Parnell here makes his fiction debut, but he already claims New York Times bestsellerdom for his memoir, Outlaw Platoon, about his experiences fighting in Afghanistan. Protagonist Eric Steele, a Special Forces soldier secretly assigned to a U.S. intelligence unit known as the Program, must get with the program to avert disaster when an old buddy attacks a military convoy and steals a nuclear weapon. With a 200,000-copy first printing.

Parnell brings his combat experience as a U.S. Army infantry officer in Afghanistan to his impressive first novel and series launch (after memoir Outlaw Platoon). Special Forces operative Eric Steele, who's as tough as his name, serves in a secret unit known as the Program that answers only to the president of the United States. Steele has succeeded in saving America on a number of occasions, but now he's facing a deadly adversary: Nathaniel West, his one-time mentor who has now gone rogue and stolen a suitcase nuke to exact revenge on the United States. The cast includes a traitor in the highest levels of the American government, a president dying of cancer, and a beautiful CIA agent, Meg Harden, to supply the sex and romance that Steele needs in his rare down time. The authenticity and intensity of the battles scenes more than compensate for the familiar plot and sometimes jingoistic prose. Thriller fans will be eager to see more of Steele. Agent: Scott Miller, Trident Media Group. (Sept.)