The Chosen One

September 30, 2019
Gragg follows his well-received debut, The Red Line, about a near-future war in Europe, with an uneven military action thriller that pits the U.S. and its allies against a massive Pan-Arab coalition led by Algerian cleric Muhammad Mourad (aka the Chosen One). As in the previous book, the focus is on various individuals as they fight their way through a brutal, all-consuming war. Marine 1st Lt. Samuel Erickson leads a platoon a hundred miles behind enemy lines in the North African desert. Lt. Cmdr. Bradley “Blackjack” Mitchell, a pilot who flies missions from a carrier off the Egyptian coast, more than once rescues Erickson and his men as they battle their way to Cairo. While the weapons are cutting-edge, the political background solid, and the military tactics on point, readers should be prepared for overwrought prose. When one of Erickson’s men is wounded, “The precious streams of life-sustaining liquid that dropped into the pitiful ground went on without pause. His distorted mind screamed from the unending angst.” Some fans of The Red Line may struggle to get through this one. Agent: Liza Fleissig, Liza Royce Agency.

October 15, 2019
Military-fiction fans will be all over Gragg's latest, in which a leader has emerged in the Middle East named the Mahdi, or the Chosen One. He has a devout group of fundamentalist followers who will obey his every command, and his rage has led these true believers into seizing territory in both Saudi Arabia and Egypt. A strike force led by mostly American troops has launched a bold plan to stop the fighting, but it is not without risk. In particular, marine lieutenant Sam Erickson faces a difficult choice that could determine the fate of the campaign. Too often, these battle-centered thrillers sacrifice character building to focus on tactics or pure action. Fortunately, Gragg carefully straddles the line between action and character, supplying stellar action sequences while also creating a cast of soldiers that readers will truly care about. Fans of early Tom Clancy should add Gragg to their mandatory-reading lists.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)