Blood and Iron Books in Order

Blood and Iron introduces Stan Owens, a scarred veteran whose brush with death leaves him able to speak with ghosts. He is living quietly in the town of Mason when a ruthless businessman named Ezra Pettigrew begins turning the dead into tools. From there the series becomes a struggle over who gets to shape the town's future, the people who live in it, and the spirits trapped around it.

Stan is a good lead.

He is tough, but not flashy. He understands violence, carries plenty of his own damage, and uses his unwanted ability more out of duty than fascination. That makes him feel different from Shane Ryan, even though both men move through Ripley's larger world of haunted danger with a soldier's stubbornness.

The first books focus on Mason, its factory, its local loyalties, and the way Pettigrew weaponizes fear by binding spirits to his ambitions. So the horror here is both supernatural and civic. It is about greed, control, and the people who get crushed when power decides they are expendable.

That small-town pressure gives the trilogy a grounded feel. Stan is not trying to save the world. He is trying to stop one town from being eaten alive by a man who sees ghosts as another resource to exploit.

If you want a newer Ripley series with a fresh lead, a tight town setting, and a good mix of haunting and hard-edged revenge, Blood and Iron is a promising place to start.