick Mason Series by Steve Hamilton

Nick Mason has already spent 5 years inside a maximum-security prison when he accepts an offer comes that will grant his release twenty years early. He’s returned to society, but still a prisoner. Whenever his cell phone rings, Nick must answer and follow whatever order he is given by Darius Cole, a criminal mastermind who runs an empire from his prison cell. Forced to commit increasingly more dangerous crimes, hunted by the relentless detective who first put him behind bars, and desperate to go straight and rebuild his life with his daughter and ex-wife, Nick will ultimately have to risk everything to finally break free. Go here for the Nick Mason series in order.

Orphan X Series by Greg Hurwitz

Raised in an orphanage, Evan Smoak grows up to be first a highly efficient assassin and then a courageous defender of the poor and downtrodden. Trained by a shadowy organization called The Orphan Program, Smoak is smart, ruthless, and unstoppable in this action-packed thriller series. Go here for the  Orphan X series in order.

Sam Callahan Series by Chad Zunker

Sam Callahan learned to trust no one from a childhood spent in abusive foster care, on the streets, and locked in juvie. With the past behind him and his future staked on law school, he is moonlighting as a political tracker, paid to shadow candidates and recording their missteps for use by their opponents. One night, Sam witnesses a motel indiscretion that ends in murder. Set up to take the fall and pursued by both assassins and the FBI, he is forced to go on the run. Using the street skills forged during his troubled youth—and his brilliant analytical mind –Sam goes underground until he can uncover who is behind the conspiracy and how far up it goes. Go here for the Sam Callahan Series in order.

Victor the Assassin Series by Tom Wood

Victor is a freelancer, a professional killer—the best there is. He’s ice cold, methodical, and deadly. He lives alone. He operates alone. No one knows his background, or even his name. For him, business is a straight transaction. He’s given a job; he takes out the target; he gets paid. But nothing is ever simple in his high stakes world, and Victor has been betrayed. Go here for the Victor the Assassin series in order.

Stand Alone Novels

Run by Douglas E. Winter

Burdon Lane is part of a large group of criminals transporting a shipment of guns from Washington, D.C., to New York City. Just as the deal is about to go down, bedlam erupts. As Lane takes cover, his own people start shooting each other, the gun merchants begin killing their own and men dressed in police uniforms but not acting like police mysteriously show up. When the shooting stops, Lane finds himself in possession of the $2 million intended for the purchase of the guns. He has no idea, however, what has just happened. All he knows is that he must run.

Seventeen: Last Man Standing by John Brownlow

hoopla

Behind the events you know are the killers you don’t. When diplomacy fails, they are the ones who gear up. They’ve been saving the world for a hundred years.  Sixteen people have done this job before now. Number Seventeen is stepping up. The most feared assassin in the world. But to be the best, you must beat the best. Seventeen’s first target is Sixteen, just as one day Eighteen will hunt Seventeen down. It gets lonely at the top. Nobody gets to stay for long. All that matters is that they win until they die.

Films

Accident Man

Mike Fallon is a seasoned hit man who is known for making his target’s death look like an accident. When Fallon’s girlfriend turns up dead, he goes after his old colleagues to find the one responsible.

Haywire

Mallory Kane is a highly trained operative for a government security contractor.  After she successfully frees a hostage journalist, she’s betrayed and left for dead by someone in her own agency. Knowing her survival depends on learning the truth behind the double-cross, Mallory uses her black-ops training to set a trap, knowing she’ll die unless she can turn the tables on her adversary.

JCVD

Jean Claude Van Damme stars as a down-on-his luck actor, without a job, out of money, and likely to lose custody of his daughter. He visits a post office to receive a wire transfer of much needed funds, and finds himself in the middle of a hostage situation. As events are shown from different character perspectives, JCVD finds himself protecting the hostages and serving as their negotiator. He is forced to accept responsibility for crimes he didn’t commit, as well as the life mistakes that he did make in this high action semi-autobiographical character study.

Nobody

After his home is violently invaded and robbed, a mild-mannered family man returns to his dangerous former life, making him the target of a vengeful drug lord. In a barrage of fists, gunfire and squealing tires, Hutch must save his family from a dangerous adversary, and ensure that he will never be underestimated again.

Peppermint

A young woman awakens from a coma after her husband and daughter are killed in a brutal attack. When the system frustratingly shields the murderers from justice, she sets out to transform herself from citizen to urban guerilla and methodically delivers her personal brand of justice.

Did you like this blog post? Keep up to date with all of our posts by subscribing to the Library’s newsletters!

Keep your reading list updated with our book lists. Our staff love to read and they’ll give you the scoop on new tv-series inspired titles, hobbies, educational resources, pop culture, current events, and more!

Looking for more great titles? Get personalized recommendations from our librarians with this simple form.