Although this is a novel written for kids, Pearson admits that his approach to writing this book is not much different from his approach to writing his adult crime novels.

"There really isn't much difference in writing for young adults and adults. It's fun for me, because at its base, it's all storytelling. I don't try to pull any punches. I don't try to write down to the kids. If they don't get a word then, as my dad used to say, 'Look it up!'. You can go to a dictionary and figure out what a word means. I just try to write a story that I would want to read."

Although this is a book primarily about a kid, fans of Pearson's adult crime thrillers will find great enjoyment in it as well. Pearson has not only crafted a tightly plotted story, but has also incorporated extensive research into this book, one of the hallmarks of his previous novels.

"The job of a novelist is to suspend a reader's disbelief. I don't want you disbelieving what I'm writing because I'm making up a world anyway, and if you start disbelieving it, I failed, and you're likely to throw the book across the room and pick another one off the shelf."

"Early on in my novel writing, I realized one of the helpful aids would be to craft the books mostly out of fact and bend them to my needs when I need the fiction to take over. So I do an awful lot of research to build a bed in the book of fact that it's standing on. So you're not going to disbelieve it because it's true, and when I hit areas where I have to shrink the time or make someone unusual I can do that because hopefully I've sold you with enough fact that you don't then doubt my fiction."

"For Steel Trapp, I interviewed a U. S. Marshall to find out about how they do fugitive apprehension. They have a thing called the Fugitive Apprehension Task Force that is part of the Justice Department. These guys chase down people who have escaped from prison, the people who are the most threat to society. There are only 4 or 5 of these guys. But they are the elite of the elite. Roland Larson is one of these guys."

With Steel Trapp: The Challenge, Ridley Pearson has done a terrific job of creating an intriguing yet unlikely hero in Stephen Trapp. Judging by the speed with which our family devoured the book, it's safe to say that Pearson has another hit on his hands. Pearson says he plans to write more about Stephen Trapp, and he's already well into writing a second novel about him. Hopefully, there will be many more such adventures to come.