Political Thriller
Date Published: August 13, 2026
Run Time: 10 hours 17 minutes
U.S. Senator Rick Taylor has been warning anyone who'll listen: the national debt is no longer a spreadsheet problem-it's a ticking bomb. But in Washington, truth is toxic. Colleagues dismiss him, constituents scream about "cuts to my benefits," and the media paints him as the villain who wants to gut Social Security.
Then the blackmail begins.
A shadowy network led by a ruthless operator making huge profits from unchecked government spending will stop at nothing to silence anyone who threatens the status quo. After Taylor's wife is targeted in a terrifying swatting attack and a sniper's bullet nearly ends Taylor's life, the message is clear. Shut up... or die.
What is the hardest part of writing your
books?
My challenge is threading the needle between a timely issue and a
page-turning story.
I start with something readers have already seen in a
headline—something that’s just starting to feel like a real problem. Then I
have to build a thriller around people whose lives are actually on the line.
The issue has to stay in the background far enough that it never becomes a
textbook, but close enough that the reader walks away knowing a little more
than they did when they opened the book. With Debt Reckoning, that meant
letting ordinary households feel the weight of the national debt without turning
the novel into an economics class.
If the reader feels more connected to the characters than the issue,
I’ve done my job.
What are your most played songs?
I actually wrote a song for my last book, A Higher Betrayal.
The main character, Rick Taylor, is a political novice running for office. I
wrote him as a conservative without ever naming a party, so I built lyrics that
pulled from the mood of the conservative movement in 2023 and 2024. In the
story, Taylor’s wife—a musician—offers the song, and it becomes part of the
campaign.
When we recorded the audiobook, my narrator, Dannul Daily, asked if
the song had a melody because he wanted to sing it. I sketched a simple tune
and sent it over. I believe his brother played guitar, and Dannul performed it
in a woman’s voice.
The song only exists in the book, so I can’t claim it’s on anybody’s
most-played list. But it was one of the more unexpected things I’ve written.
Do you have critique partners or beta
readers?
My good friend and golfing buddy Chuck is my first reader. He lives a
thousand miles away, so I send him a few chapters at a time. He flags anything
that doesn’t land or needs clarifying, and he does a light copy-edit so the
manuscript is cleaner when it reaches my editor, Carrie Cannella. I’m sure she
appreciates the head start.
I also ask for volunteers from my newsletter list to serve as beta
readers. Their notes help me see how the story plays with people who aren’t
already inside my head.
What book are you reading now?
I just finished Theo of Golden by Allen Levi. It’s not the kind
of book I usually pick up, but my wife insisted I’d like it. She was right.
In a season where there is so much division and animosity, it was a
pleasure to read something built around kindness and moral goodness. I also
like reading an author’s first novel. Levi wrote this later in life and
self-published it before it found a much bigger audience. That’s encouraging
for every author still trying to get the next book right.
How did you start your writing career?
The first time I thought about writing a book was during the contested
election of 2000. I watched the Florida recount stretch into December and the
Supreme Court get involved. I was already an avid reader of Tom Clancy and
writers like him, and it struck me that a manipulated national election would
make a strong thriller.
I carried that idea for twenty years. When I was getting ready to
retire from business, I pulled it back out. In the spring of that year I still
wondered whether readers would connect with a story about an election that
could be compromised. After 2020, that question answered itself. I sat down,
learned what I needed about cybersecurity and the systems that actually run
elections, and started writing.
That book became Wayward Patriot: Preserving the Vote. The rest
of the series grew from the same habit: take a headline people already
recognize and put ordinary people in the middle of it.
Tell us about your next release.
The book I’m working on now is set in a world where AI and humanoid
robots are simply part of daily life—which is closer than most people think.
I’ve taken a secondary character from earlier books, FBI Special Agent
Betty Finnigan, and put her where she can see the problems developing from
several angles. As always, the question I start with is: AI and humanoid
robots… what could go wrong?
I hope to release it in the spring of 2027. I need to keep moving. On
this subject, the headlines can pass you by if you wait too long.
Jack was introduced to thrillers when Tom Clancy's The Hunt for Red October was published. However, for most of his life, he was a reader rather than an author. During the 2000 Presidential election as he watched TV coverage of the Florida recount with 'dimpled chads' and 'hanging chads,' he thought an election conspiracy would be a great basis for a thriller. It wasn't until 2020 when he retired from his career, which included management positions in corporate America and small business ownership as well as a brief stint in ministry, that he sat down to write Wayward Patriot: Preserving the Vote.
His unique approach to political thrillers rips headlines from the news and weaves them through a thrilling tale of patriotism, political corruption and crisis. He says, "when I see some major new issue or technology in the news I want to learn more about it. I enjoy sharing what I learn with others by wrapping a story around it that will engage and entertain readers."
He and his wife, Barbara, have three grown children and seven grandchildren and divide their time between Colorado Springs and Tucson.
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