Archer and Bennett
crime thriller
Series · thriller
Kick Lannigan
The Kick Lannigan series by Chelsea Cain has 2 books and is best read in publication order, starting with One Kick (2014).
- Books
- 2 books
- First published
- 2014
- Status
- unknown
- Last checked
Start here: One Kick (2014) — then read straight through in publication order.
Reading order
The order the books were released — the default way to read the series.
About the Kick Lannigan series
Kick Lannigan was kidnapped at age six and held captive for five years before being rescued -- a childhood that left her a self-taught expert in fighting, weapons, and escape, and unable to settle into anything resembling a normal adult life. Chelsea Cain's second series opens with One Kick (2014, published in the UK as Gone), in which a wealthy, ethically murky former arms dealer named John Bishop recruits the adult Kick to help him track down other missing children, using the very expertise her own abduction forced her to develop. Kick Back (2015) continued the partnership.
Where Cain's earlier Archie Sheridan books were built around a police detective and the serial killer who once held him, this series inverts the relationship: Kick is the survivor turned pursuer, and Bishop's own motives and past remain genuinely uncertain across both books. The series was cut short at two novels; Cain shifted her energy toward comics work (Marvel's Mockingbird, Image's Man-Eaters) not long after Kick Back's release, and no third Kick Lannigan novel followed.
Frequently asked questions
How many Kick Lannigan books are there?
Two: One Kick (2014) and Kick Back (2015).
Is Gone the same book as One Kick?
Yes -- Gone is the UK title for the same 2014 novel published in the US as One Kick.
Is the Kick Lannigan series finished?
It appears to be -- no third book followed Kick Back (2015), and Chelsea Cain moved into comics work (Mockingbird, Man-Eaters) shortly after.
If you like the Kick Lannigan series
Reading order last verified .