Any John Gilstrap novel packs the punch of a rocket-propelled grenade --- on steroids! Gilstrap is the New York Times bestselling author of intense hostage rescue thrillers featuring Jonathan “Digger” Grave and Brian Van de Muelebrocke, who, gratefully, has the abbreviated moniker Boxers. From a military background, both had sworn to obey the orders of the President and protect the United States “against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

The vilified President Tony Darmond has been reelected, with the narrowest vote margin since the hanging chad election of 2000. “[T]he Darmond administration is the most dangerous group that’s ever sat in Washington.”

"Gilstrap grabs the reader’s attention in a literary vice grip. Each installment of the Jonathan Grave series is a force majeure of covert incursions and a damn good read."

Dylan “Boomer” Nasbe, a former member of Jonathan’s elite Middle-East Unit, has gone rogue, reportedly killing three government alphabet-acronym operatives. Coincidentally, a congressional representative is assassinated, and a senator stares into the barrel of a sawed-off shotgun. Thickening the mix is a group of anarchists called Patriots Army, a militia that intends to topple the Darmond administration and “eliminate the structural barriers that kept voters from having the voice they earned.” Even “The National Command Authority is planning a coup.”

Venice Alexander “(It’s pronounced Ven-EE-chay, by the way, and if you don’t have time for a long lecture, you’d best not get it wrong a second time)” is Jonathan’s computer hacker-in-chief --- also known as Mother Hen --- for Black Ops radio communications. Venice commands the command center at Jonathan’s compound. She manipulates satellites to provide real-time imaging for her brood, as they invade a West Virginia burg of triple-digit population where Patriots Army is ensconced.

This novel begins in Afghanistan, where Nasbe witnesses a young informant tortured to death. Jonathan learns that his friend is dead meat, unless he’s brought back to the States. How, then, does Nasbe wind up on Jonathan’s Black Ops team, along with Boxers and Jolaine (covert name “She Devil”), to invade Patriots Army? Those ragtag militia members “weren’t even soldiers. They were amateurs with guns and delusions.”

Tentacles of intrigue reach into FBI headquarters and military hierarchy. Lines are crossed and new ones drawn. The philosophy of killing to preserve life takes on new meaning, especially when a “bullet literally separated the kid’s head from his shoulders, in a massive pink spray of bone and brains.” But “Jonathan had spent a lifetime keeping the emotional doors of his mind closed. Hermetically sealed.” How many saw Nazis for what they were and didn’t end the horror before it began?

Following END GAME, Gilstrap grabs the reader’s attention in a literary vice grip. Each installment of the Jonathan Grave series is a force majeure of covert incursions and a damn good read. Gilstrap is the upcoming Celebrity Author and Person of Renown at the Florida Writers Conference.