Most Popular Books by Ridley Pearson

Eight years after saving the life of a U.S. attorney general from an assassination attempt, county sheriff Walt Fleming finds himself once again protecting the high-profile politician, now a presidential hopeful, during a billionaire''s communications conference, an effort that is hampered by jurisdictional squabbles and elements from Fleming''s past. 150,000 first printing.

The five Kingdom Keepers and their core friends have uncovered a startling truth: Disney villains Maleficent and the Overtakers are plotting a catastrophic event that could have repercussions far beyond the world of Disney. Aboard the Disney Cruise Line''s inaugural passage through the new Panama Canal, the Keepers and their holograms uncover a puzzle hidden within the pages of a stolen journal. The point of that puzzle will reveal itself in the caves of Aruba, the zip lines of Costa Rica, and the jungles of Mexico. A destructive force, dormant for decades, is about to be unleashed. The five Kingdom Keepers are to be its first victims!Includes a preview chapter from Kingdom Keepers VII - The Insider!

Known for his meticulous, fascinating research, as well as his ability to create exciting plot twists that inevitably, a month or two later, seem to have anticipated real-life headlines, Ridley Pearson has genered praise as a "master" of the suspense novel. In Middle of Nowhere, the "Blu Flu" has struck the Seattle Police force and a majority of the officers are on a unofficial strike, with the exception of a few, including Detective Lou Boldt, who is committed to the job. When a string of robberies and the brutal assault of a female cop rock the city, the pressure of isolation threatens Boldt''s psyche and his marriage. With the help of psychologist Daphne Matthews and Sergeant John LaMoia, Boldt is able to make progress on both the assault and the robberies, but things soon spin out of control, and Bodt''s refusal to drop the case puts his own life at risk. Filled with the fast-paced, spiraling action that has made Pearson''s previous novels "irresistable" ( Los Angeles Times Book Review) works of suspense that "grip the imagination" ( People magazine), this offering from "the best thriller writer alive" (Booklist) is certain to keep the reader breathless.

Penzler Pick, June 2001: Ridley Pearson, who has written 14 previous books, many of them featuring his Seattle cop Lou Boldt, ups the ante in his latest thriller. Northern Union Railroad has been experiencing a series of accidents with their freight trains, but it is not until they find a freight car covered with blood that they call in outside help. Peter Tyler used to be a cop, until he nearly beat a black man to death and lost his badge. When he gets a second chance via an old friend at the National Transportation Safety Board, he drives a convertible through a snowstorm with the top down (he suffers from claustrophobia) to view the freight car. He arrives at the scene to discover that he will have to deal with Northern Union''s own security officer, Nell Priest, a black woman who already knows Tyler''s history. Meanwhile, Umberto Alvarez, the train wrecker, is systematically working his way towards his ultimate wreck, Northern''s F.A.S.T. train, due to make its maiden run from New York to Washington, D.C. Alvarez lost his wife and children when their car stalled between the gates at a crossing and were crushed by one of Northern''s trains. Although Northern Union was cleared of all responsibility and Alvarez''s wife was found negligent, he doesn''t think that''s so. As Peter Tyler''s investigation proceeds, he begins to come to the same conclusion. Closing in on Alvarez, he tries to interview the crossing guard who was on duty the day the wreck occurred. On arriving at the man''s apartment, he finds the man bludgeoned to death--with the same stick with which Tyler beat the black man all that time ago. It''s time to get paranoid. Who at Northern is covering up and what role does Nell play in all this? As always in a Ridley Pearson thriller, the action doesn''t stop until the final page. --Otto Penzler

With the defeat of the Overtakers behind them, the five teenagers known as the Kingdom Keepers should be celebrating. By all accounts they saved Disneyland from certain destruction. Why then did their mentor leave one last puzzle for them to decipher? The Keepers must solve a puzzle of the past, or be crushed under an evil that makes the Overtakers seem like gentle souls.

Seattle police psychologist Daphne Mathews has her hands full with a pregnant, addicted, runaway teenager, a murder victim''s brother whose strange behavior unnerves her, and a deputy sheriff she once treated who''s now stalking her. She''s frightened enough to move in with Detective John LaMoia, a development that doesn''t exactly thrill Lou Boldt, their boss and Daphne''sex-lover. But Lou''s too busy with his own cases to brood over John and Daphne: the recent disappearances of two local women, and the death of Billy Chen, the nephew of Mama Lu, an old friend and a powerful figure in Seattle''s Chinese community, which appeared to be an accident but turns out to have been murder. The only thing the disappearances and murder have in common is location; all three victims were last seen in a part of downtown built over the Underground, a dark and dangerous warren of buildings abandoned after the fire that leveled Seattle more than a hundred years ago. While Seattle''s Underground has been the setting for several mysteries by other authors (Earl Emerson, J.A. Jance), Pearson makes the most of its creepy-crawly atmosphere in a gripping thriller whose solid plotting pulls all of Daphne''s, LaMoia''s, and Boldt''s cases together. It also wisely reconfigures the personal relationships among the three central characters, which bodes well for their future adventures in this long-running series ( Middle ofNowhere, The Pied Piper). --Jane Adams

Seattle detectives hunt for black market organ thieves in the New York Times– bestselling author''s "potent blend of medical thriller and police procedural" ( Kirkus ). Urban legend, or frightening fact? Police Sergeant Lou Boldt and forensic psychologist Dephne Matthews suspect illegal organ harvesting is behind recent assaults on teenage runaways. The trail leads them down dark streets and darker corners of the mind, as they find themselves pursuing a twisted surgeon with his own ideas of mortality and social justice. The Angel Maker takes the reader on an action-packed journey from Seattle''s homeless to an abandoned homesteading cabin and kennel hidden in the Northwest wilderness. Daphne Matthews, intent on rescuing a teenage runaway from the madman''s scalpel, puts her own life on the line, finding herself face to face with the Angel Maker. "Award-winning author Ridley Pearson carves out and serves up a thriller that will make you look twice at your local veterinarian." —Book Magazine

Can Detective Joe "Dart" Dartelli uncover the truth? Or, more importantly, does he dare? Detective Joe "Dart" Dartelli made one critical mistake in his police career: He chose to ignore a piece of evidence in a case labeled a suicide that might have been a murder. The dead man was himself a vicious woman-killer who more than deserved his fate, but that ignored evidence pointed to Dart''s former mentor, the brilliant forensic specialist Walter Zeller. Now another suicide victim turns up--the body of a wife-beater--and the evidence clearly shows that the death was self-inflicted . . . or does it? Zeller was the best at reading and understanding the forensics of a crime scene--could he have manipulated it? Worse, why has Zeller disappeared? It terrifies Dart to suspect that Zeller is in fact on some twisted vigilante crusade, but Dart also knows that if he''s right, only he can stop it. Chain of Evidence is the intense, heart-pounding story of student versus mentor in the playing field of forensic investigation. Ridley Pearson links computer technology, psychological intensity, and complex questions of police and human ethics to create this breathlessly paced, unputdownable thriller.

"This is a serial-killer novel that speaks to readers'' hearts even as it jangles their nerves—and it''s not to be missed." — Publishers Weekly Product tampering. Innocent lives. Nice suburban homes. A Seattle food company is victim to an ingenious extortion that has the FBI two steps behind. Seattle''s veteran homicide sergeant, Lou Boldt, and police psychologist Daphne Matthews approach the case from opposite ends: one unearthing micoscopic evidence, the other putting together a chilling psychological profile of a man willing to contaminate and kill if necessary. The cop Daphne Matthews secretly loves is being destroyed by the extortion. Boldt sees his department cracking. As the high-tech manhunt builds to a furious crescendo, Boldt and Matthews are jolted again: the madman they''re hunting may not be working alone . . .

One summer morning while Aidan and Sarah are visiting their grandfather, they discover a secret compartment in his battered wooden desk. Inside is a yellowed envelope that contains a piece of very thin, almost translucent, white paper, on which, handwritten in black ink, are a series of seemingly random lines; among them are what appear to be fragments of letters, but not enough to make sense. At the bottom of the page is a verse about Peter Peter and a reference to a real hotel in London. As it happens, the family is about to embark on a trip to Europe, so the children decide that while in London, they will try to locate the hotel.

A dead search-and-rescue team member, a missing friend, an unexplained illness at a local water-bottling plant that sends workers to the hospital and sets off biohazard warnings may have something in common as Sun Valley sheriff Walt Fleming follows threa

The tragic bombing of EuroTours Flight 1023 was big news. To FBI Agent Cam Daggett it was more than that. It was personal. His parents and son were on that plane. And for two years he''s been after the killer who did it. All he has to go on is a name: Anthony Kort . . . and the knowledge that Kort is in the United States with a detonator no airport security can detect. HE MUST BE STOPPED. Daggett''s colleagues at the Bureau and his girlfriend tell him his vendetta has become an obsession. They suggest he leave the investigation to other agents, in order to keep it objective. But having painstakingly constructed a portrait of the terrorist, Daggett believes he''s now the only one with any chance of predicting Kort''s next target. A novel of madness and revenge, Hard Fall begs readers to fasten their seatbelts.

ears ago, Lou Boldt''s wife Liz had an affair with David Hayes, a young computer specialist at the bank where she is an executive. When Liz ended the relationship after reconciling with Lou, Hayes engaged in a daring embezzlement scheme. Now, years later, Hayes is trying to retrieve the money he hid for the Russian mob and contacts Liz to try to gain access to the bank''s mainframe. Liz is torn between wanting to protect the bank and needing to protect her family. Boldt, ripped apart by the discovery of his wife''s possible blackmail, must skate a delicate line between his incompatible roles as determined detective and jealous husband if he is to find the money while exposing and stopping Hayes. Intensely involving and revealing new aspects of Boldt''s emotional makeup never before seen, The Body of David Hayes is Ridley''s most gripping and engaging thriller yet.

"Impeccably paced" this "thoughtful and exciting" thriller from a "top-notch practitioner of the genre" features cops investigating human trafficking ( Publishers Weekly ). When a female reporter disappears—purportedly at the hands of the Chinese Triad—while investigating a story on illegal aliens, Lou Boldt and John LaMoia of the Seattle Police Department embark on an investigation that leads them from Seattle''s docklands to the offices of the INS in search of answers. What they discover is a vicious band of smugglers who traffic in human labor. "Pearson puts the reader smack in the middle of a complex undercover police sting and delivers delectable characters . . . Inventive plotting and strong dialog build gripping suspense." — Library Journal "Pearson builds suspense incrementally, brilliantly amassing details until his plot reaches critical mass at just the right moment. " —Booklist

Disneyland, Opening Day, 1955. When five present-day teenagers known as the Kingdom Keepers find themselves thrown into a past that would make anyone envious, things don''t exactly work out the way they''d hoped. Finn, Charlene, Maybeck, Willa, and Philby open a door into a place and a time when the legend of the Disney parks is just starting. They are there, in 1955, to retrieve Walt Disney''s infamous pen that once saved the parks as we know them. But like all things Disney, nothing is as it seems.The early days of the Tower of Terror, the origin of the Overtakers (Disney villains), and the real power of magic unfold in an unexpected series of events that propel both the Keepers and Disney itself into a darkness no one saw coming. Along the way, the Keepers visit Walt Disney''s hilltop home, Disneyland''s opening day and reception, and find themselves separated from friends sixty years away. The three Fairlies, young women in Disney''s School of Imagineering, girls with astonishing powers of their own, have unmasked a long-buried secret that threatens the lives of their friends as well as everything Walt Disney worked for.

When his daughter is abducted, a policeman recruits his own team to find a serial kidnapper in this thriller from a New York Times –bestselling author. Babies have been vanishing from their homes up and down the Pacific coast, leaving parents traumatized and living in fear, and disturbed by the penny flutes left behind in their children''s cribs. He calls himself The Pied Piper. He strikes without warning, without reason. And when he takes a victim in Seattle, homicide detective Lou Boldt is assigned to the case. But the Piper is one step ahead of law enforcement. He has taken Boldt''s daughter, threatening to harm her if the policeman doesn''t derail the FBI and Seattle PD from the investigation. Now, it''s up to Boldt and forensic pathologist Daphne Matthews to pursue The Pied Piper on their own—and stop him before her claims more victims . . . "You''ll do more than follow The Pied Piper . You''ll have trouble putting it down." — Rocky Mountain News "[Ridley] Pearson fans better prepare themselves for another excruciating ride on the most elaborate suspense roller coaster on the market. It''s a can''t miss combination, as Pearson''s track record proves." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

A Soviet agent has entered the United States—carrying a terrifying weapon—in this Cold War thriller by the #1 New York Times–bestselling author . . . Agent Andy Clayton has been inactive for eighteen months, kept under tight surveillance at his home in Washington D.C. Now he is needed—Leonid Borikowski, code name Dragonfly, has been seen entering the United States, and Clayton is the only man who may be able to find and stop him. For Clayton, it''s more than a routine assignment. He knows Dragonfly, has faced him before, and he wants him. His interest is as personal as it is professional: He wants revenge on the foreign agent who killed his twin brother. But there is much that Clayton doesn''t know. He doesn''t know that Borikowski is carrying perhaps the most important, and dangerous, biological discovery the world has ever known. He doesn''t know that the microbe is in a suitcase armed with a device that will explode if Borikowski is harmed. And he doesn''t know about the Soviet intelligence project code-named Bookends—a project that will not be complete until Andy meets the same fate as his brother. The chase will take him across the United States and Canada, putting himself, the woman he loves, and thousands of innocent people in jeopardy...

John Knox and Grace Chu, the incomparable duo of the Risk Agent novels, team up again in the latest international thrill ride from New York Times–bestselling author Ridley Pearson. When ex–military contractor John Knox receives a text from partner Grace Chu warning that she fears her cover may have been blown while on assignment, he jumps into action. Knox must locate her overseas handlers, convince them of the threat, and then attempt to retrace the well-hidden steps of a woman who had been attempting to determine how one million euros’ worth of AIDS vaccine disappeared, all while eluding angry poachers on a parallel trail. Corruption isn’t a “problem” in Kenya, it’s the way of doing business. The poaching of ivory from African elephants, driven by insatiable demand from mainland China, fuels constant blood and slaughter. Knox faces police, national rangers, journalists, and safari companies who are each in their own symbiotic relationship with elephants, both good and bad. As the threat from Al-Shaabab militants interferes with his pursuit of Grace, Knox finds himself pitted against the most savage and suicidal fighters in the world. And there’s this woman, Grace, always in his head. His gut. As Grace watches as her civilized self slips away while abandoned in the bush, Knox races against the clock to find her.

It begins as a heist in Sun Valley, Idaho-until the local sheriff discovers a more sinister underlying plan. The crime gets more personal. The stakes are raised, and nothing is as it seems.

The second book in this all new KINGDOM KEEPERS INHERITANCE trilogy follows our young heroes to parks around the world as they work to stop the most villainous villain of all--Ursula--from taking over for good! In this latest book in the series that has sold over a million copies worldwide, Ridley Pearson expands the Kingdom Keepers world in ways no reader--or Disney Parks fan--could have imagined. Home from their adventures abroad in book one, Eli and his friends are safe and sound at Epcot with their families--or are they? When Eli learns that the CEO of the Walt Disney Company has mysteriously done a 180 and ordered Villains Realms to be built in every park across the globe, he and his friends know something is amiss. It turns out that Ursula, the baddest of the big bads, has recruited an evil chemist to recreate Walt''s magical ink, which would allow the Villains to travel between parks and end Disney magic as we know it. With the help of Cinderella''s very own Fairy Godmother--the notorious FGM as she''s known in this world--they set out to stop Ursula--jumping from Epcot to Disneyland to Disneyland Paris, where the ultimate battle between good and evil plays out. Will Eli and his friends prevail, or will the Villains finally have their way?