Below is an abridged synopsis for THE ALLIANCE, my second novel.  It puts a tighter focus on the unrelenting brutality religious extremists are imposing upon innocents around the world, and underlines htheir plans to destroy our way of life in the West.   While this is a work of fiction, the events are drawn from research into the long history of savage behavior by these fanatics.  There is a positive side: THE ALLIANCE  provides a prescription for effectively ending this threat. 

When armed thugs kidnap his bride’s two small children, Afghan war hero Mark Talbot is forced to reveal to Paige that he’s not the business executive she thought he was.

Mark admits the kidnappers are religious fanatics trying to stop him from exposing a complex plot to wreak havoc upon America’s way of life.  The former Navy SEAL, now an FBI agent, has learned the extremists are responsible for a series of recent deadly attacks in major cities across the country, and are planning more.  Among the religious insurgents is an elite combat team armed with a miniature nuclear device that went missing from the arsenal of the Soviet Union after it collapsed.  Mark is in a race — time is running out to find their children.  And he must stop the shadowy group of efanatics from executing their devastating plan — in Times Square on New Years Eve.

After a heavily accented voice on the phone offers to return the children if he becomes a suicide bomber, Mark turns for help to another dangerous adversary.  It’s a gamble, but a powerful mafia godfather who once tried to get him killed is suspected of having a link to the kidnappers.  Mark needs that connection to recover their children safely . . . if he can get to them in time.