At thirty-three, Ryan Kealey has achieved more in his military and CIA career than most men can dream of in a lifetime. He’s also seen the worst life has to offer and is lucky to have survived it. But being left alone with his demons is no longer an option. The CIA needs him badly, because the enemy they’re facing is former U.S. soldier Jason March. Ryan knows all about March – he trained him. He knows they’re dealing with one of the most ruthless assassins in the world, a master of many languages, an explosives expert, a superb sharpshooter who can disappear like a shadow and who is capable of crimes they cannot begin to imagine. And now, March has resurfaced on the global stage, aligning himself with a powerful Middle East terror network whose goal is nothing less than the total destruction of the United States. Teaming up with beautiful and tenacious British-born agent Naomi Kharmai, Ryan intends to break every rule in order to hunt down his former pupil, whatever the cost to himself. As Ryan puts together the pieces of a terrifying puzzle, and as the elusive March taunts him, always staying one step ahead, he discovers the madman’s crusade is personal as well as political – and Ryan himself is an unwitting pawn. With the clock ticking down and the fate of the country resting uneasily on his shoulders, Ryan is caught in a desperate game of cat-and-mouse with the most cunning opponent he’s ever faced, one who will never stop until he’s committed the ultimate act of evil – a man who is all the more deadly for being one of our own.From Publishers WeeklyThe titular character of 24-year-old Britton's debut thriller is no patriot. Jason March, a blond al-Qaeda operative with a ferocious grudge against the U.S.A., kicks off an orgy of revenge by blowing up Senate Majority Leader Daniel Levy's motorcade, slaughtering the senator, his aide and assorted Secret Service personnel. Assigned to hunt down this killer is ex-CIA agent Ryan Kealey, March's former commanding officer when they were both Special Forces soldiers in the U.S. Army. While on a secret mission years before, March wounded Kealey and murdered everyone else on the team. Now, Langley sends the uniquely qualified Kealey—along with CIA counterterrorism expert Naomi Kharmai—after the unstoppable killing machine. Other than the mildly interesting March, there's little original material. The evil characters are numbingly familiar—al-Zarqawi and bin Laden loom large—and the usual Arab minions and murderers play out their predictable fictional roles. The writing never rises above the pedestrian: "The sands of the endless desert south of Kabul burned beneath the fiery orb above." Readers open to another formulaic Arab terrorist story may enjoy this one, but anyone looking for something new will find it ordinary and tedious. (Mar. 7) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistThis debut thriller by a 24-year-old author stars an unconventional CIA agent who must track down a renegade former comrade-in-arms. Ryan Kealey, the hero, is a tough, embittered ex-CIA agent; he is engaging enough but hardly original. Jason March, the former U.S. soldier now allied with terrorists, is appropriately villainous, but, again, we've seen his like before. And the story itself, while solidly structured, doesn't stray much from formula. Is it a bad book? Not at all: it's a well-told tale, and Britton shows a great deal of promise. If his next novel is more inventive than his first, that promise may be realized. David PittCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

In this riveting thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of The Exile, a bloodbath on home soil launches one man into a world-spanning hunt for answers-revealing implications for the United States that are too terrible to imagine-and too real to ignore . Finally settling into a peaceful life after more than a decade on the deadly front lines of the war on terror, Ryan Kealey believes he's put danger behind him-and some of his demons to rest. But his calm is shattered when he's swept into a highly organized and merciless terror attack during a charity gala in downtown Baltimore. Dozens are dead and critically injured, including the wife of CIA Deputy Director John Harper, whose investigation of the ambush is hampered by suspicious foot-dragging from the CIA and other agencies. With normal channels obstructed, Harper turns to Kealey, the one man with the resources, expertise-and freedom from government interference-to pursue the awful truth. Following a string of secrets and violence, Kealey blazes a trail from the confines of a federal Supermax facility to the remote edge of Eastern Europe, from the innermost chambers of government and big business to the dimmest reaches of the human psyche, forced to match wits with an old foe-and a new nemesis. Slowly, Kealey unspools an unimaginable conspiracy that suggests America may in fact be its own worst enemy. With page after page of unrelenting action and explosive revelations, The Operative blends political deception and global intrigue at their highest levels with covert psychological manipulations at their deepest and most devastating.

Ryan Kealey now knows he'll never really put the game behind him. He's seen too much, and the instinct is too deeply hardwired. But the game itself has changed. Between tense interagency "cooperation" that gums the works, and an overreliance on data-crunching and wiz-kid tech, today's US intelligence service has lost a step to its ever-bolder, viciously adaptable global enemies. And thanks to an incredible discovery in the Arctic, those enemies now have a nuke - capable of unleashing unthinkable terror. To hunt down the devastating package before it can be used, Kealey forms an unlikely partnership with the young Farsi-speaking nuclear physicist Rayhan Jafari. But once on the ground, with technology and their by-the-numbers command failing them, they're on their own - trusting only their guts and each other - to conduct the dirty business of combating horrific destruction.**

Andrew Britton delivers a taut, electrifying read in his new novel THE ASSASSIN. Maverick CIA agent Ryan Kealey must fight against his own agency while the clock is ticking on a devastating terrorist attack on U.S. soil. More than a year has passed since Ryan Kealey prevented the assassination of multiple world leaders in the nation's capital. While his work is brilliant, he's considered damaged goods. Now he's about to become a key player in a plot of unimaginable scale. For something big is about to go down in New York City. When a top Iranian source reveals that Iran is planning to bomb the United Nations, U.S. Intelligence begins counter-measures. Only Kealey sees it as a smokescreen for another, far more involved plot. But getting anyone to believe him isn't going to be easy. With only his ally, London's newest assistant chief, Naomi Kharmai, by his side, Ryan will have to operate outside the lines in order to prevent a terrible attack in a city on lockdown. A weapon of catastrophic power has been stolen from war-torn Iraq and has made its way to the U.S. The man who has it is Kealey's nemesis, William Vanderveen, an international criminal mastermind who has no objective other than pure terror and who will stop at nothing to achieve it. Making matters worse, Vanderveen's being helped by someone on the inside with high-ranking security clearance. Even the halls of the CIA are no longer safe from possible espionage and treason. Now, as Kealey and Kharmai race to put the pieces together, they will confront a ghost from the past and be forced to question the people they trust most in a desperate investigation where only this is for certain-time is running out. Like The American, TheAssassin is a supercharged, fiercely intelligent, action-packed international thriller, where no one can be trusted-and the shocks are felt until the very last page. Born in England, ANDREW BRITTON moved with his family to the United States when he was seven, settling in Michigan, then North Carolina. After serving in the Army as a combat engineer, Andrew entered the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he is pursuing a double major in economics and psychology. Visit him at www.andrewbrittonbooks.com.

"Britton's plots seem to jump straight out of the headlines." --St. Louis Post Dispatch"Well written and exciting…perfect escape reading!" --Tampa Tribune on *The American *Ryan Kealey has no doubt that the forces seeking to tip this teetering world into chaos are just getting better. Better equipped, better organized, and, most terrifying of all, more patient. And despite all the ELINT, the all-seeingelectronic intelligence gathered at Langley, nothing stops a devastating attack from ripping through the heart of San Antonio, Texas. Wrenched from retirement to work the Texas tragedy, Kealey learns of a far greater threat in the Middle East. A radical terrorist group claims possession of a powerful ancient relic, the Staff of Moses, which they will use to unleash plagues across the globe. To avert unimaginable devastation, lone-wolf Kealey, armed with little more than intuition, must prevent , a disaster of biblical proportions that may well be inevitable. "Brilliantly well written with plotting sharper than a fence full of razor wire, a sizzling page- turner." --Brad Thor on The Operative"Absorbing…extraordinarily hard to put down." --Charlotte Observer * on The American***"A gripping saga ripped out of the late****

CIA agent Ryan Kealey has no time to wrestle his demons. Former U.S. soldier Jason March, one of the world's deadliest assassins and Ryan's former protégé, is now working with a powerful terror network whose goal is nothing less than the total annihilation of the United States.Ryan puts together the pieces of a terrifying puzzle. With the fate of the country resting on his shoulders, he finds himself caught in a desperate game of cat-and-mouse with the most cunning opponent he's ever faced, a man who won't be denied the ultimate act of evil and who is all the more deadly for being one of our own.

In his third espionage thriller (see THE ASSASSIN and THE AMERICAN) Kealey remains out of control and fun to watch, but has lost some of his edge. Still this terrorist vs. anti-terrorist High Noon tale is fast-paced and filled with action of a blow em up variety. Readers who enjoy a high octane tale will be pleased with Andrew Britton's latest escapade though it reads too similar to his hero's A book encounters. An “invisible” is CIA-speak for the ultimate intelligence nightmare: a terrorist who is an ethnic native of the target country and who can cross its borders unchecked, move around the country unquestioned, and go completely unnoticed while setting up the foundation for monstrous harm. This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.