SECOND STRIKE

The former leader of an off-the-books elite special operations team comes across a planned Russian attack against the U.S.

In his second novel, Kirsanow (Target Omega, 2017) returns with a political thriller centered on the premise of ongoing geopolitical tension between Russia and America. Kirsanow’s serial character, former special operations leader Michael Garin, returns with his unique and finely tuned skill set to defend America. Living in anonymity and fresh from competing in an extreme competition called the Crucible (which includes a marathon and sprints, swimming, weightlifting, and mixed martial arts), Garin finds a well-trained hit team waiting outside his hotel-room door and quickly dispatches them. With his sharply cultivated survival instincts piqued, Garin speculates that his old rival, the dangerous Russian assassin Taras Bor, may be back and killing indiscriminately inside the U.S. While Garin reaches out to friends Congo Knox, a former Delta sniper, and Dan Dwyer, the owner of a military contracting firm, Olivia Perry, another trusted ally and aide to the national security adviser and a woman with whom Garin shares a palpable romantic tension, is alerted to unusual movement at a Russian industrial facility. This could point to an emerging electromagnetic pulse attack. As the tension builds, Garin and his close group of capable professionals must work together against a high-ranking intelligence officer who sits at the right hand of the Russian president.

A riveting political thriller short on narrative embellishments and high on frontline action heroes defending plausible threats from outside and inside the U.S.