Wow! It's hard to find the words to adequately describe Joel Rosenberg's latest thriller. J.B. Collins is back and the bad guys are still after him. The fact that Joel lives in the Middle East adds authenticity to his writing. The setting is described in such a way that you can imagine yourself there with J.B. and company. At times my heart was pounding with fear for the folks in the book. There is a depth to the characters that only comes from being a master storyteller. I expected to read a disclaimer at the end of the book stating that the names have been changed to protect the innocent. Do yourself a favor and don't start this book until you have time to settle in for the great adventure.
From Amazon:
As he prepares to deliver the State of the Union address, the president of the United States is convinced the Islamic State is on the run, about to be crushed by American forces once and for all. But New York Times foreign correspondent J. B. Collins tells the president he’s dead wrong. With the Middle East on fire, the Israeli prime minister dead, and Amman in ruins, Collins fears a catastrophic attack inside the American homeland is imminent. He argues that only an all-out manhunt to capture or kill Abu Kahlif―the leader of ISIS―can stop the attack and save American lives. But will the president listen and take decisive action before it’s too late?
About Joel Rosenberg:
Joel C. Rosenberg (www.joelrosenberg.com) is a New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of eleven novels and five nonfiction books, with more than 3 million copies sold.
His books have been read and enjoyed by a wide range of U.S. and foreign leaders, including former CIA Director Porter Goss, former Delta Force Commander Lt. General (Ret.) Jerry Boykin, Sen. Marco Rubio, former Sen. Rick Santorum, Jordan’s King Abdullah II, former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, former Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Natan Sharansky, and former Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon.
Joel has been interviewed on hundreds of radio and TV shows, including ABC’s Nightline, CNN, CNN Headline News, C-SPAN, Fox News, MSNBC, The History Channel, the Rush Limbaugh Show, the Sean Hannity Show, and the Glenn Beck Show. His articles and columns have been published by National Review, FoxNews.com, CNN.com, the Jerusalem Post, World magazine, and the Washington Times, among others. He has been profiled by the New York Times, the Washington Times, and the Jerusalem Post.
Joel has spoken to audiences all across the U.S. and Canada and around the world, including Israel, Iraq, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Russia, Germany, France, Belgium, Italy, India, South Korea, and the Philippines. He has also addressed audiences at the White House and the Pentagon, members of Congress on Capitol Hill, members of the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa, and spoken at a conference held at the European Union Parliament in Brussels.
He is the founder and chairman of The Joshua Fund (www.joshuafund.com), a nonprofit educational and charitable organization he and his wife launched in 2006 to mobilize Christians to “bless Israel and her neighbors in the name of Jesus, according to Genesis 12:1-3.”
Joel’s books, most of which are published in numerous languages, include
1. The Last Jihad (2002)
2. The Last Days (2003)
3. The Ezekiel Option (2005)
4. The Copper Scroll (2006)
5. Epicenter: Why the Current Rumblings in the Middle East Will Change Your Future (2006, nonfiction; an updated version, Epicenter 2.0, was released in paperback in 2008)
6. Dead Heat (2008)
7. Inside the Revolution: How the Followers of Jihad, Jefferson & Jesus Are Battling to Dominate the Middle East and Transform the World (2009, nonfiction)
8. The Twelfth Imam (2010)
9. The Tehran Initiative (2011)
10. Implosion: Can America Recover from Its Economic and Spiritual Challenges in Time? (2012, nonfiction)
11. Israel at War: Inside the Nuclear Showdown with Iran (2012, nonfiction e-book)
12. The Invested Life: Making Disciples of All Nations One Person at a Time, written with Dr. T. E. Koshy (2012, nonfiction)
13. Damascus Countdown (2013)
14. The Auschwitz Escape (2014)
15. The Third Target (January 6, 2015)
16. The First Hostage (December 29, 2015)
He has produced two documentary films based on two of his nonfiction books, Epicenter and Inside the Revolution.
Several of his books have won national awards.
• The Ezekiel Option was named by the ECPA as the Gold Medallion Award winner for the “Best Novel of 2006.”
• He is a five-time winner of the Retailers Choice Award for best books of the year in fiction and nonfiction categories. These awards, presented annually by Christian Retailing magazine, are based on the voting of people working in the Christian publishing and music industries.
• In 2007, Epicenter won in the Christian Living category.
• In 2009, Dead Heat won in the Fiction: Mystery & Suspense category.
• In 2010, Inside the Revolution won in the Social Issues category.
• In 2011, The Twelfth Imam won in the Fiction: Mystery & Suspense category.
• In 2012, The Tehran Initiative won in the Fiction: Mystery & Suspense category.
• The Auschwitz Escape was a finalist in the 2014 Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Historical Fiction, finishing in fourth place out of twenty-one contenders.
Several of his books have reached the top or near the top of national bestseller lists.
• The Last Jihad hit #1 on the Amazon.com bestseller list.
• Dead Heat reached #4 on the New York Times hardcover fiction bestseller list.
• The Third Target hit #4 on the Publishers Weekly hardcover fiction bestseller list and spent two months as the #1 bestselling work of fiction in the Christian market in North America.
• The First Hostage was also the #1 bestselling work of fiction in the Christian market in North America.
Before becoming an author, Joel worked as an aide to U.S. and Israeli business and political leaders, including Steve Forbes, Rush Limbaugh, former Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Natan Sharansky, and then-former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He also worked for the Heritage Foundation, Empower America, and Americans For Hope, Growth & Opportunity.
Joel was born in Syracuse, New York. His father is a first-generation American from a Jewish background whose parents and grandparents emigrated from Russia and settled in Brooklyn, New York. His mother, a Gentile, was raised in Rome, New York. When Joel was two, his parents moved to a community just outside of Rochester, New York. He grew up in the small town of Fairport and graduated from Fairport High School. He attended Syracuse University—spending one semester of his junior year studying at Tel Aviv University—and graduated from Syracuse with a BFA in film drama.
Joel married his college sweetheart, Lynn, in June of 1990. Together, they made their home in the Washington, D.C., area for twenty-four years. In 2014, they and their four sons—Caleb, Jacob, Jonah, and Noah—made aliyah and now live in Israel as dual U.S.–Israeli citizens.
• For more information on conferences Joel organizes, please visit www.epicenterconference.com.
• You can find his weblog at https://flashtrafficblog.wordpress.com/.
• You can sign up for his “Flash Traffic” e-mail updates at http://www.joelrosenberg.com/flashtraffic_form.asp.
• You can follow him on Twitter @joelcrosenberg and Facebook (facebook.com/JoelCRosenberg).
