Stirring up international relations on the heels of a pandemic is the theme of the latest Pike Logan novel, End of Days, following up on 2020’s Hunter Killerand 2021’s American Traitor (discussed here at borg). Writer Brad Taylor is back with the sixteenth novel in his series, which follows special ops agents Pike Logan and Jennifer Cahill, a duo that keeps getting drawn into foreign lands for missions involving international espionage. Fans of the series will learn in this entry whether a wedding is in the cards for the lead pair, as they try to thwart a group of militants aiming to bring on a religious war through a string of terrorist acts. As with prior novels in the series, get ready for that 1980s world-at-war vibe, with Pike Logan as a character you’d have once seen played by Steven Seagal.
A year after the release of his book Hunter Killer, Brad Taylor is back with the fifteenth novel in his Pike Logan series, arriving in bookstores today.American Traitor finds the long-time special ops character with his newly adopted daughter trying to create something of a more domestic life. His first step? A vacation in Australia with girlfriend/partner Jennifer Cahill. Pike Logan has been around the world a few times, and so why not meet up with former colleague Clifford “Dunkin” Delmonty on his way to a relaxing dive off the coast? Unfortunately for Pike, this is a political espionage series, which means no easy vacation awaits, and the need to kill off a few people in self defense who try to interrogate him when he arrives at his friend’s apartment. Soon he’s sucked back into a clash between nations.American Traitorarrives in bookstores and here at Amazon today.
Actor and Kansas City Royals baseball fan Paul Rudd stars in a new World War II movie premiering next month. He plays real-life professional baseball Morris “Moe” Berg in this espionage thriller from director Ben Lewin (Please Stand By). The movie adapts the true story of the catcher who became a World War II spy. The Boston Red Sox player was a private figure when, in 1944, the U.S. government’s wartime intelligence agency enlisted his services. His mission: To go behind enemy lines in Europe to assassinate the Nazi’s chief nuclear scientist before the Germans develop an atomic bomb. IFC Films is marketing the film as a high-stakes game of cat and mouse.
The film stars Rudd along with Paul Giamatti(Cinderella Man, The Illusionist, The Amazing Spider-man 2),Mark Strong(The Imitation Game, Kingsman, Shazam!), Jeff Daniels(Good Night, Good Luck, Radio Days),Sienna Miller(G.I. Joe: The Rise of COBRA, Layer Cake), Tom Wilkinson(Valkyrie),Guy Pearce(Alien: Covenant, Iron Man 3), and Wonder Woman’s Queen Hippolyta, Connie Nielsen. Adapted from a book The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg, by Nicholas Dawidoff, with a script by Robert Rodat(Saving Private Ryan, Thor: The Dark World), the film has a similar look and feel to other recent World War II espionage thrillers, like Tom Cruise’s Valkyrie and Benedict Cumberbatch’s The Imitation Game.
Production design is by Academy Award-winning designer Luciana Arrighi(Howard’s End, Remains of the Day). Costumes were designed by Joan Bergin (The Prestige, In the Name of the Father, My Left Foot, Vikings). Three-time Oscar winning composer Howard Shore (The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit) created the musical score.
Here’s Paul Rudd starring in the trailer for The Catcher Was a Spy:
