Steven Konkoly
Steven Konkoly is a Wall Street Journal bestselling author and US Naval Academy graduate who served eight years on active duty in the Navy and Marine Corps before turning to fiction. His Black Flagged series — eight novels of deep-cover CIA paramilitary action — is one of the most technically credible military thriller series in the genre. His Ryan Decker series follows a former CIA operative turned hostage recovery specialist, and his Devin Gray series digs into Russian sleeper networks on American soil. His new Garrett Mann series is his most recent work.
Background
Steven Konkoly graduated from the United States Naval Academy and served as a Surface Warfare Officer and in Naval Special Warfare (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) for eight years before leaving active duty. That combination — the strategic education of Annapolis, the operational experience of EOD, the institutional knowledge of how the Navy and Marine Corps actually function — gives his fiction a texture that's difficult to fake and easy to recognise.
He started publishing independently and built his audience through the Black Flagged series, which launched in 2012. The series follows Karl Berg, a CIA analyst, and Daniel Petrovich, a former Marine Recon-turned-deep-cover CIA paramilitary officer, through operations spanning Eastern Europe, South America, and the American homeland. The geopolitical scenarios feel like they were drawn from actual threat assessments rather than invented for narrative convenience.
After completing Black Flagged, Konkoly launched two additional military thriller series. The Ryan Decker series (2019–2021) follows a former CIA operative working as a hostage recovery specialist in the grey zone between sanctioned and unsanctioned action — four books, complete, and a natural next read after Black Flagged. The Devin Gray series (2022–2023) shifts focus to a CIA field officer unravelling a Russian sleeper network embedded across the United States over decades — three books, faster-paced, and the most accessible entry point for readers coming from the espionage side of the genre.
Konkoly is based in the United States. The Black Flagged series concluded with Vindicta in 2022, and his new Garrett Mann series launched in March 2026, marking his most recent return to the contemporary special operations thriller space.
The Writing
Black Flagged reads like it was written by someone who has been in classified spaces and seen how the machinery of covert action actually works. The CIA tradecraft is convincing. The operational planning is realistic — threats are assessed, contingencies are planned, things go wrong in ways that feel like they could actually go wrong. Decker is not a superhero; he's an exceptionally trained professional who survives through preparation and tactical competence, not plot armour.
The series is also unusually good on the political dimension of covert action. The decisions made in Langley — the bureaucratic inertia, the career protection instincts, the genuine ambiguity about what's sanctioned and what isn't — feel authentic. Konkoly has clearly thought about the interface between intelligence agencies and military operators, and the friction between those worlds drives much of the series' best tension.
The Garrett Mann series carries those strengths into new territory. The three-book series follows an FBI Special Agent hunting cartels, corrupt officials, and the networks that protect them — darker in tone than the Decker and Gray books, and more concerned with the moral weight of operating inside a broken system rather than outside it.
The Series
Black Flagged
Eight novels following CIA paramilitary operator Ryan Decker and analyst Karl Berg through operations that span Eastern Europe, South America, and the American homeland. The complete series.
Ryan Decker
A former CIA operative rebuilds his life as a hostage recovery specialist — working the grey zone between sanctioned and unsanctioned action. Four-book complete series with relentless pacing and tactical authenticity.
Devin Gray
A CIA field officer unravels a Russian deep-sleep sleeper network buried inside the United States — a conspiracy decades in the making. Faster-paced and more espionage-focused than Black Flagged, and Konkoly's most accessible entry point for thriller readers.
Garrett Mann
Konkoly's newest series. FBI Special Agent Garrett Mann hunts cartels, serial killers, and the government officials protecting them — a darker, more morally complex direction for the author. Three books, series complete.