Second Strike

January 29, 2018
In Kirsanow’s 2017 debut, Target Omega, Mike Garin, the head of Omega team, which is “comprised of eight tier-one special operators trained to interdict and destroy rogue WMD programs,” earned the nation’s gratitude for preventing an electromagnetic pulse attack against the U.S. by Iran. In this exciting sequel, Garin must again contend with Russian assassin Taras Bor, who’s every bit Garin’s equal but with a much more pronounced mean streak. Bor has trained his own squad of terrorists, who plan to create an array of mayhem-generating diversions around Washington, D.C., to distract America’s leaders long enough for the Russians to retake Eastern Europe and part of the Middle East. Readers comfortable with the genre’s standard conventions—hyperpatriotism, acts of inhuman endurance, a cast of sidekicks to fill all the necessary roles—will be satisfied with the usual plot mechanics. While Garin is cast from an off-the-shelf mold, Kirsanow uses all the other characters adroitly and rarely misses an opportunity to maximize suspense. Agent: Scott Miller, Trident Media.

April 1, 2018
The former leader of an off-the-books elite special operations team comes across a planned Russian attack against the U.S.In his second novel, Kirsanow (Target Omega, 2017) returns with a political thriller centered on the premise of ongoing geopolitical tension between Russia and America. Kirsanow's serial character, former special operations leader Michael Garin, returns with his unique and finely tuned skill set to defend America. Living in anonymity and fresh from competing in an extreme competition called the Crucible (which includes a marathon and sprints, swimming, weightlifting, and mixed martial arts), Garin finds a well-trained hit team waiting outside his hotel-room door and quickly dispatches them. With his sharply cultivated survival instincts piqued, Garin speculates that his old rival, the dangerous Russian assassin Taras Bor, may be back and killing indiscriminately inside the U.S. While Garin reaches out to friends Congo Knox, a former Delta sniper, and Dan Dwyer, the owner of a military contracting firm, Olivia Perry, another trusted ally and aide to the national security adviser and a woman with whom Garin shares a palpable romantic tension, is alerted to unusual movement at a Russian industrial facility. This could point to an emerging electromagnetic pulse attack. As the tension builds, Garin and his close group of capable professionals must work together against a high-ranking intelligence officer who sits at the right hand of the Russian president.A riveting political thriller short on narrative embellishments and high on frontline action heroes defending plausible threats from outside and inside the U.S.

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May 1, 2018
Kirsanow's follow-up to Target Omega (2017) is equally intense and compelling. Michael Garin was formerly in charge of special-ops unit Omega, which discreetly eliminated terrorists who had managed to get their hands on weapons of mass destruction. Even with the team defunct, Garin was still able to stop a deadly EMP (electromagnetic pulse) attack against the U.S. He thinks he can rest now, but a backup plan (the second strike ) established by the Russians has the potential to create even more chaos. Garin grabs people he can trust and, without any help from his former bosses, tries to save the day again. Toss in a ruthless assassin, as well as another agent working for the killer who knows Garin and how he operates, and the end result is a high-octane thriller hard to resist. Both the villains and the entire plot are truly diabolical. Give this to any military-thriller fan.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)