A Note from the Two Navy Guys

 

The Two Navy Guys writing team is made up of — you guessed it — two former US Navy officers and US Naval Academy grads. Together, we write national security thrillers about the threats of the 21st century.

Weapons of Mass Deception probably confirms what you already knew: our world can be a dangerous place. It’s always been that way. People like Rafiq Roshed and his (now deceased) Iranian half-brothers really do exist. (JR spent a twenty-one-year career as an intel officer. You don’t want to know some of the things he knows.)

Thankfully, in real life, there are also patriots like Brendan McHugh, Liz Soroush, and Don Riley to balance the scales in our favor.

Although all three characters started their careers as Naval Academy midshipmen, their paths led them to different fronts in the ongoing war on terror. As this series continues, Brendan will commit to the CIA and his super-secret SIGINT program. Don will exercise his considerable brain in the service of cyberwarfare.

And Liz? I’m so glad you asked. Liz takes center stage in our second book, Jihadi Apprentice, a national security thriller that deals with a whole new threat: homegrown radicalism.

JR and I didn’t look for this topic; it found us--in our hometown of Minneapolis.

In 2015, our local paper was filled with stories of how the Minneapolis Somali community was the number one recruiting ground for “jihadist mobilization,” or young people being radicalized and leaving the country to fight for terrorist groups such as Al-Shabab and ISIS.

The idea that an American citizen—these were all American-born young people—could be manipulated in that way was troubling to us. We reached out to our contacts at the local FBI office (yes, there really is an FBI office in Brooklyn Center, Minn) and found some contacts in the local Somali community.

What we discovered was a fascinating and disturbing story of manipulation, exploitation, and youth identity. (These young people are teenagers, remember.) As Jihadi Apprentice took shape, we decided our favorite FBI Special Agent Liz Soroush should be given the task of figuring out this new threat. What she found will keep you reading late into the night…

Pick up your copy of Jihadi Apprentice and start reading now.

 

Happy reading –

JR and David AKA The Two Navy Guys

 

Visit twonavyguys.com for more information about us and our other books.