Not every rescue mission begins with a gunshot. Sometimes it begins with a betrayal nobody has noticed yet. That is the tension Adrian Magson builds into Close Quarters, the second novel in his Lone Mercenary series. On the surface, the premise feels comfortably familiar: Marc Portman—the elusive operative known as the Watchman—is sent into eastern Ukraine to extract a captured CIA negotiator. It sounds like the kind of mission thriller readers have encountered countless ti

I opened The United Nations Conspiracy late at night with the casual confidence of someone who believes they control their reading habits. One chapter, maybe two, I told myself. Somewhere between the first disappearance and the first coded warning, I glanced at the clock. Ten minutes had passed. It felt like an hour. My cup of warm water went cold beside me, unnoticed, as New York City stopped being a setting and turned into a living countdown. This book doesn’t unfold gently