T.R. Hendricks Books In Order

Publication Order of Derek Harrington Books

T.R. Hendricks
T. R. Hendricks is a former US Army Captain that served as a tank platoon leader, and then as a military intelligence officer, where he was an advisor to the Iraqi Ministry of Interior’s National Information and Intelligence Agency.

When he is not writing or working in his home in Upstate New York, he is most likely reading, woodworking, or watching his beloved San Francisco 49ers.

During Hendricks’ five years of service he deployed twice in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. From 2004-2005, he served with the 1st Cavalry Division in northeast Baghdad, where he patrolled the infamous neighborhood of Sadr City.

Trading in his M1A2 SEP Abrams tank, he got assigned a Humvee platoon, where he was tasked with leading a multitude of missions sets. Which included providing security for the transportation of key personnel; search and cordon operations; logistical transportation of supplies like ammo, rations, water, and equipment; MEDEVAC; food, supplies, and services distribution to the Iraqi populace; and counter-insurgency operations.

During his service, he was awarded the Army Achievement Medal, the Overseas Service Ribbon, the Army Commendation Medal twice, the Army Service Ribbon, the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, the Iraq Campaign Medal.

Hendricks also qualified and graduated from Army Airbourne school, where he earned his basic parachutist badge while he was still just a cadet. Graduating with a BA in History from Hofstra University on Long Island, he was awarded the ROTC Distinguished Military Graduate citation upon his commissioning.

He graduated from Military Intelligence Captain’s Career Course and got an all source intelligence officer designation, and got orders for his second deployment to Iraq. He returned to Baghdad from 2007-2008.

He was assigned to the Green Zone, and would serve as a military intelligence advisor to the Iraqi Ministry of Interior’s National Information and Intelligence Agency, which is like our own FBI.

Hendricks has been writing for as long as he can remember, however it was in 2014 that he started making a serious push toward becoming a published author. At the time, he was writing and posting short stories on his Facebook account. At the encouragement of family and friends, he launched a website to host these stories as he simultaneously working on several full length novels.

As an admitted genre hopper, he has drafted books in speculative fiction, historical, fantasy, military science fiction, and paranormal fiction.

In 2018, while he was talking to a co-worker, he came up with the idea for “The Instructor”, his first foray into the thriller genre. Like many writers can attest, the first draft of the story took on a life of its own. In 90 days, he was able to draft 90,000 words. After spending 2 years of revision and refinement, querying and rejection, he was offered representation.

“The Instructor” is the first novel in the “Derek Harrington” series and was released in 2023. Derek Harrington, a retired Marine Force Recon and SERE instructor, is barely able to scrape by just teaching the basics of wilderness survival. His fledgling bushcraft school is on the verge of going out of business and expenses have been piling up quickly. His only real mission at this point is getting his ailing dad into a full care facility and supporting his ex-wife and their son.

One of his students presents him with this opportunity that’s too good to actually be true: $20,000 to instruct this private group for 30 days in upstate New York. So he takes the job, albeit reluctantly, despite his reservations about this group’s insistence on anonymity. However it is not too long before the training takes a pretty unexpected turn, and there is a new offer being made.

Derek reaches out to this FBI contact in order to sound out his concerns, and quickly finds himself in deep cover, and deep in the woods, and is embroiled with this fringe group that is led by some charismatic leader that will stop at absolutely nothing to get what he wants. When what this man wants becomes Derek’s head, the teacher becomes pitted against his won students while Derek races against the clock in order to stop what might very well be the very first attack by this domestic terrorist cell.

This is action packed, while being both timely and gritty throughout. It is a pulse pounding thriller and is a fabulous start to this series. Hendricks delivers a brilliant debut and proves that he knows his stuff. Derek is a fantastic new hero, an ex-Marine that finds himself in a battle of wits against both a determined foe and nature itself.

This is thrumming with authenticity and non stop action, and Hendricks knocks it out of the park with a novel that is not to be missed. It’s an unexpected pleasure, one crackling with intensity, vivid with emotion. He writes like a knife fight on a moonless night: brutal, fast, and bloody.

“The Infiltrator” is the second novel in the “Derek Harrington” series and was released in 2024. This is an adventure of man vs. wild, and the domestic terrorists that are hiding there. Just a year after the clash with his former students in upstate New York, Derek Harrington is the tip of the FBI’s spear in their mission of eradicating the domestic terrorist group that is known as Autumn’s Tithe. After several successful operations, intelligence is pointing to one last camp out in the isolated Kentucky wilderness, and Derek is preparing to take Autumn’s Tithe down for good.

Meanwhile, ex-FBI Special Agent Hannah Kittle, or Sarah as she’s known to the group, puts a plan together to meet Derek and her former Bureau colleagues head on. But her benefactor’s faith in Sarah’s abilities to lead Autumn’s Tithe have waned, and other plans are enacted. Knowing full well that this means for her should these plans succeed where she’s failed, Sarah is going to stop at nothing in order to see that she’s the victor.

While these competing agendas start unraveling, events place Sarah and Derek on this collision course, setting the stage for this confrontation which will bring Autumn’s Tithe right to Derek’s front door.