David Baldacci

He goes home and late that night, he's out in his backyard trying to process all this and then out of the darkness, this FBI agent shows up and gives him a choice.

He said, the organization you work for, you made all this money from, they're a criminal organization.

So here's your choice.

One, you can work with us and lose everything you have.

Or two, you don't work with us and you lose everything you have.

Those are the choices.

And that really sets Nash off on this journey, you know, to try to bring this organization down.

And he does it with enormous personal cost.

And then we come to Hope Rises where he has changed who he is completely, physically and mentally and emotionally.

And he's sort of right in the monster's lair.

You know, he's on the inside trying to bring this organization down in a different part of the world.

And then I throw him a lot of curveballs because, look, when Nash Falls ended sort of mid-story, I got like 10,000 emails from people who were royally pissed off that I had not finished the book and the first novel.

But I needed an entire second novel to finish the story.

And I think when you read Hope Risers, you'll understand why.

I've gotten a lot of emails from people who's like, yeah, can, you know, can you teach me close quarter combat and all that?

And can you teach me how to shoot a gun really well?

And can I take five guys out, you know, at the same time?

You know, for me, it was, I think one of the themes I wanted to draw in the book was that you can do everything right in life and still get knocked on your ass, you know, and then what do you do?

Do you just curl to the fetal position or you get back up?

And yeah, the fantasy of going to this guy who can take care of himself and be an action figure is a very cool one.