by Aaron Klein
First published 2012
Journalist Butch Lewis dials a wrong number and hears something he shouldn't have. The voice on the other end reveals a deadly secret before the line goes dead. Lewis finds himself pulled into a web of international conspiracy that reaches the highest levels of government. President Edward Kent Reese has devised a scheme to control the volatile Middle East, working alongside Israeli Prime Minister Yehudi Ben-Mendel. But resistance emerges from within Reese's own administration. Lewis discovers he cannot simply report the story. His life becomes threatened from multiple directions unless he cooperates as a pawn in their dangerous game. The conspiracy involves Secretary of State Harcourt Manning, Secret Service head John Virgil McDonnell, his super-agent Mark Halifax, and four-star General Franklin Roland Leigh who commands the black-operations unit Thunder Top with Major Harold Fritts. As Lewis digs deeper, he must navigate between powerful forces while a mysterious figure operates from the shadows. The fate of global order hangs in the balance as competing factions battle over a plan that could reshape the Middle East forever.
Genres: adventure, suspense, action, espionage, political-thriller
Vibes: fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Tel Arad, Middle East
Period: 21st-century
262 pages · Paperback · CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform