PERSONAL NOTE FROM JOSEPH: Thanks for the continuing feedback. And for the support that you've shown me through spreading the word. All readers who have weighed in have let me know that I have hit my mark with respect to presenting an entertaining read. It also pleases me that readers have learned more about therapy and about PTSD. For example, one reader stopped me as I entered a local grocery store and told me that the descriptions of PTSD helped her to better understand her brother who suffers from severe post-Vietnam PTSD.

Beyond the positive feedback, a number of readers have given me very useful feedback regarding aspects of the story, or the characters, that is certainly helping me as I continue to develop the plot and direction of the sequel. Thank you very much for that.

Hero or Warrior?

The dilemma facing ex-CIA interrogator-turned-psychologist Chris Nelson turns deadly when a patient reveals a past of sexual abuse, stolen secret files, and pursuit by forces good and evil. Drawn into the drama, Dr. Nelson himself becomes a moving target, giving him no choice but to fight for his own survival and those of other PTSD victims.

When Dr. Chris Nelson threw in the towel as a CIA interrogator, he believed he’d left behind the violence and intensity that he encountered in Afghanistan. A new patient, Sandra Tolliver, comes in for treatment, opening the door for the trauma of the past to come roaring back into his life. Before he knows it, this Atlanta psychologist becomes a prime target of several professional groups who want to capture him, interrogate him, and then kill him. He is forced to dust off his CIA training, confront his own PTSD, and search for answers to an ever-broadening puzzle. One of his pursuers—an international terrorist organization known as the Brotherhood—will stop at nothing to get the file for their own malevolent purposes.

Professional ethics, therapeutic practices, and human emotions all play a role in this espionage thriller. More than Chris’s life is at stake here. A new ally, Sandra’s sister Katie, may be in danger too. In order to survive, Chris must tap into dark places in his soul that he believed he had tamed. Can he survive? And, if he does, will he be forever changed?