Ridley Pearson Books in Order (Updated September 10, 2026)

Ridley Pearson has built two unusually different writing careers under one name. Adult readers know him for police procedurals and international thrillers such as the Lou Boldt, Walt Fleming, and Risk Agent novels, while younger readers know him for Kingdom Keepers, Peter and the Starcatchers, Steel Trapp, Lock and Key, and his newer Disney Magical Map adventures.

There is no single chronology connecting all of Pearson’s books. The useful approach is to keep each series separate and read within that series in publication order. Lou Boldt has nine published novels, Walt Fleming has four, Risk Agent has four, and Pearson’s current official site says he is working on a tenth Lou Boldt novel.

Choose adult crime or family adventure first

• For Seattle police fiction: begin Lou Boldt with Undercurrents.
• For Sun Valley crime: begin Walt Fleming with Killer Weekend.
• For international suspense: begin John Knox and Grace Chu with The Risk Agent.
• For Disney adventure: begin the original Kingdom Keepers with Disney After Dark.
• For Peter Pan backstory: begin Peter and the Starcatchers, co-written with Dave Barry.
• For Pearson’s newest children’s line: begin Magical Map with Pirates of the Caribbean.

Lou Boldt’s nine Seattle investigations

Lou Boldt is a Seattle homicide investigator whose cases rely heavily on forensic evidence, police psychology, and the practical mechanics of detective work. Daphne Matthews becomes one of the defining recurring characters, and later books also develop John LaMoia and Boldt’s family life.

1. Undercurrents (1988): Seattle police sergeant Lou Boldt leads the hunt for the Cross Killer, a serial murderer who has terrorized the city for months, and turns to police psychologist Daphne Matthews when an apparently imperfect copy of the killer’s work produces new clues.
2. The Angel Maker (1993): Daphne asks Boldt to investigate evidence that someone is illegally harvesting organs from vulnerable young people, drawing both investigators into a profitable underground transplant operation.
3. No Witnesses (1994): Poisoned food begins killing Seattle residents while the perpetrator uses electronic communications and automated ransom methods to keep police from finding a conventional crime scene.
4. Beyond Recognition (1997): A serial arsonist burns single mothers alive while sparing their children, forcing Boldt and Daphne to reconstruct crimes in which the fire itself destroys most of the physical evidence.
5. The Pied Piper (1998): Infants disappear from homes along the West Coast and a penny flute is left behind, leading Boldt and Daphne toward a sophisticated black-market adoption scheme.
6. The First Victim (1999): A journalist investigating the trafficking of undocumented immigrants disappears after a container connected to her story reaches Seattle, bringing Boldt into a case involving exploitation and organized crime.
7. Middle of Nowhere (2000): An unofficial police strike leaves Seattle dangerously understaffed while Boldt investigates robberies, the near-killing of a police officer, and evidence that the separate crises may be connected.
8. The Art of Deception (2004): Daphne becomes central to the investigation of a young woman’s suspicious death while Boldt and John LaMoia work another series of disappearances beneath Seattle’s streets.
9. The Body of David Hayes (2004): Boldt’s family life becomes entangled with a financial crime when his wife Liz’s past connection to banker David Hayes resurfaces and a sophisticated money scheme puts several people in danger.

The official Ridley Pearson site currently describes Lou Boldt as a nine-novel series and says Pearson is working on a tenth Boldt book. Until that novel receives a confirmed publication title and date, The Body of David Hayes remains the latest published full-length Boldt installment.

Boldt’s world does not end when his numbered series pauses

Lou Boldt later appears in connection with Pearson’s Walt Fleming world. In In Harm’s Way, Boldt contacts Walt after a Seattle murder appears to have a Sun Valley connection.

That crossover is useful for established Pearson readers but does not turn Walt Fleming Book 4 into Lou Boldt Book 10.

Walt Fleming leaves Seattle for Sun Valley

Walt Fleming is sheriff in Idaho’s wealthy Sun Valley region. The four books mix local policing and wilderness search work with the unusual security problems created by celebrities, politicians, billionaires, and visitors drawn to the resort community.

1. Killer Weekend (2007): Walt is responsible for security when U.S. Attorney General Elizabeth Shaler returns to Sun Valley for an elite conference and authorities learn that an assassin may be preparing to kill her.
2. Killer View (2008): A skier disappears during severe winter conditions, one search-and-rescue member dies, and Walt’s close friend Mark Aker vanishes while a mysterious illness at a water-bottling plant suggests a much larger crime.
3. Killer Summer (2009): A high-value historical artifact and the people trying to steal it pull Walt into an elaborate Sun Valley crime while his family and professional responsibilities collide.
4. In Harm’s Way (2010): Lou Boldt contacts Walt about a Seattle murder that may connect to Sun Valley, while Walt is also dealing with photographer Fiona Kenshaw and the discovery of a badly beaten body near a local highway.

These four novels should be read in order because Walt’s family relationships, deputies, friendships, and relationship with Fiona develop between cases.

John Knox and Grace Chu take Pearson worldwide

The Risk Agent books pair John Knox, an import-export businessman with operational skills, with forensic accountant and technology specialist Grace Chu. Their assignments move from China to Europe, Turkey, and Africa.

1. The Risk Agent (2012): Knox and Grace are recruited after an employee and his financial records disappear in Shanghai, forcing them to navigate ransom demands, corporate interests, and a city where almost everyone has a reason to conceal information.
2. Choke Point (2013): The pair travel to Amsterdam to locate and dismantle an illegal workshop using enslaved girls, but the criminal organization has embedded itself so deeply into the community that even potential victims resist outside intervention.
3. The Red Room (2014): Knox is hired to broker an ancient artifact in Istanbul, only for the transaction to place him and Grace inside an intelligence operation involving an Iranian academic and secrets capable of affecting Middle Eastern power.
4. White Bone (2016): Grace disappears while investigating a switched vaccine in Kenya, and Knox follows her trail into elephant poaching, terrorism, corruption, and the dangerous economics surrounding endangered wildlife.

Read all four consecutively. Knox and Grace’s trust and personal relationship become increasingly important, particularly by White Bone.

Pearson’s adult standalones sit outside those three detective worlds

1. Never Look Back (1985): One of Pearson’s earliest thrillers uses pursuit, danger, and hidden motives without introducing any of his later recurring investigators.
2. Blood of the Albatross (1986): Pearson builds an independent suspense story around international crime and people caught in a conspiracy larger than they initially understand.
3. Probable Cause (1990): A murder investigation and questions of evidence place law enforcement under pressure in a standalone procedural that predates Lou Boldt’s later expansion as Pearson’s dominant adult series.
4. Hard Fall (1992): An aviation disaster becomes the center of a suspense story involving sabotage, investigation, and the possibility that another catastrophic attack is still being prepared.
5. Hidden Charges (1993): An apparently ordinary public place becomes the target of calculated violence, forcing investigators to determine who planned the attack and why.
6. Chain of Evidence (1995): A homicide investigation develops around physical evidence and the difficult question of whether the clues being assembled actually point toward the right suspect.
7. Parallel Lies (2001): Railroad investigator Peter Tyler hunts a saboteur whose attacks on trains may be rooted in an older tragedy and a deeply personal campaign against the industry.
8. The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer (2001): Published as the supposed diary of Ellen Rimbauer, this supernatural tie-in expands the mythology surrounding the haunted Rose Red mansion.
9. Cut and Run (2005): A witness-protection operation collapses when people connected to a protected witness become targets, pushing federal agents into a race against an adversary with inside knowledge.

These novels do not need to be placed inside Lou Boldt or Walt Fleming chronology simply because some use police or federal investigators.

Kingdom Keepers begins with seven original adventures

The original Kingdom Keepers series follows five teenagers whose holographic images, known as Disney Host Interactive or Daylight Holographic Images, become part of a real battle against Disney villains called the Overtakers.

1. Disney After Dark (2005): Finn Whitman and four other teenagers discover that their holographic roles inside Walt Disney World have connected them to a nighttime conflict against villains trying to take control of the parks.
2. Disney at Dawn (2008): The Keepers’ struggle expands beyond the Magic Kingdom as the Overtakers pursue new plans and the teenagers learn that defeating one threat did not end the larger conflict.
3. Disney in Shadow (2010): The Keepers search for a missing ally while the Overtakers move through Disney property and manipulate both the physical and digital worlds around the team.
4. Power Play (2011): The villains’ reach expands and the Keepers face a conflict in which their own abilities, friendships, and identities become increasingly important to stopping an attack on Disney World.
5. Shell Game (2012): The Keepers board the Disney Dream as the battle leaves the parks and moves onto a cruise ship, where the Overtakers use the voyage as part of a larger plan.
6. Dark Passage (2013): The cruise storyline continues into darker territory as the Keepers confront Maleficent and the Overtakers in a conflict with serious consequences for the team.
7. The Insider (2014): The original seven-book arc reaches its climax as Finn and the other Keepers confront the Overtakers in the concluding struggle for control of the Disney parks.

Read the seven books in order. Character relationships, powers, villain alliances, and the geography of the conflict expand continuously.

The Return is the bridge after Kingdom Keepers VII

1. The Return: Disney Lands (2015): The original Keepers are drawn into a new mystery involving Disney history and a journey that connects their present-day lives to the early development of Disneyland.
2. The Return: Legacy of Secrets (2016): The historical Disney storyline continues as the Keepers discover that events surrounding Walt Disney and the parks conceal information relevant to their own battle.
3. The Return: Disney at Last (2017): The trilogy brings the time-spanning storyline back toward the established Kingdom Keepers world and closes this stage of the original characters’ adventures.

The Return trilogy should follow the original seven books rather than being treated as a second entry point.

Inheritance hands the parks to the next generation

1. Kingdom Keepers: Inheritance The Shimmer (2023): Years after the original adventures, children of the Kingdom Keepers discover unusual powers and are drawn into a new battle centered on EPCOT and a friend who has disappeared.
2. Kingdom Keepers Inheritance: Villains’ Realm (2024): The new generation continues its struggle as the threat expands beyond the first mystery and the young Keepers learn more about the magic inherited from their parents’ world.
3. Kingdom Keepers Inheritance: The Final Draw (2025): The trilogy brings the next-generation conflict toward its decisive confrontation and completes the main Inheritance arc.

Readers new to Kingdom Keepers should still begin with Disney After Dark. Inheritance deliberately assumes a world shaped by the original Keepers.

Peter and the Starcatchers with Dave Barry

Pearson and Dave Barry created a pre-Peter Pan adventure mythology around Peter, Molly Aster, starstuff, Black Stache, and the Starcatchers.

1. Peter and the Starcatchers (2004/2005): Orphan Peter meets Molly aboard the Never Land and becomes involved in a struggle to protect magical starstuff from Black Stache and other enemies.
2. Peter and the Shadow Thieves (2006): Peter leaves Mollusk Island for London after Lord Ombra begins hunting the missing starstuff and threatening Molly and the Starcatchers.
3. Peter and the Secret of Rundoon (2007): Peter and the Starcatchers confront Lord Ombra and the Others while the larger purpose of starstuff and Peter’s role in the conflict become clearer.
4. Peter and the Sword of Mercy (2009): Years after the earlier adventures, a new generation becomes involved when the struggle over starstuff and an ancient weapon draws Peter back into danger.
5. The Bridge to Never Land (2011): Modern siblings Aidan and Sarah discover evidence suggesting that the supposedly fictional Starcatchers stories are real and become participants in the continuing struggle themselves.

The five main novels are best read in publication order. The first three form the strongest continuous Peter-centered arc, while Books 4 and 5 extend the mythology into later generations and the modern world.

Steel Trapp is Pearson’s two-book young detective sequence

1. Steel Trapp: The Challenge (2008): Fourteen-year-old Steven “Steel” Trapp uses his extraordinary memory while traveling to a science competition and becomes entangled in a kidnapping and bribery plot with possible terrorist connections.
2. Steel Trapp: The Academy (2010): Steel enters a school for gifted students and discovers that selected pupils are secretly trained to gather information for the government, while foreign agents may already have infiltrated the program.

The second book builds directly on Steel’s abilities and relationships established in The Challenge.

Lock and Key reimagines the Holmes and Moriarty rivalry

1. Lock and Key: The Initiation (2016): James Moriarty’s younger sister Moria enters Baskerville Academy and becomes caught between her brilliant brother and Sherlock Holmes as their famous rivalry begins taking shape.
2. Lock and Key: The Downward Spiral (2017): The competition between Moriarty and Holmes becomes more dangerous as secrets at Baskerville and the consequences of earlier choices tighten around Moria.
3. Lock and Key: The Final Step (2018): Moria reaches the final stage of the conflict as the paths leading Sherlock Holmes and James Moriarty toward their legendary adult rivalry become clearer.

The related short story The Gadwall Incident is supplemental material rather than another numbered novel.

Pearson’s Super Sons trilogy belongs to DC continuity

1. Super Sons: The PolarShield Project (2019): The sons of Superman and Batman begin a new adventure involving environmental catastrophe, family legacies, and the burden of living in the shadow of famous heroes.
2. Super Sons: The Foxglove Mission (2019): The young heroes continue their mission as the larger conspiracy around climate danger and powerful organizations becomes more complicated.
3. Super Sons: Escape to Landis (2020): The trilogy brings Jon Kent and Ian Wayne’s adventure toward its conclusion as they confront the forces behind the crisis affecting their world.

Magical Map is Pearson’s newest active children’s series

The Disney Magical Map books follow young characters who discover that a mysterious map can pull them into the real history hidden behind famous Disney destinations and attractions.

1. Magical Map #1: Pirates of the Caribbean (2025): The series begins when the magical map carries its young heroes into an adventure tied to the history and mythology surrounding Pirates of the Caribbean.
2. Magical Map #2: Jungle Cruise (2025): The map opens another destination-based adventure, this time around Jungle Cruise and the history concealed behind the attraction.
3. Magical Map #3: Haunted Mansion (2026): The young travelers enter a mystery shaped by the Haunted Mansion, where the map again turns a familiar attraction into a historical adventure.
4. Magical Map #4: Tiana’s Bayou Adventure (expected September 22, 2026): The fourth adventure moves to Tiana’s Bayou Adventure and is officially scheduled for release shortly after this page’s update date.
5. Magical Map #5: Space Mountain (expected March 23, 2027): The fifth announced installment takes the series to Space Mountain and remains upcoming.

As of September 10, 2026, the first three Magical Map books are published. Tiana’s Bayou Adventure and Space Mountain remain upcoming.

The adult Pearson route is much shorter than the children’s catalog

1. Undercurrents: Begin with Lou Boldt and Seattle Homicide.
2. Continue all nine Boldt novels: Let Daphne Matthews, Boldt’s family, and the department develop naturally.
3. Killer Weekend: Move to Walt Fleming and Sun Valley.
4. Finish Walt Fleming through In Harm’s Way: The last book provides the clearest Boldt crossover.
5. The Risk Agent: Start Pearson’s international phase with John Knox and Grace Chu.
6. Continue through White Bone: Follow Knox and Grace from Shanghai to Kenya.

What Ridley Pearson is working on now

Pearson’s official site says he is currently working on a tenth Lou Boldt novel. No title or firm publication date is listed there as of this update, so it should not yet be added as a numbered published book.

His active children’s publishing schedule is more definite. Magical Map #4: Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is scheduled for September 22, 2026, followed by Magical Map #5: Space Mountain on March 23, 2027.

Catalog traps worth avoiding

Is In Harm’s Way a Lou Boldt novel?

No. It is Walt Fleming Book 4, although Lou Boldt appears in the story and helps connect a Seattle murder to Sun Valley.

How many Lou Boldt novels are published?

Nine full-length Boldt novels are currently published. Pearson has said he is working on a tenth.

How many Risk Agent books are there?

There are four: The Risk Agent, Choke Point, The Red Room, and White Bone.

Should Kingdom Keepers Inheritance be read first?

No. It follows the children of the original Keepers and works best after the seven original Kingdom Keepers books and, ideally, The Return trilogy.

Did Ridley Pearson write Peter and the Starcatchers alone?

No. The main Starcatchers novels were co-written with Dave Barry.

What is Pearson’s newest active series?

Disney Magical Map is his newest series, beginning with Pirates of the Caribbean in 2025.

Keep Pearson’s many worlds in separate stacks

For adult fiction, keep Lou Boldt, Walt Fleming, and Risk Agent as three distinct sequences, with the occasional crossover treated as a bonus rather than a reason to combine the numbering.

For younger readers, keep Kingdom Keepers, The Return, Kingdom Keepers Inheritance, Starcatchers, Steel Trapp, Lock and Key, Super Sons, and Magical Map in their own lines. Once those boundaries are clear, Pearson’s large bibliography becomes much easier to navigate.