Thriller Spotlight with Joel C. Rosenberg

If there’s one thing I want readers to know about Marcus Ryker, it’s that he will always strive to make the right choice in any given situation. No matter the stakes or personal risk, he is determined to pursue the course of good against evil. But what if he’s wrong? What if he makes a catastrophic mistake?

I know it’s been a long, long wait—but the fifth installment in the Marcus Ryker thriller series, The Libyan Diversion, is finally in bookstores and online in hardcover, e-book, and audio formats.

Last time, in The Beirut Protocol, Ryker and two of his colleagues were captured in a brutal firefight on Israel’s border with Lebanon, pulled into an unknown terror tunnel, and dragged deep behind enemy lines by radical Islamist jihadists ready to kill them all—or send them to Iran to be tortured and killed even more brutally. Suddenly, all of Ryker’s best skills and assets were knocked out. How would he handle it?

Now, I’ve put Ryker in another excruciating situation. He’s been relentlessly hunting for Abu Nakba, the most dangerous terrorist on the planet. And now he’s sure that he’s found the Kairos leader. So, based on what he’s certain is highly reliable intelligence, Ryker urges the president to order an airstrike. And then everything seems to go sideways. A media and political firestorm erupts, accusing Ryker of making an epic mistake, saying that innocent lives have been lost, and soon some of his closest friends and allies are turning against him.

Flanked by his security detail, the CIA director [Richard Stephens] stormed into the West Wing.

 

[U.S. National Security Advisor Bill] McDermott met him and ushered him into the Oval Office.

 

“What the hell is going on, Richard?” [President Andrew] Clarke raged, on his feet and pacing as he watched the video now being replayed over and over on every American cable network with split-screen coverage of the U.N. secretary-general calling for an emergency session of the Security Council. “This is a disaster. I want answers and I want them now.”

 

“Mr. President, this is all Ryker’s doing,” Stephens replied. “He’s out of his depth. He pushed this thing too far, too fast, based on circumstantial evidence. And now you’re about to reap the whirlwind.”

 

McDermott saw Clarke wincing in pain and rubbing his temples. The president clearly had no interest in Stephens’s I-told-you-so’s. Yet the CIA director kept pushing hard for Ryker to be fired.

 

“Don’t waste my time talking about ancient history,” Clarke exploded. “I want to know what we’re going to do about it.”

 

“There’s nothing you can do going forward, Mr. President,” Stephens shot back. “Not unless you show the country and the world that you’re as outraged as they are and willing to take decisive steps to make sure this will never happen again.”

 

“I’m not ready to fire Ryker.”

 

“You have no choice.”

 

(Rosenberg, Joel C. 2023. The Libyan Diversion: 111-112. Tyndale House Publishers.)

In The Libyan Diversion, Ryker finds himself battling three enemies: his government, his guilt, and his personal doubts. Meanwhile, Abu Nakba is doing what he does best. Having created a diabolical diversion, he and his terror group, Kairos, are preparing to execute an attack on American soil the likes of which have not been seen for nearly a quarter century. And working overtime to sideline Ryker and keep the White House and CIA in the dark before the worst mass casualty event in American history can come to pass.

I am jazzed that this fifth book in the Marcus Ryker series has finally been released just this week. And I can’t wait to see what you guys think. I’ve done my best to create more twists and turns, adrenaline boosts, and political intrigue than in any previous Ryker book. And you’ll find it’s not just Ryker and his team that are in the most incredible danger ever, but Ryker’s family and Annie Stewart, too. More than ever, it becomes clear that Ryker is no superman. But can he at least become Houdini?

Discover for yourself as you read The Libyan Diversion. Available now!