In the real world, “espionage is not a tuxedo and a martini,” quipped prolific author Jeffrey S. Stephens, who has written extensively about missions involving CIA operatives and national security.
“They work in the shadows. They’re in danger,” he added. “There’s so much that goes on that we don’t know about — so many near misses that we can never hear about for obvious security reasons.”
His latest book, The Handler, pays homage to those who “work in the shadows” to protect the people of the United States with a chillingly realistic plot centered on the revival of Al Qaeda and its efforts to pull off a large act of terrorism.
The book features Nick Reagan, an abundantly confident CIA operative and American hero who will go to any length to protect the country he loves. And in The Handler, Reagan and his team travel to the ends of the earth to locate an anonymous terrorist determined to unleash a series of unholy attacks on America. Can their mission succeed when they don’t even know who they’re looking for?
Readers first meet Reagan as he traces a trail of clues to China in search of the Ghost Chip — a new technology that turns cell phones into detonators and renders them untraceable. In the hands of terrorists, the Ghost Chip would be catastrophic.
When the CIA uncovers details of a violent assault planned in New York City, Reagan and his partner, Carol Gellos, are assigned to prevent it — facing long odds and danger along the way.
As events unfold, it becomes apparent the incident in Manhattan was only the first in a series of intended terrorist strikes within the United States. Even worse, Reagan discovers that the man behind this onslaught is further along in his preparations than anyone in the intelligence community anticipated.
The anonymous ISIS handler behind these assaults is using new technology, as well as information gathered from three American scientists kidnapped in Pakistan, to coordinate his plans. The result will be a gruesome fate for thousands of innocent people … unless Reagan can stop him.
After deciphering the code being used by the Handler to plot his bloody scheme, Reagan races against time, needing help as never before from his group of talented associates, including his lover, top CIA analyst Erin David.
Throughout The Handler, the author toggles between perspectives, giving readers a chilling look inside the minds of Islamic terrorists hellbent on carrying out heinous acts in the name of the Koran, while simultaneously, Reagan risks his life to thwart the awful carnage.
BestThrillers.com calls The Handler, “A taut terrorism thriller that mesmerizes with a dizzying global conspiracy and believable stakes,” and The Real Book Spy calls it, “Jason Bourne for the new millennium.”
About the Author
A native of New York City, Jeffrey S. Stephens is a successful attorney in private practice, admitted in both New York and Connecticut. Stephens has lived for more than 30 years in Greenwich, which is where he and his wife, Nancy, raised their two sons, Graham and Trevor. Stephens is the author of the Jordan Sandor thrillers, Targets Of Deception, Targets Of Opportunity, Targets Of Revenge and Rogue Mission, as well as the Anthony Walker murder mystery Crimes And Passion and the Pencraft First Place Award winning novel, Fool’s Errand.
For more information, please visit www.jeffreystephens.com, or follow the author on Facebook (Author Jeffrey Stephens), Instagram (jss50) and Twitter (@j_stephensbooks).
Vengeance Can Be Deadly — Is This the End of Warren Steelgrave?
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When retired writer Warren Steelgrave finds two officers from the Carabinieri waiting for him outside his home in the tiny village of Muriaglio, Italy, he knows it’s something serious. When he learns that a dear friend and former lover has been murdered — and he was the last one to see her alive — he knows just how serious it is.
In Vengeance Can Be Deadly, book five of the Warren Steelgrave series from author Gary E. Smith, Warren has settled into a comfortable life in Muriaglio when he suddenly finds himself a prime suspect in a murder investigation.
Warren cared deeply for the victim, and he swears to avenge her death and clear his name. He slowly untangles a web of deceit, which is at first benign but then grows malignant with greed and evil. Professional criminals get involved, along with international spies and mafia accomplices. Warren’s sworn vengeance and “willingness” to find justice have put him and his loved ones in grave danger.
In Vengeance Can Be Deadly, readers will travel with Warren down the dark alleyways of intrigue through Italy and the United States. Warren is warned: Vengeance can be deadly. Will there be justice and light at the end of this literary journey, or will the last chapter be Warren’s obituary?
About the Author Gary E. Smith was born in 1948 in Hayward, California, and balances life between travel and a love of the arts. After high school, Smith joined the Naval Air Reserve and entered the electrical construction trade. He started his own electrical construction company in 1978. This became a large company and worked industrial jobs throughout the country until Smith’s retirement in 2011 when he began writing.
To learn more, please visit: www.garysmithauthor.com, or follow the author on Twitter (@g_smithauthor) or Facebook (The Willing by Gary Smith).
Vengeance Can Be Deadly Publisher: Gatekeepers Press ISBN-10: 1662904401 ISBN-13: 978-1662904400 Available from all major booksellers and www.garysmithauthor.com
Trish Stevens Helen Cook Senior Publicist Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 281.333.3507 Office 903.654.0938 Direct [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com
Son Gets Second Chance to Know His Father in Compelling Family Story, Fool’s Errand
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If you could spend one day with anyone at all — past or present — who would it be? For those who’ve lost a parent, the answer is obvious. This popular, introspective ice-breaker was the inspiration for Fool’s Errand, a clever blend of humor, mystery and complex family dynamics from award-winning author Jeffrey Stephens.
In it, a straight-arrow son uncovers an enigmatic letter left behind by his father, who passed away six years ago. In life, his father, “Blackie” Rinaldi, was a charming rogue with ties to the mob, and the younger Rinaldi has been doing all he can to avoid the pitfalls of his father’s chosen path. The letter hints at a cache of stolen money, but at its core, it represents an opportunity worth more than any treasure: a second chance for Blackie’s son to journey through the past, reconcile it with the present and finally get to know who his father really was.
Blackie’s son embarks on an international quest, following a series of clues from his father’s letter. He travels from the mean streets of New York to the Las Vegas Strip, and ultimately to the South of France. Along the way, he is confronted by dangerous mobsters, dishonest relatives, suspicious friends, a mysterious woman, and the risks of a journey his father may or may not have planned for him.
With surprising twists and relatable characters, Fool’s Errand offers a masterful balance of humor and heart, adventure and romance. Ultimately, it’s an entertaining, fast-paced story of family ties and a parent’s never-ending influence that will keep readers guessing as each new secret is revealed.
Author Jeffrey S. Stephens lives in Greenwich, Connecticut. He is also the author of the Jordan Sandor espionage thrillers, beginning with Targets of Deception and, most recently, Rogue Mission. He is also the author of the recent thriller, Crimes and Passion, the first in a planned series featuring Lieutenant Robbie Whyte.
Trish Stevens Teresa Hinojosa Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 832.569.5773 Direct 281.333.3507 Phone [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com
(This press release may be reprinted in part or entirety by any print or broadcast media outlet, or used by any means of social media sharing)
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Fact-Filled Children’s Book Tells Adventurous Tale Of Playful Puffin
Playful little puffin Árni is about to leave his burrow for a four-year adventure at sea. But Árni doesn’t want to go—at least not today. He wants one more day to play with his best friend Birta, but she is nowhere to be found. While Árni searches Iceland for Birta, his mother and father are searching for him. Little pufflings shouldn’t be wandering about all alone!
Puffins Take Flight is the entertaining and educational first installment in RA Anderson’s Iceland: The Puffin Explorers Series. Aimed at children ages pre-K through 2nd grade, Puffins Take Flight introduces readers to puffins and their breathtaking surroundings in Iceland. Fun facts are sprinkled throughout the book and include interesting tidbits about Iceland, puffins and a mention of Icelandic sheep.
Will Árni find Birta and will Árni’s parents find him before it’s too late? Come along on Árni’s big adventure to find out! Illustrated with actual photographs taken during the author’s exploration of Iceland, this eye-catching picture book is sure to entertain readers of all ages.
Watch for future adventures with Árni and Birta in the upcoming Puffins off the Beaten Path and Puffins Encounter Fire & Ice.
Author RA Anderson is a wanderer who has lived all over, from California to Belize, and currently, home is a town called Rome, in Georgia that is!
A lifelong passion for creative writing and photography became her life. Her award-winning photographs have been featured in table books, magazines and front-page news, and her writing has been published in magazines, poetry books and children’s books. Her If Pets Could Talk series includes Cats, Dogs, Farm Animals and A Service Dog. Iceland, The Puffin Explorers Series is her newest children’s series. Coming soon is her YA fiction release, Girl Sailing, the Western Star.
Three boys—her heart and soul—call her Mom. She and her husband are recent empty-nesters, leaving them more time to travel.
For more information, please visit ra-anderson.com, or connect with her on social media at https://www.facebook.com/raAndersonAuthor/; @aruthanne Instagram; @ra_anderson_author Instagram; or @aruthanne Twitter.
Puffins Take Flight
Publisher: My Favorite Books Publishing Company, LLC
Release Date: November 20, 2019
ISBN-10: 1950590062
ISBN-13: 978-1950590063
Available from Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com
Trish Stevens Liz Chase Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone
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A Life Packed With Experiences Leads Texas Author To Pen Adroit Supernatural Thriller
Start with one artist experimenting with her craft, add one dead serial killer and a pinch of the supernatural and you’ve cooked up one tense thriller. In A Brush With Death, the first of a series, Jody Summers masterfully blends the supernatural and the romantic to achieve a highly satisfying read.
New Orleans painter Kira McGovern hits on something when she mixes her mother’s ashes into her oil paints and enters an altered state. She begins channeling some key moments in her mother’s life, creating a stunning work of art as a memorial and drawing in customers who want a painting done using the same method. Pleased with her success, she launches Canvas of Life and commissions start rolling in. And when it couldn’t get any better, she meets Sean; a handsome mid-western rancher, who harbors a gruesome secret of which he is unaware.
But with each brushstroke on her latest commission, Kira’s reality is becoming more and more bizarre. She awakens from dreams that are soaked in blood and filled with gruesome images of murders. And the feeling of a lurking malevolence grows ever stronger.
Unconventional is the word to describe the life author Jody Summers led before turning to writing. The adopted son of a prominent Texas restaurateur, Summers grew up in New Orleans, Memphis and Houston, learning the restaurant business while he built a career as a competitive gymnast that propelled him to a scholarship at the University of Kansas. After college, Summers followed in his father’s footsteps, owning, at one point, three 24-hour restaurant franchises along with four tanning salons in Tulsa. He has used his entrepreneurial skills for everything from a patent in the pet industry to a single’s website. A restaurateur, a gymnast, a stunt man, an entrepreneur, a pilot, skydiver, scuba diver and an accomplished martial artist for 25 years, Summers has tried it all. Now he brings all those experiences to paper in his supernatural thriller series, Art of the Dead.
To learn more about Summers and A Brush With Death, please visit the following: www.jodysummersbooks.com.
A Brush With Death Release Date: September 2, 2019 Publisher: JS Books Publishing ISBN-10: 1733177507 ISBN-13: 978-1733177504 Available from Amazon.com,
Trish Stevens Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 281.333.3507 Main/Office 832.334.2733 Cell [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com
(This press release may be reprinted in part or entirety by any print or broadcast media outlet, or used by any means of social sharing)
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Apocalypse Survivors Groomed For Life At The Edge Of The Solar System
For those who’ve ever tried to imagine a post-apocalyptic Earth, Dr. Donald Hricik has come up with some interesting scenarios of his own in Our Great Escape; Part 1: Dumbers. The year is 2360. Survivors are being groomed for a new life on one of Jupiter’s moons after having been kept alive for centuries on mind-altering drugs.
Here’s the twist. The man picked to head the exodus to the edge of the solar system, a doctor, discovers that these survivors are losing their memories and emotions and even dying in large numbers — the results of a flaw in the drug’s design. The author grapples with larger themes of surviving a man-made planetary catastrophe as well as whether or not life is even worth it if it must be lived on mind-altering drugs that come at great cost. First in a two-part series, Dr. Hricik admits he wrote Our Great Escape while undergoing seismic shifts in his own life.
“I wrote it while I was dealing with my wife’s illness and death from severe dementia,” said Dr. Hricik. “That’s why you see themes of memory loss, dementia and death percolating throughout.”
Born in Ohio, Dr. Hricik is currently Emeritus Professor of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University and served as the Chief of Nephrology and Hypertension at University Hospital’s Cleveland Medical Center from 1993 to 2017. His research interests have focused on complications of immunosuppression and immune monitoring of kidney transplant recipients. He has published more than 180 articles and books, and 35 book chapters. When he’s not writing, he enjoys painting and fishing.
To read more about Dr. Hricik, please visit: https://dhricik.wixsite.com/website-1.
Our Great Escape; Part 1: Dumbers
Kindle Direct Publishing
Released: 2018
ISBN-10: 1981016287
ISBN-13: 978-1981016280
Available from Amazon.com
Trish Stevens
Ascot Media Group
Post Office Box 2394
Friendswood, TX 77549
281.333.3507 Phone
832.569.5539 Fax [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com
The Rise of Esperanto: The Fate Of Mankind Rests On One Man’s Enlight-enment
New York, NY. In the year 2361, the world’s political structure teeters on the edge of disaster as tensions intensify between countries and continents. Vespacia’s military and business communities join forces, plotting to gain control of Esperanto in the face of its astonishing growth. Despite continued insistence to the contrary, world domination seems to be Vespacia’s ultimate goal.
Such is the world imagined by author Eliade Moldovan in The Rise of Esperanto, a thrilling work that dives deep into the cultural conflicts of futuristic, dystopian societies.
Amid the turmoil is Ovi, a simple and open-minded priest who opposes the escalating violence. Struggling with the meaning and evolution of understanding God and His means, Ovi finds himself at the head of a new religious faction, one that disagrees with hard-core believers in the Old Testament’s teachings. With his newfound status as leader of this prominent religious faction, Ovi is in a unique position to prevent the Vespacians from achieving world domination, even as he further questions the existence of God.
As the conflict between Vespacia and Esperanto spreads and becomes increasingly violent, Ovi works to find a lasting resolution, but will it come too late? In the midst of the madness of the widening war between Esperanto and Vespacia, the world’s fate lies in the hands of one very ordinary man and a benevolent alien god.
Born in Romania, author Eliade Moldovan and his wife enjoy vacations and have traveled around the world, exploring nature and undertaking the occasional adventurous trips. Moldovan is also the author of The World Ends Tomorrow.
