Warning Order

April 11, 2016
Hood’s rousing sequel to 2015’s Clear by Fire pits disgraced Special Forces operative Mason Kane against Abu al Qatar, the CIA’s only asset in Syria, who (unbeknownst to his CIA handlers) has sworn to destroy America to avenge his brother’s death. When a Special Forces friend of Mason’s, Mick Boland, walks into a fatal trap in Syria, Mason assembles his trusted team—including sniper Grinch, medic Blaine, and soldier Renee, Mason’s girlfriend—for an unauthorized mission to Syria to take out Mick’s killers. Meanwhile, high-level U.S. government officials manipulate the military, and Mason and his crew in particular, for reasons of misplaced patriotism. Hood leans heavily on melodrama and clichéd prose (“Cage’s jaw muscles rippled as he absorbed the warning”), but he writes terrific battle scenes. Fans of military action thrillers will relish the climactic final battle between Mason and company and their well-armed adversaries at an abandoned American air base in Mosul. Agent: Bob Diforio, D4EO Literary Agency.

May 1, 2016
Hood's follow-up to the excellent Clear by Fire (2015) continues the saga of Mason Kane, a disgraced soldier desperate to redeem himself with his colleagues and superiors. He makes a deal with the CIA and leads a black-ops mission that goes horribly wrong. The man he's supposed to protect lands in a trap, and when Kane raises an alert, he's told by his superiors to stand down. Chaos ensues. Kane and his colleagues are strong action characters, and readers who enjoy the world of special ops will appreciate Hood, whose combat background gives the authenticity needed for military thrillers. The action never stops, and familiarity with the first novel is not necessary.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)