The Guardian (Gerald Lund) Books in Order

In The Guardian novels, Gerald Lund takes a modern Latter-day Saint family and drops them into the middle of kidnappings, corporate greed and an old mystery that has followed their ancestors for generations.

The heart of the series is thirteen-year-old Carruthers Danni McAllister, who receives an antique pouch from her grandfather with the French words Le Gardien stitched across the front. Along with the pouch comes a simple list known as the Four Remembers and a warning not to treat this birthday gift lightly.

At first Danni has no idea how the pouch works or whether anything truly unusual is happening at all. Slowly she learns that, for nearly two hundred years, different keepers have discovered unexpected help tucked inside at exactly the right moment, along with serious consequences when they try to use that help selfishly.

The first book sets Danni and her younger brother against a ruthless kidnapping ring after the family stumbles onto a valuable rhodium deposit. What begins as a thrilling escape story soon becomes a test of courage, loyalty and trust, both in the pouch and in God.

The sequel, To Run With the Swift, widens the lens to show that foiling one gang does not mean the danger has passed.

As Danni's family tries to move forward, new enemies surface with deeper motives, pulling them into a web of international crime, political maneuvering and painful personal choices. The pouch remains unpredictable, sometimes stepping in at the last second, other times remaining stubbornly silent so that Danni has to act on her own best judgment.

Taken together, the Guardian books read like fast-paced thrillers, but they also circle back to the core questions written on that first card in the pouch, what it means to be unique, to have purpose, to choose, and to remember that you are never completely alone.