Best known for his Detective Lane series of mystery novels,[1] he has also published works of historical fiction.
[1] Although heterosexual,[3] Ryan was inspired to make Detective Lane, the lead character in his mystery novels, gay after witnessing the discrimination and bullying that two of his students faced after coming out as gay.
His novel The Lucky Elephant Restaurant won a Lambda Literary Award in the Gay Mystery category at the 19th Lambda Literary Awards in 2007.
Ryan has also published two novels to date in his Blackbirds series, a historical trilogy about Sharon Lacey, a female aviator serving in the Air Transport Auxiliary during World War II.
[2] Ryan teamed with Pages Books on Kensington to publish Corporation's First Annual Sausage Festival - (2018 - ISBN 978-1-9995135-0-4)