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Ryan Lock & Ty Johnson Books in Order

Part ofSean Black Books in Order

This page maps the Ryan Lock and Ty Johnson books by Sean Black in order, with quick summaries, series background, and where to start.

Last updated: July 13, 2026

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Ryan Lock & Ty Johnson books in publication order

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16 books

1

Lockdown

by Sean Black

2009

At Christmas in New York, Ryan Lock's bodyguard job explodes into open war after gunmen target his billionaire client. The chase leads toward something far bigger than one man, and Lock may be the only thing standing in the way.

2

Deadlock

by Sean Black

2010

Ryan Lock and Ty Johnson go inside Pelican Bay Supermax to keep a marked inmate alive until he can testify. Surrounded by prisoners who want their man dead, they are trapped in one of Black's toughest pressure-cooker setups.

3

Grid Lock

by Sean Black

2011

An adult-film star finds a headless corpse in the trunk of her car and hires Ryan Lock when the police are no help. The deeper he digs into Hollywood's shadows, the less innocent his client looks.

4

Lock & Load

by Sean Black

2012

Ryan Lock takes a Malibu protection job that should be straightforward, but celebrity lives rarely stay simple for long. This short adventure fills in more of Lock's personal world while still delivering danger at close range.

5

The Devil's Bounty

by Sean Black

2012

A serial predator has bought protection behind a Mexican drug cartel, and Ryan Lock decides to bring him back anyway. It is a brutal cross-border hunt with justice, revenge, and survival colliding at every turn.

6

Fire Point

by Sean Black

2014

In Los Angeles, Lock and Ty go after a cult whose reach is broader and deadlier than it first appears. The threat builds toward catastrophe, and stopping it means getting close to people built around absolute belief.

7

The Innocent

by Sean Black

2014

When Ty Johnson's oldest friend disappears in a small Minnesota town, the official story feels wrong from the start. Lock and Ty pull at the loose threads and uncover a conspiracy the locals will do almost anything to keep hidden.

8

Budapest/48

by Sean Black

2015

A kidnap-for-ransom exchange in Budapest looks like easy money for Ryan Lock and Ty Johnson. It is supposed to take forty-eight hours, but nothing about the job stays simple once they touch down.

9

The Edge of Alone

by Sean Black

2016

A father asks Ryan Lock to rescue his daughter from a remote academy for troubled teens. Behind its walls, students are dying and the official suicides do not add up.

10

Second Chance

by Sean Black

2017

Ryan Lock's life turns personal when his girlfriend is abducted in a precise, violent strike. The kidnappers do not want money. They want a prison break, and the clock is already moving.

11

Red Tiger

by Sean Black

2018

A Chinese billionaire's daughter vanishes from her California home, and Ryan Lock finds himself between gang violence and a killer from overseas. Everyone is hunting the same girl, but not everyone wants her alive.

12

The Deep Abiding

by Sean Black

2019

Ty Johnson is hired to protect a journalist investigating a decades-old murder in a quiet Everglades town. The locals smile, the landscape closes in, and the past proves more dangerous than anyone admits.

13

Avenue of Thieves

by Sean Black

2020

A Russian oligarch's family and bodyguards start dying, and Ryan Lock is called in before the fortune behind it all disappears too. The trail runs from present-day Manhattan back to the collapse of the Soviet world.

14

The Last Bodyguard

by Sean Black

2021

A missing fourteen-year-old girl sends Ryan Lock into the predatory machinery of trafficking. The hunt is urgent, ugly, and painfully human, with every hour making rescue less certain.

15

The Yacht Girl

by Sean Black

2025

Ryan Lock and Ty Johnson arrive at a billionaire's private island to audit security and find a place built on secrecy. Then they hear about a vanished girl, and paradise starts to look like a trap.

16
New

The Removal

by Sean Black

2026

A wealthy man's kidnapped son is returned after ransom is paid, but Ryan Lock cannot shake the feeling that the job is far from over. The more he questions the abduction, the more dangerous it becomes for him.

Ryan Lock & Ty Johnson books in chronological order

  1. Book cover for "Lockdown"

    Lockdown

    by Sean Black

    2009Ryan Lock & Ty Johnson, Book 1
  2. Book cover for "Deadlock"

    Deadlock

    by Sean Black

    2010Ryan Lock & Ty Johnson, Book 2
  3. Book cover for "Grid Lock"

    Grid Lock

    by Sean Black

    2011Ryan Lock & Ty Johnson, Book 3
  4. Book cover for "The Devil's Bounty"

    The Devil's Bounty

    by Sean Black

    2012Ryan Lock & Ty Johnson, Book 4
  5. Book cover for "Lock & Load"

    Lock & Load

    by Sean Black

    2012Ryan Lock & Ty Johnson, Book 5
  6. Book cover for "The Innocent"

    The Innocent

    by Sean Black

    2014Ryan Lock & Ty Johnson, Book 6
  7. Book cover for "Fire Point"

    Fire Point

    by Sean Black

    2014Ryan Lock & Ty Johnson, Book 7
  8. Book cover for "Budapest/48"

    Budapest/48

    by Sean Black

    2015Ryan Lock & Ty Johnson, Book 8
  9. Book cover for "The Edge of Alone"

    The Edge of Alone

    by Sean Black

    2016Ryan Lock & Ty Johnson, Book 9
  10. Book cover for "Second Chance"

    Second Chance

    by Sean Black

    2017Ryan Lock & Ty Johnson, Book 10
  11. Book cover for "Red Tiger"

    Red Tiger

    by Sean Black

    2018Ryan Lock & Ty Johnson, Book 11
  12. Book cover for "The Deep Abiding"

    The Deep Abiding

    by Sean Black

    2019Ryan Lock & Ty Johnson, Book 12
  13. Book cover for "Avenue of Thieves"

    Avenue of Thieves

    by Sean Black

    2020Ryan Lock & Ty Johnson, Book 13
  14. Book cover for "The Last Bodyguard"

    The Last Bodyguard

    by Sean Black

    2021Ryan Lock & Ty Johnson, Book 14
  15. Book cover for "The Yacht Girl"

    The Yacht Girl

    by Sean Black

    2025Ryan Lock & Ty Johnson, Book 15
  16. Book cover for "The Removal"

    The Removal

    by Sean Black

    2026Ryan Lock & Ty Johnson, Book 16

Series background & context

If the Ryan Lock books give you the mission, the Ryan Lock and Ty Johnson stories give you the partnership. Ryan is the controlled one, the former military close-protection specialist who thinks in routes, angles, and worst-case outcomes. Ty Johnson, a former Marine, is bigger, louder, funnier, and often more openly human about what the job costs. Put them together and Sean Black gets something better than a standard action duo. He gets two professionals who trust each other enough to argue, improvise, and step into danger without wasting time on speeches.

That chemistry is the hook.

Across these books and shorter pieces, the pair are hired to protect clients, manage kidnaps, chase leads the police cannot reach, and walk into places where the official plan is already broken. A prison infiltration, a ransom exchange, a vanishing child, a cult threat, a deadly quiet small town, the setup changes, but the pattern holds. One of them sees the tactical picture. The other sees the human fallout just as clearly. They keep each other honest.

Ty is especially important because he stops the series from becoming too polished. Ryan is good at compartmentalizing, sometimes too good. Ty talks more, jokes more, and lets emotion onto the page in a way Ryan usually will not. That matters when the books turn toward missing kids, damaged veterans, or people who have been swallowed by systems larger than they are. The action is sharp, but the friendship is what gives it weight.

The books also use their differences well. Ryan is British, careful, and methodical. Ty is American, direct, and more likely to meet nonsense with impatience. Neither man is careless, but they do not process risk in exactly the same way. Black gets a lot of mileage from that contrast, especially in scenes where plans go wrong and the two have to split tasks, cover different angles, or trust the other to handle the ugly part alone.

They are a very good team, but not because they are the same.

If you are browsing this corner of Sean Black's work, expect fast thrillers with a strong buddy dynamic and a real sense of earned loyalty. Some entries lean more toward Ryan, some give Ty more room, and a few shorter stories are basically pressure-cooker tests of how the pair operate when the clock is brutal. Reading in order helps, because the relationship builds quietly over time, but the bigger draw is simple. You come for the job. You stay for the way these two men carry it together.

Edited by

Richard Reis

Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.

Anurag Ramdasan

Lead investor at 3one4 Capital whose startup expertise and love for books helped shaped MRB and its growth.

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