Author Brady Christianson cures writer's block by target practicing with his knives. "I
can spend hours throwing them," he says. "Focusing on the target helps focus my thoughts."
It's no
wonder this former Marine, who served in the Reconnaissance
Division, has centered his first novel, The
Devil's Playground, around a retired Recon
Marine who thinks he is enjoying a quiet, civilian life but who has his world suddenly turned
upside-down when heavily armed Arab terrorists break into his house and try to
kill him and his family. It is clear that his former military "secret
identity" has been compromised and ghosts from the past have come back to
settle old scores.
This action-packed
mystery/thriller was inspired by true events, after Christianson
learned that a laptop was stolen from the Department of Veterans Affairs. "It contained the names, addresses,
phone numbers, dates of birth and social security numbers of every veteran who
served this country since the Vietnam conflict. The missing laptop was not recovered until about a month later, which
was an eternity for someone to copy the information and sell it...Considering these
events and weighing them against the fact that there are those in the military
services whose identities are protected—and they are protected for good
reasons—the potential for disaster becomes painfully apparent...The story
almost wrote itself."
I am pleased to welcome
Brady Christianson to Reading Between the Lines
to share his thoughts, in his own words, about The
Devil's Garden:
The
fog of war is a place where confusion rules, innocence dies and demons are
born. Sometimes these demons come back to haunt a man and other times they
simply come back to kill him. Few men would welcome the fight, which is to say,
a proud and terrible few. The Devil’s Garden twists a Recon Marine’s worst
nightmare into a deadly reality.
There
is a saying in Recon: There is no life after Force. The lack of adrenaline and
ensuing boredom will kill a warrior’s spirit. However, former Recon Marine
Brandon Colson has a different kind of death to fear. After years spent in
remote deserts and jungles on the other side of the planet dreaming of a quiet,
civilian, family life, he finally has it. The problem is he has a large price
on his head that even his family doesn’t know about: He is wanted by terrorists
he worked to bring down. With revenge in
their hearts and murder on their minds, Colson’s enemies plan
to revisit his sins upon him, his wife and his children. When a heavily armed
squad of assassins arrives at his home in the middle of the night, he quickly
dispatches the men, but knows the identity he buried deep in his past is no
longer a secret. With his family in hiding, he makes it his personal mission to
eliminate the threat to his family and reclaim the life he’s made.
The
Devil’s Garden captures the
irreconcilable thoughts and trepidation of a military man turned family man who
must now fight to protect his family. As Colson’s crucial mission leads him to
the Devil’s Garden of Florida, a forgotten wasteland of swamps, collapsed
shacks, and lost souls, he finds that the midnight attack on his home was
simply an omen of what is to come. With his fate in the balance until the last
second, Colson must navigate a trail littered with bloodshed and revenge.
To learn more about The
Devil's Garden and Brady
Christianson (and read excerpts
from the novel), link HERE
Follow the book blog tour for this novel at Tribute Books
The Devil's Garden by Brady Christianson
Two Harbors Press, Trade Paper, 9781938690167, 392 pp
Publication Date: November 11, 2012
To order this book via AMAZON link HERE
Two Harbors Press, Trade Paper, 9781938690167, 392 pp
Publication Date: November 11, 2012
To order this book via AMAZON link HERE
