Owen Laukkanen Books in Order (Updated September 10, 2026)

Owen Laukkanen writes crime thrillers about investigators, vulnerable victims, desperate criminals, trafficking, online predation, organized crime, wilderness survival, and people pushed into illegal choices by financial or personal pressure. His longest-running characters are Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigator Kirk Stevens and FBI Special Agent Carla Windermere.

Laukkanen also created the two-book Neah Bay series featuring former Marine Jess Winslow, ex-convict Mason Burke, and rescue dog Lucy. His adult standalone fiction includes the maritime salvage thriller Gale Force and the young-adult wilderness thriller The Wild.

Under the name Owen Matthews, he published two additional young-adult novels, How to Win at High School and The Fixes. These are not connected to Stevens and Windermere or Neah Bay.

Choose Your Laukkanen Starting Point

1. Stevens and Windermere: begin with The Professionals for a six-book law-enforcement thriller sequence.
2. Neah Bay: begin with Deception Cove for Jess Winslow, Mason Burke, Lucy, and crime on Washington’s remote coast.
3. Maritime adventure: choose Gale Force for deep-sea salvage, a crippled freighter, and a race for stolen Yakuza bonds.
4. Young-adult suspense: read The Wild for a teenager trapped inside a dangerous wilderness boot camp.
5. Owen Matthews books: start with How to Win at High School for darker contemporary YA outside Laukkanen’s adult crime series.

Stevens and Windermere Books in Order

Kirk Stevens and Carla Windermere begin as investigators from different agencies who are brought together by a kidnapping case. Their partnership develops into a joint BCA and FBI violent-crime team whose cases range from bank robbery and murder-for-hire to human trafficking and serial predation.

1. The Professionals (2012): Four unemployed college graduates begin kidnapping midlevel executives for small ransoms, believing they have designed a safe business model until one victim fights back and both law enforcement and organized crime begin hunting them.
2. Criminal Enterprise (2013): Laid-off accountant and family man Carter Tomlin robs a bank after financial collapse, discovers that he enjoys the power and excitement, and escalates into increasingly violent crimes that bring Stevens and Windermere onto his trail.
3. Kill Fee (2014): Stevens and Windermere witness the assassination of a wealthy businessman in Saint Paul and discover a sophisticated online murder-for-hire operation that matches killers with paying customers.
4. The Stolen Ones (2015): A sheriff’s deputy is murdered in Minnesota and a terrified young woman found with his gun leads Stevens and Windermere into an international trafficking network exploiting women who have been transported across the country.
5. The Watcher in the Wall (2016): After Kirk’s daughter loses a classmate to suicide, the investigators discover an online community where an anonymous predator appears to be encouraging vulnerable teenagers to kill themselves.
6. The Forgotten Girls (2017): The murder of a young runaway on a freight train reveals a string of killings along the northern rail corridor, forcing Stevens and Windermere to pursue a predator who targets women unlikely to be quickly missed.

Read all six in order. Each crime has its own resolution, but Kirk’s family life, Carla’s relationships, and the evolution of their partnership continue across the series.

The Professionals Begins with a Crime That Looks Almost Sensible

The criminals in The Professionals do not begin as hardened killers.

They are recent college graduates facing a miserable job market. Their plan is to kidnap wealthy but not famous businesspeople, demand ransoms small enough that companies will pay quickly, release the victims, and move to another city.

For a time, the strategy works because the crimes are designed to avoid headlines and prolonged police attention.

Then one victim resists. The group’s attempt to preserve its supposedly professional operation produces violence, and another criminal organization develops its own reasons for finding them.

Kirk Stevens and Carla Windermere approach the kidnappings from different agencies and establish the partnership that drives the next five books.

Criminal Enterprise Replaces the Gang with One Desperate Man

Carter Tomlin has the outward life of a respectable husband and father.

After losing his job and facing mounting debt, he commits a bank robbery as an act of desperation.

The money solves an immediate problem, but the experience creates another. Carter discovers that robbery gives him a sense of control and excitement missing from his ordinary life.

He keeps going, becoming more confident and dangerous as Stevens and Windermere try to identify a criminal who does not initially fit the profile of a career bank robber.

Kill Fee Turns Social Technology into a Murder Market

Stevens and Windermere are together in downtown Saint Paul when a billionaire is assassinated in front of them.

The gunman seems almost emotionally absent, and the killing appears too precise to be random.

The investigation eventually leads to an online system that functions like a marketplace for assassination, allowing clients to select victims and killers to accept assignments.

The challenge is not simply identifying the first shooter. Stevens and Windermere have to discover who operates the platform and which target has already been selected next.

The Stolen Ones Centers the Victims Rather Than the Traffickers

A sheriff’s deputy walks out of a Minnesota diner and is shot.

Police find a young woman beside his body holding the deputy’s gun. She has no identification and cannot explain herself in English.

The obvious theory begins to collapse when Stevens and Windermere learn that the woman is tied to a much larger trafficking network.

The investigation stretches from Minnesota across the country and reveals sisters and other women treated by criminals as property rather than people.

The book gives unusual attention to the strength and decisions of the victims themselves instead of reducing them to evidence in the investigators’ case.

The Watcher in the Wall Begins Inside Kirk’s Family

The fifth novel becomes personal when Kirk Stevens’s daughter Andrea is devastated by a classmate’s suicide.

Kirk and Carla discover that the dead teenager participated in an online community where vulnerable young people discuss self-harm and suicide.

Someone inside the group appears to be doing more than observing them. An anonymous figure is deliberately encouraging teenagers to die.

The case forces the investigators to pursue a predator whose crimes can be committed remotely, without physical contact with victims and without an obvious conventional murder weapon.

Continuity note: Andrea’s role makes this installment more rewarding after the earlier books have established Kirk’s family.

The Forgotten Girls Follows a Killer Along the High Line

A young runaway is found murdered on a freight train route through the northern Rocky Mountains.

The case receives little attention because the victim is transient and has few people demanding answers.

Stevens and Windermere discover that she is not the only young woman to disappear along the same rail corridor.

The killer has exploited exactly the fact that these victims move between towns, ride trains, lack stable homes, and may not be reported missing quickly.

Series endpoint: The Forgotten Girls remains the sixth and latest Stevens and Windermere novel as of September 10, 2026.

Neah Bay Books in Order

The Neah Bay series moves to the Washington coast and introduces former Marine Jess Winslow, ex-convict Mason Burke, and rescue dog Lucy.

1. Deception Cove (2019): Mason Burke leaves prison after fifteen years and travels to Washington to return Lucy to the family of the woman who trained the dog, only to find former Marine Jess Winslow trapped in a conflict with corrupt local criminals who are using Lucy as leverage.
2. Lone Jack Trail (2020): Jess, now training for law enforcement, becomes involved when the body of a disgraced local hockey player washes ashore and the evidence points toward Mason, forcing the pair to uncover who really committed the murder.

Read these two in order. The relationship among Jess, Mason, and Lucy is established in Deception Cove and develops directly into the second book.

Deception Cove Builds the Series Around Three Survivors

Mason Burke has spent fifteen years in prison.

During that time, one of the few meaningful relationships in his life is with Lucy, a rescue dog trained in a prison program.

When Mason is released, he learns that Lucy belonged to the family of a woman who has died. He travels to Washington to return the dog.

Jess Winslow is an ex-Marine living with the effects of Afghanistan. Lucy has become essential to her ability to function.

Local criminals seize the dog because they believe Jess knows where a missing package or stash has gone. Mason and Jess are forced together by the one creature both are determined to protect.

Lone Jack Trail Puts Mason on the Wrong Side of a Murder Case

Jess is beginning a new life in law enforcement when a body washes up near Deception Cove.

The victim is a former local hockey star whose reputation has collapsed.

Evidence points toward Mason, making the investigation immediately difficult for Jess because personal loyalty and professional responsibility now pull in opposite directions.

Proving Mason innocent means understanding the victim’s past and identifying who had a stronger reason to kill him.

Series status: No third Neah Bay novel had been announced as of September 10, 2026.

Gale Force

• Gale Force (2018): Salvage captain McKenna Rhodes races to save the crippled freighter Pacific Lion in a violent storm, unaware that the ship also carries a fugitive with fifty million dollars in stolen Yakuza bearer bonds.

McKenna became captain of the salvage vessel Gale Force after a maritime accident killed her father.

The experience makes her cautious, and her struggling company usually stays closer to the Alaskan coast.

Then the Pacific Lion founders roughly two hundred miles offshore. Successfully salvaging the freighter could save McKenna’s business.

She does not know that one passenger is carrying stolen Yakuza bonds worth fifty million dollars. Japanese gangsters, the thief’s associates, and a larger competing salvage vessel all have reasons to reach the wreck first.

Standalone: McKenna Rhodes does not appear in Stevens and Windermere or Neah Bay.

The Wild

• The Wild (2021): Teenager Dawn is sent against her will to a remote wilderness behavior program called Out of the Wild and discovers that the isolated boot camp is far more dangerous than her parents understood.

Dawn has made bad decisions involving friends, relationships, and behavior, but she does not expect her parents to respond by sending her away.

At the camp, students are called bear cubs and are told that wilderness hardship will teach them responsibility and survival.

The real danger begins when the program no longer resembles the controlled intervention families were promised.

Young-adult standalone: The book was published by the Underlined imprint and is separate from Laukkanen’s adult crime fiction.

Books Written as Owen Matthews

Laukkanen used the Owen Matthews name for two young-adult novels before publishing The Wild under his usual name.

1. How to Win at High School (2015): A teenage boy approaches popularity and status as a strategic project, manipulating classmates and opportunities until his campaign to control high-school life creates consequences he can no longer contain.
2. The Fixes (2016): A previously rule-following teenager becomes involved with a charismatic and dangerous peer whose increasingly extreme solutions turn frustration and rebellion into criminal behavior.

The two books share the Owen Matthews identity and a dark contemporary YA tone, but they are separate stories rather than a numbered series.

Owen Laukkanen Fiction in Publication Order

1. The Professionals (2012): Four graduates turn kidnapping into a business until violence brings Stevens and Windermere after them.
2. Criminal Enterprise (2013): Carter Tomlin responds to financial collapse by becoming a bank robber and then discovers he does not want to stop.
3. Kill Fee (2014): An assassination witnessed by Stevens and Windermere exposes an online marketplace for murder.
4. The Stolen Ones (2015): A murdered deputy and terrified woman lead the investigators into international sex trafficking.
5. How to Win at High School (2015, as Owen Matthews): A teenager turns social status into a calculated campaign of manipulation.
6. The Watcher in the Wall (2016): An online predator appears to be encouraging vulnerable teenagers to die by suicide.
7. The Fixes (2016, as Owen Matthews): A teen’s desire to break out of his ordinary life leads him toward an increasingly dangerous influence.
8. The Forgotten Girls (2017): Stevens and Windermere investigate murdered runaways along a northern freight-train route.
9. Gale Force (2018): Salvage captain McKenna Rhodes races for a storm-battered freighter carrying stolen Yakuza bonds.
10. Deception Cove (2019): Jess Winslow and Mason Burke join forces to rescue Lucy and survive a criminal conspiracy on the Washington coast.
11. Lone Jack Trail (2020): A murder investigation threatens Mason and tests Jess’s new law-enforcement role.
12. The Wild (2021): Dawn discovers that the wilderness boot camp chosen by her parents is far more dangerous than advertised.

Why Some Lists Call The Wild a 2020 Book

Advance listings and series databases sometimes associate The Wild with 2020 because it was part of the Underlined paperback program announced around that period.

The publisher lists the book’s publication date as January 26, 2021.

Use 2021 when building a standard publication-order bibliography.

Laukkanen’s Different Kinds of Victims

One consistent feature across the bibliography is attention to people criminals assume nobody important will protect.

• The Stolen Ones: trafficked women are treated as disposable by the organization controlling them.
• The Watcher in the Wall: vulnerable teenagers are targeted inside an online community built around despair.
• The Forgotten Girls: runaways and transient young women are selected because their disappearances may attract little official attention.
• Deception Cove: an ex-convict and traumatized veteran are underestimated by criminals who assume neither has much institutional protection.
• The Wild: teenagers inside an isolated program have limited ability to make outsiders believe what is happening to them.

From Poker Journalism to Crime Fiction

Before establishing himself as a novelist, Laukkanen worked in professional poker journalism.

He also worked as a commercial fisherman, experience that helps explain the technical confidence and physical danger in Gale Force.

His crime novels repeatedly focus on people calculating risk. Bank robbers, kidnappers, traffickers, killers, investigators, sailors, and teenagers all make decisions based on what they think another person will do next.

Current Series Status in 2026

• Stevens and Windermere: six novels, ending with The Forgotten Girls in 2017.
• Neah Bay: two novels, ending with Lone Jack Trail in 2020.
• Latest full-length novel: The Wild, published in January 2021.
• New announced novel: no later full-length release was confirmed on Laukkanen’s current author site as of September 10, 2026.

Questions About Owen Laukkanen’s Reading Order

What is the first Owen Laukkanen novel?

The Professionals, published in 2012, was his first novel.

How many Stevens and Windermere books are there?

There are six, beginning with The Professionals and ending with The Forgotten Girls.

Should Stevens and Windermere be read in order?

Yes. The main crimes are self-contained, but Kirk’s family and Carla’s personal and professional development continue across the series.

What is the Neah Bay reading order?

Read Deception Cove first and Lone Jack Trail second.

Is Gale Force part of Neah Bay?

No. It is a standalone maritime salvage thriller featuring McKenna Rhodes.

Who is Owen Matthews?

Owen Matthews is the name Laukkanen used for the young-adult novels How to Win at High School and The Fixes.

Is The Wild an Owen Matthews book?

No. The Wild is young-adult fiction but was published under the Owen Laukkanen name.

What is Owen Laukkanen’s latest novel?

The Wild, published January 26, 2021, remains his latest full-length novel as of September 10, 2026.

The Best Way to Work Through Laukkanen’s Books

Start with the six Stevens and Windermere novels if you want the core crime bibliography. They show Laukkanen moving from economically motivated kidnapping to increasingly complex crimes involving technology, trafficking, vulnerable teenagers, and overlooked victims.

Then read Deception Cove and Lone Jack Trail together. Their smaller coastal setting and focus on Jess, Mason, and Lucy make them more intimate than the nationwide Stevens and Windermere investigations.

Gale Force and The Wild can be read independently. Add the Owen Matthews books only if you want Laukkanen’s darker young-adult work beyond the wilderness thriller.