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International Suspense Thriller, The Lazarus Covenant, Available Now for Pre-Order!
I started writing The Lazarus Covenant after my first deployment to Bosnia in 1997. At the time, I was commanding a Special Forces company in Sarajevo. My fellow soldiers and I were involved in many situations throughout Bosnia and the Balkans that made an enduring impression on me-our Special Forces teams were frequently being attacked with car bombs, satchel charges, RPGs, knives and clubs. When we weren't being attacked, we were often under the threat of an attack.
In the midst of this turbulence, at the invitation of a good friend who was then a prosecutor for the war crimes tribunal, I drove to Vukovar, Croatia and saw the destruction from the war there. At the time, I recall thinking that it looked like Dresden after the fire bombings during WWII. I returned from that visit with a new outlook on humanity, having seen the worst of what we are capable of doing to one another-- and it reinforced for me the moral imperative we all have to stop ethnic cleansing, genocide and war crimes wherever they occur. That notion was underscored again as we assisted in uncovering the mass graves from the Srebrenica massacre. In these war zones, Special Forces teams must deal with everyone--the good, the bad and the ugly, and Bosnia was certainly no exception. On more than several occasions, I would find myself in the same room, drinking coffee with officials who I suspected were responsible for these atrocities! To arrest them, however, the grave exhumations and investigations had to be completed.
Returning from Bosnia, I was often asked by friends and family to describe what it was like there. I found it difficult to adequately explain. How do you explain what it's like to pull bodies out of a mass grave in 100 degree heat? Or to be under attack by people you're there to help? Or to be searching for information and intelligence that could save one, or perhaps, hundreds of lives? Needless to say, all of those experiences defy easy explanation.
I chose a fictional venue to relate how a crisis can unfold in an area like the Balkans. Nearly a decade and a great deal of research later, this novel is the result. Many of the situations described mirror what I witnessed in Eastern and Central Europe. My goal in telling this story was to convey an intriguing plot with realism, fidelity and a host of interesting characters to help readers better understand these crisis spots and the people who inhabit them. My hope is that in some way this novel conveys the need to erase the terrible scourge of hatred and religious extremism, and to work for enduring, long-term solutions to these problems.
Summary of Novel
In Bosnia, the past is prologue for one man who must come to terms with a violent and tragic childhood in order to prevent a renewed Balkan war...and a nuclear holocaust.
In the latter years of Tito's Yugoslavia, two young boys, cousins Marko and Celo come upon a mass execution in progress. As they witness the executions and try to help a near-dead survivor to safety, they are discovered by a Yugoslav Army Officer who attempts to kill them. In a desperate struggle for survival, they fight their way home. Because of his injuries, Celo remains with his father while Marko flees with his aunt to the United States. Both boys remain separated into adulthood%u2026.Thirty years later, as war threatens to ravage the Balkans again, Marko reluctantly returns to Bosnia as Mark Lyons, the FBI's Special Agent in Charge of the Balkan Region. On the day he arrives in Sarajevo, an American peace envoy is brutally assassinated, and the United Nations High Commissioner asks Mark to investigate.
Sandy Evenson, beautiful, gregarious war crimes prosecutor for The Hague witnesses the assassination. As it unfolds in front of her, she frantically takes photos of the carnage. Mark investigates the scene and soon suspects a cover-up is underway. Ghosts of Mark's Balkan childhood return when Sandy's photos are developed%u2026.
News of the assassination quickly arrives at a White House desperate to avoid another Balkan War. In the Situation Room, the Commander of the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command, Lieutenant General John Thorpe is informed that stolen plutonium is in the hands of an Islamic Jihadist group in Bosnia, and he is sent to Bosnia to determine if the two incidents are connected.
At its foundation, The Lazarus Covenant is a story of profound personal transformation. In their own unique ways, war crimes prosecutor Sandy Evenson, Serb war criminal Celo, and General John Thorpe each force Lyons to confront his own demons, his own humanity, and a deadly religious sect assigned the mission of protecting the Vatican from catastrophic threats.
Pre-Order Your Copy Today at: http://www.JohnFenzel.com/lazarus.html
