This is the third book in the Nick Lassiter-Skyler International Espionage Series. In Book 1, The Devil's Brigade, Mr. Everyman-Struggling Author Nick Lassiter is introduced and goes to New York hoping to confront the second bestselling author in the world who plagiarized his unpublished novel. Instead, he gets caught up in the middle of a CIA operation with his father Benjamin Brewbaker and former girlfriend Natalie Perkins to take down powerful Russian mobsters. In Book 2, The Coalition, the femme fatal Italian assassin Skyler introduced in Book 1 takes center stage and terminates the U.S. President-elect. As she plays a game of cat-and-mouse with the pursuing authorities, an FBI agent and reporter working together eventually close in on her and in the process uncover a vast right-wing conspiracy to gain control of the U.S. Government. In Book 3, The Fourth Pularchek, Lassiter and Skyler appear together for the first time as major characters. They quickly become embroiled in an international case involving Lassiter's newly discovered biological father, the Polish billionaire and intelligence commander Stanislaw Pularchek, and buried secrets from Europe's World War II past. Their perilous journey takes them from the American capitol to the streets of Warsaw to the murderous gates of Auschwitz to the salt mines and snow-dusted mountain peaks of Austria. But can Lassiter, his adoptive father Brewbaker of the CIA, and his Polish biological father Pularchek work together as a team, and are they prepared for the consequences of stirring up the past? Furthermore, will Skyler be brought to justice for her multiple killings on U.S soil, or will she escape yet again?

THE DEVIL'S PILE BRIGADE - A NICK LASSITER-SKYLER THRILLER BOOK 1 (FORMERLY THE SLUSH PILE BRIGADE)
#1 DENVER POST BESTSELLER (FICTION)
AWARD-WINNING FINALIST BEVERLY HILLS BOOK AWARDS (MYSTERY)

In this first thriller in the Nick Lassiter-Skyler International Espionage Series, Mr. Everyman Nick Lassiter becomes an unwitting intelligence operative and encounters for the first time the beautiful female assassin Skyler, who plays a prominent role in Books 2 and 3 of the series. As he celebrates his thirtieth birthday with friends, Lassiter is also a man in crisis: he has lost his girlfriend and his job, is wanted by the police, and has discovered that his unpublished thriller, Blind Thrust, has been stolen and turned into a blockbuster movie called Subterranean Storm. Even worse, the movie is based on a soon-to-be bestselling novel by Australian thriller writer Cameron Beckett, one of the world's biggest brand-name authors. Rather than seek revenge through a financial settlement or public humiliation, Lassiter sets out for New York to obtain mea culpas from Beckett and his renowned literary agent, whom he is certain colluded with the Aussie in stealing his debut novel.

Once in New York, Lassiter, and his three fish-out-of-water friends who insist on accompanying him, instantly run afoul of the law and other powerful forces intent on thwarting them and their mission. As they encounter one thorny obstacle after another, the scope of their inquiries expands and they are soon in way over their heads, battling toe-to-toe not only against the mega-bestselling author and his agent, but a formidable army of antagonists, including the NYPD, Beckett's Big Five publishing house security squad, and the Russian mob. Collectively, these adversaries present Lassiter with the greatest--and deadliest--challenge of his life.

Unexpectedly aided by his CIA father, Director of the Russian Counterintelligence Desk, and his former girlfriend turned CIA-informant, Lassiter and his comrades take to calling themselves the Devil's Brigade in tribute to the legendary U.S.-Canadian First Special Service Force, an elite commando outfit that fought in Italy in World War Two. Outmatched and outgunned, they are foiled at every turn but still they are determined to win. But will justice be attained? Can they prove that Beckett and his crooked literary agent have stolen Lassiter's blockbuster novel and are undeservedly reaping the success? More importantly, can they solve one of the most important counterintelligence cases in CIA history and in the process honor the original Devil's Brigade?

Winner Independent Publisher Book Awards

SPIES OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN is the true story of legendary British safecracker and spy Eddie Chapman, theBritish Double Cross Spy System, and Norwegian female Resistance operatives Dagmar Lahlum and Annemarie Breien. Known as Agent Zigzag, the most remarkable double agent of WWII, the fearless and roguishly handsome Chapman fell in love with and spied alongside the stunning 20-year-old model Dagmar Lahlumin Occupied Norway. Based upon recently released historical records from British and Norwegian archives, this WWII adventure and romance tale illuminates for the first time the intimate relationship between the two spy-lovers as well as the wartime exploits of Lahlum, Breien, and the Norwegian Resistance to liberate Norway and combat theGestapo's bloodhound investigator, Siegfried Fehmer. The contributions of Dagmar Lahlum and Annemarie Breiento the Allied war effort are many and incontrovertible--and yet history has never properly recognized these courageous Resistance women for their achievements. Until now. This book is their story and the story of the colorful Eddie Chapmanin their efforts to defeat the Nazis.

Fans of Beneath A Scarlet Sky, author Ben Macintyre, and the WWII novels of Ken Follett (The Key to Rebecca, Jackdaws, Eye of the Needle) will enjoy this true story of WWII espionage, romance, and suspense in war-torn London and Occupied Norway.

SOLDIERS OF FREEDOM is the true story of the 1944-1945 War in Western Europe and the final Allied struggle to conquer Nazi Germany. The story is told through the eyes of William McBurney, a tank gunner in the 761st Tank Battalion, the first African-American tank unit in U.S. history; dynamic General George S. Patton, Jr., commander of the U.S. Third Army; and Angela Lange, a sixteen-year-old German resistance fighter with the anti-Nazi Edelweiss Pirates in Cologne. While Patton's forces liberate France and Belgium, fight in the grueling Battle of the Bulge, and cross the Rhine to conquer Germany, U.S. tanker William McBurney and his Black Panthers must fight two wars at once: one against the German army, the other against the racism of their fellow white soldiers. Meanwhile, as the Allies drive into Germany, Edelweiss Pirate Angela Lange must survive the Allied bombing of Cologne while she engages in fierce resistance against the Hitler Youth and Nazis and is hunted down by the Gestapo.

Fans of Beneath A Scarlet Sky, Spearhead, and the WWII novels of Ken Follett (Winter of the World, Jackdaws, Eye of the Needle) will enjoy the real-life heroism of the 761st Black Panthers and legendary Patton to liberate Europe, and the Edelweiss Pirates to combat Nazism, in this historically accurate tale of the final epic struggle in WWII Western Europe.

LIONS OF THE DESERT is the true story of the WWII 1941-1942 Desert War in North Africa and Operation Condor, a story that has captivated the minds of authors, historians, and filmmakers for three-quarters of a century.

The story is told through the eyes of six legendary historical figures that lived through the epic events: Scottish Colonel David Stirling, leader of the Special Air Service, a brigade of eccentric desert commandos that raided Axis airfields and supply lines; German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, commander of the vaunted Africa Corps, who very nearly succeeded in driving the British out of Egypt; Egyptian Hekmat Fahmy, the famous belly dancer, regarded as a Mata-Hari-like German agent in previous accounts but in fact a far more intriguing and ambiguous character in real life; Major A.W. Sansom, head of the British Field Security unit that hunted down Axis spies and pro-German Egyptian nationalists operating in Cairo; Johannes Eppler, the notorious German spy of Operation Condor whose real story is finally told; and Colonel Bonner Fellers, the U.S. military attach in Cairo, who was privy to Allied secrets in the North African theater and inadvertently played an important role in intelligence-gathering activities for both sides in the campaign.

Fans of Beneath A Scarlet Sky, The English Patient, and the WWII novels of Ken Follett (The Key to Rebecca, Jackdaws, The Eye of the Needle) will enjoy this timeless tale of WWII espionage, romance, and derring-do in the North African desert--with the knowledge that this is how it all really happened.

BODYGUARD OF DECEPTION: A NOVEL OF SUSPENSE

VOLUME ONE OF THE WORLD WAR TWO TRILOGY

By Samuel Marquis

#1 Denver Post Bestselling, Award-Winning Author

Praise for Bodyguard of Deception

"Bodyguard of Deception grabbed my attention right from the beginning and never let go. The character development is excellent. Samuel Marquis has a knack for using historic details and events to create captivating and fun to read tales."--Roy R. Romer, 39th Governor of Colorado

"Readers looking for an unapologetic historical action book should tear through this volume." -- Kirkus Reviews

"Old-time spy buffs will appreciate the tradecraft and attention to detail, while adventure enthusiasts will enjoy the unique perspective and setting for a WWII story. As Marquis throws in everything but the kitchen sink, he turns this well-told, if byzantine adventure novel into a combination of The Great Escape, Public Enemies, a genuine old-time Western, and a John Le Carr novel."--Blueink Review

"The world hangs in a delicate balance in the heart-pounding World War Two Trilogy opener, Bodyguard of Deception by Samuel Marquis. Put together with an intricate plot to follow and a commitment to realistic detail, there's a lot going for the read...a wonderfully nail-biting experience with good characters and solid intrigue."
--SP Review - Four-Star Review

"As usual, Marquis's descriptions are vivid, believable, and true to the time period...Bodyguard of Deception is an intriguing launch to his new trilogy."--Dr. Wesley Britton, Bookpleasures.com (Crime & Mystery)

"Bodyguard of Deception is a unique and ambitious spy thriller complete with historical figures, exciting action, and a dastardly villain. Fans of prisonbreak plots will enjoy this story of a loyal German struggling to save his homeland."--Foreword Reviews

"A fast-paced, riveting WWII espionage thriller. Bodyguard of Deception is as good as the best of Daniel Silva, Ken Follett, Alan Furst, and David Baldacci and brings back fond memories of the classic movie The Great Escape and Silva's finest novel, The Unlikely Spy."--Fred Taylor, President/Co-Founder Northstar Investment Advisors and Espionage Novel Aficionado

Can the American and British Allies stop a vaunted German spymaster and his U-boat-commander brother from warning Hitler's High Command about the Allies' greatest military secret? It is a secret that could win the war for Germany--or, at the very least, delay the outcome for years with an inestimable cost in bloodshed, physical destruction, and suffering. And it is a secret that the two contentious brothers must grapple with within their own Wehrmacht ranks, as they bring U.S. and British intelligence to their knees on America's doorstep with the clock to D-Day ticking down. From a U-boat on the frigid North Sea to a brutal British interrogation center in heart of London to a remote German-POW camp and the world-famous Broadmoor Hotel overlooking the high plains and snow-dusted mountain peaks of Colorado, Bodyguard of Deception will keep you guessing until the final chapter. The first book of #1 Denver Post Bestselling, Award-Winning Suspense Author Samuel Marquis's World War II Trilogy.

In this second thriller in the bestselling WWII Trilogy, the Eternal City of Rome during the Nazi Occupation of 1943-1944 is a besieged city with four parties grappling for control: the Allies--represented by Captain John Bridger of the American-Canadian First Special Service Force--trying to capture Rome as the first Axis prize of war but encountering stiff opposition; the German Occupiers--represented by SS Colonel Wilhelm Hollmann, the German father of John Bridger--trying to throw the Allies back into the sea while holding Rome hostage and using it as a staging ground and supply line to the front; Pope Pius XII, codenamed the "Chief," deeply involved in the plot to remove Hitler from power while struggling to maintain Vatican impartiality, save Rome from destruction, and protect the city's Jews and others from extermination; and finally, the Partisans represented by Teresa Hollmann, daughter of Hollmann and half-sister of John Bridger, who during the Occupation is transformed from a passive member of Rome's aristocracy to an active Resistance fighter. Based on actual historical events and newly released OSS/CIA and KGB documents, Altar of Resistance recounts the long, hard struggle that led to the Allied liberation of Rome. Meanwhile, as the American and British Armies push towards the Eternal City, Rome's top secret agent--Pope Pius XII, leader of the Vatican's Church of Spies--orchestrates events behind the scenes in an attempt to thwart German oppression, overthrow the F hrer, and usher in a viable post-Hitler government.