Walt Fleming Books In Order

Publication Order of Walt Fleming Books

Walter Fleming is the name of the main character in a series of suspense and thriller novels written by Ridley Pearson. Fleming is a down-to-earth sheriff who is tasked with the responsibility of protecting the citizens of Sun Valley and solving crimes in the area. The first novel written by Pearson is called Killer Weekend and it was published in 2007. In this story, US Attorney General Elizabeth Shaler returns to Sun Valley, as the crown jewel and key-note speaker of billionaire Patrick Cutter’s world-famous media and communications conference, which is where rich and powerful business moguls converge.

During this conference, Shaler expects to announce that she’s going to be running for president but there’s a killer on the loose. This conference is one of the biggest media coups for Cutter but it’s going to prove to be a security challenge for county sheriff Walt Fleming. As the conference gets underway, the authorities learn that there’s a confirmed plot to eliminate Shale. Various competing interests such as the FBI, Secret Service and Cutter’s private security start jostling for jurisdiction. In the midst of the opulent extravagance at the conference, Fleming has to deal with the potential murder of the AG, the arrest of his nephew, and his family’s history coming back to haunt him.

Shaler is not new to threats against her life, and eight years before this killer weekend in the book title, she had been attacked by an intruder who was wielding a knife. Fortunately, Walt Fleming came to her rescue, and so he takes the current threat to her life very seriously. He tries to have her handlers cancel her announcement but they won’t and so he has to identify the person who is planning to kill her. The assassin has managed to cleverly evade the security, but then we never get to learn the motive behind the killer’s threat against Elizabeth Shaler.

Another book written in this series is called Killer Summer and it was published in 2008. In this story, we learn that a skier has gone missing from a Sun Valley mountaintop, and Sherriff Walt Fleming and his search and rescue team are called upon to find him. When the sheriff and his men are caught up in a terrible snowstorm, they also discover the body of one of their team members. The next day, his best friend Aker also goes missing, and we also learn that Fleming is going through a tough divorce.

Fleming then starts to see a pattern emerging when a bridesmaid is taken to the hospital after being assaulted. The suspects are local anarchists who are called in for questioning after being linked with other recent occurrences in the area. To compound matters, the owner of a water-bottling plant in the area secretly flies out the workers and Fleming finds himself entangled in a web of deceptions being spun by people with immense riches and power. However, Fleming has some other ideas and he does his best to unravel the mystery and bring the killers to justice.

Killer Summer is the third novel in the Walt Fleming series, and the plot involves the annual wine auction that attracts high rollers from across the country and Walt Fleming is tasked with the responsibility of ensuring that it goes off without a hitch. Elite wine connoisseurs have come to Sun Valley for wine tasting and bidding on the finest wines from across the globe, including the three bottles believed to have been gifts given to John Adams by Thomas Jefferson. With such priceless and historic wines being offered for sale, it’s no surprise that thieves are hell-bent on stealing them.

Fleming is enjoying an afternoon with his nephew and they are out fishing when a suspicious truck passes close by. His suspicions are confirmed when a bomb explodes during the auction, and Fleming is now in the midst of an epic heist orchestrated by Christopher Cantell, who has mapped all possible scenarios, including how Fleming and his team are going to react to the plot to steal a rare collection of wines. The rapid twists and turns of the novel keeps the reader engrossed and this is one of the most readable books that you can get your hands on.

Sometimes the plot of a mystery, the characters and their relationships with each other, the narrative itself and the setting all come together in perfect harmony to produce an exceptional novel and Killer Summer is one such novel. The plot of the story is quite good, and the author describes the setting in amazing detail. The excitement in the story is well captured and the author manages to capture the tension that grips the characters during some memorable scenes in the story.

In Harm’s way is the fourth book in this series, and in this story, Walt Fleming’s budding relationship with photographer Fiona Kenshaw hits a rough patch after Fiona is involved in a heroic river rescue but then she attempts to hide from the media. Despite her heroic actions and the nature of her job as a photographer, Fiona doesn’t want to appear in the papers, and she avoids Fleming when he’s unable to do so. When Fleming receives a telephone call from Lou Lieutenant Boldt, it changes everything. Apparently, there’s been a recent killing that may have a connection to Sun Valley. The police discover the dead body of a person who had been badly beaten and the county sheriff has to piece together evidence from the crime puzzle before it’s too late.

This is a well written novel that is fast paced and it leaves a trail of suspects in its wake. The author will keep you guessing right until the very end. The good thing about the storyline is the fact that the author knows how to use dialogues between the characters to advance this mystery. The characters appear normal, and they use everyday language. There’s dramatic tension throughout the mystery, and once you pick up this book, you will find it hard to put down. Apart from writing mystery novels, Ridley Pearson also writes adventure books for children.