Ryan Steck is the author of the new novel Ted Bell's Monarch, a continuation of the late author Ted Bell's series featuring the character Lord Alexander Hawke. Steck also has written the Matthew Redd thriller series, and he is the founder of the site The Real Book Spy.
Q: What do you see as Ted Bell’s legacy, and how were you chosen to continue his Alex Hawke series?
A: Few people have left their mark on the world quite like Theodore Agustus Bell. A successful ad man long before he was a major New York Times bestselling author, Ted truly was a larger-than-life character who loved to laugh and tell stories.
He was so warm, funny, and gracious—those are the things I remember most about him. He was also one of the most talented and gifted writers I’ve ever known. A better wordsmith, there was not. Of course, he was also a loving father to his daughter, the incredible Byrdie Bell, and a dear friend to many.
So, what’s his legacy? Boy, that’s hard to say. He may be most remembered for giving the world Alex Hawke, but Ted was an affectionate man who touched those around him in a profound way. He wore his heart on his sleeve and was never afraid to love and love big.
So, to me, that’ll always be his legacy—that and the fact that, no matter what, Ted did things his way. And more often than not, his way always worked out.
As for how I was chosen to continue his series, the short version of a much, much longer story is that after working with Ted for nearly a decade, like all of his readers, I had a deep love for Lord Alexander Hawke.
The difference was that I had a front-row seat to much of the action, including Ted’s writing (he was very much a pantser, by the way, who never outlined or knew where his stories were headed) and creative process.
When I heard that there was a chance Berkley might continue the Hawke franchise, I never dreamed that I would be the writer guiding Hawke’s next adventures, but after one call with Byrdie Bell—who, much like her father, is a warm, caring and kind soul who is also hilariously funny—I was asked to come aboard, and I couldn’t say yes fast enough.
Truly, it’s been the honor of a lifetime to step in for Ted, who was a dear friend and mentor to me, and carry forward his legacy.
Q: What did you feel was the right balance between Ted Bell’s style and your own as you wrote the novel?
A: That’s a great question! Once I had signed on officially, I began writing test pages to find the voice I’d write in for Monarch and beyond.
What I found is that writing like myself just felt odd. At the end of the day, nobody—not even me—cares about my take on Alex Hawke! No, for this to work, it needed to sound like Ted’s Hawke, the Hawke we all know and love.
For anyone who has read the books, you may notice that Alex has a very distinct cadence in the way he speaks. The same is true for his word choice and selection, so to emulate that, I needed to hear Alex talk.
My saving grace was John Shea, the brilliant narrator of Ted’s books, and quite literally, I had all of the audiobooks playing on a loop 24-7. I would even fall asleep listening to Shea’s performances as Hawke, and constantly hearing that helped me to eventually hear Alex in my head.
Once that happened, it was as if Lord Hawke started talking to me, and I was able to capture what he was saying and get it on the page.
For example, whereas I might say, “Alex Hawke wanted to shine a light on X topic,” Ted would have likely written it differently. Maybe like: “Hawke, who endeavored to illuminate such a topic,” or something like that. So there was a learning curve, to be sure, but it got easier as I went, thankfully.
At the end of the day, it was important to me that Ted’s readers feel like Monarch is a book he could have written, and while that was a massive undertaking, I’m very proud of how it turned out.
Q: What inspired the plot of this new novel?
A: Ted was known for putting real-life people into his books. From Putin to Elon Musk, he would often make them characters, and that includes Charles, who was not yet the king in Ted’s final book, Sea Hawke.
So, right away, I started to wonder what Ted and Hawke might think of Charles finally wearing the crown, but more importantly, I needed to find a reason for Alex Hawke to return to the life of action he once knew all too well.
Without spoiling Sea Hawke, Alex is in a pretty good place at the end of that story. However, he had made a promise or two about things he might do in the future, so I opened Monarch with him making good on one of those things.
But to keep him in the game a bit longer, I knew we needed something… bigger. And what’s bigger than King Charles missing? That drives the story, and I really hope Ted’s readers enjoy it.
Q: The writer Kyle Mills said of the book, “Steck’s passion for this project leaps from every page.” What do you think of that assessment?
A: A couple of things, actually. For starters, to me, Kyle Mills is the gold standard of estate writing. It’s not easy to take over another author’s characters, but Mills did an incredible job during his nine-book run in Vince Flynn’s Mitch Rapp universe.
To think that there was little to no dropoff whatsoever from Flynn to Mills is a testament to Kyle’s talent and work ethic. So, to get the stamp of approval from someone who knows first-hand how challenging this is meant a lot to me.
Secondly, writing Monarch was indeed a labor of love. The simple fact is that I really loved Ted and was driven by the desire to do right by him, and to do his characters justice. I hope that came through in the writing, and again, it means a lot that Kyle spotted it.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: Well, at the moment, I’m working on my next Matthew Redd book. It’ll follow Gone Dark (which is available on June 17, 2025), and then I’ll go straight into the next Alex Hawke adventure.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: In addition to Ted Bell’s Monarch, I have two other books coming out in 2025. Gone Dark, my fourth Matthew Redd book—mentioned above—is my favorite book that I’ve written so far because of how many personal things I was able to slip into that story.
Then, sometime in the fall, The Second Son, the first book in a new series I’m co-authoring with my dear friend, Simon Gervais, will be available, and I cannot wait for readers to see what we’ve come up with!
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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