Hi, everyone!
Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for BODY MAN: A THRILLER by Al Pessin on this Book Amplifier Tour.
Below you will find a book introduction, my book review, an excerpt from the book, an about the author section, and the author’s social media links. Enjoy!
Book Introduction
Loyalty can be a steady force—or a dangerous one—depending on where it’s placed and how far it’s pushed. When circumstances begin to shift, that loyalty is tested in ways that challenge both identity and purpose. In Body Man by Al Pessin, those tests unfold under mounting pressure.
A presidency marked by bold policy changes becomes the center of escalating national tension. When an assassination attempt fails, it triggers a chain reaction that spreads across the country.
Spencer, the president’s closest aide, steps into a position of influence that few others hold. As leadership becomes increasingly unstable, he must make decisions that carry significant consequences.
Carl, a disgraced Marine sniper, is recruited into a militant movement that believes decisive action is necessary. His mission begins with clarity but becomes increasingly uncertain as events spiral.
As unrest intensifies and institutions begin to fracture, both men are drawn deeper into conflict. Each believes he is acting to protect the country, even as the outcome remains uncertain.
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/235788913-body-man
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My Book Review
RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars
BODY MAN: A Thriller by Al Pessin is a thought-provoking political thriller that could have come right from the present-day headlines. This story is told in dual POV alternating chapters by the two main protagonists who both believe they are saving the country.
Spencer is idealistic and fresh out of college when he lands a job writing speeches and press releases for the new freshman Senator Wade Brick from Michigan. As the Senator’s star rises and he runs for President, he focuses on gun control as his main issue. Spencer becomes Brick’s body man when the campaign goes national. The body man is the invisible person behind the President that makes his life as easy as possible. When tragedy strikes, Spencer believes in helping the President in any way he can, but will he feelings for and belief in the President have him crossing a line?
Carl is a high school graduate with no ambitions who goes into the Marines just to get away from his life in Michigan and for the pay. He takes to the discipline and discovers he is an exceptional shooter. He is drawn into a group that believes black people and immigrants are destroying the country and the libs are going to take away all guns. He is skeptical at first but slowly gets indoctrinated by the group. Carl gets accepted to Sniper School, but just as he graduates, he gets into a fight with a fellow sniper who is black and drinking and being friendly with a white girl and he is dishonorably discharged. At home, he finds himself pulled into local militia groups and they have a job for him that could change the terrible course he believes the country is on.
This thriller is so terrifying because it is so believable. Not taking political sides, you can watch the train wreck in real time that both young men are leading up to and understand that they truly believe that their views are the right ones. Even when I felt I knew where the story was going, the author would throw in a slight twist that would change the direction of both main characters’ lives right up to the end. With crisp intense writing and compelling realistic characters, I could not stop reading this story from start to finish.
I highly recommend this compelling political thriller.
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Excerpt
Chapter 1
Spencer
I’m the best person to tell you this story.
I was there. Saw the whole thing. I was the fly on the wall, the shadow, the potted plant. It was my job. I was the closest aide to the most powerful man in the world…
What I did, I did for the good of the country. There was no one else to do it. I stepped up and
did what needed to be done.
And that’s the reason you’re all living your lives like nothing happened.
Chapter 2
Carl
I woke up to what was really happening in America, and I did something. I defended it. I gave
everything.
Because that’s what American patriots do.
And that’s what I continued to do, no matter what you think, even when the Corps fucked me, even when the world turned upside down and inside out, even when “defend the Constitution
of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic” became more of a curse than an oath.
I’m Carl Reddy and this is my story.
I know you’ll remember my name. Everybody will.
But also remember that I’m an American patriot. Always was. Always will be.
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About the Author
Al Pessin is an award-winning author and veteran foreign correspondent whose decades of frontline reporting fuel his high-tension political thrillers. He’s covered war zones from Iraq to Afghanistan, interviewed militants in Gaza, and was once expelled from China for “fomenting counter-revolutionary rebellion.”
Before turning to fiction, Pessin spent nearly four decades with Voice of America, serving as a White House and Pentagon correspondent and reporting from global hotspots across Asia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. His debut thriller Sandblast launched the Task Force Epsilon series and was followed by Blowback and Shock Wave.
He lives in Florida with his wife and their Labrador, Rory.
Social Media Links
Website: https://alpessin.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlPessinAuthor
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alpessinauthor/
