📚 Book Tour with Guest Post & Author Q&A 📚 Two men. Two missions. One country on the edge: Body Man a Political Thriller by Author Al Pessin releases April 21st

Conviction can be a powerful force, especially when it is reinforced by fear, loyalty, and a sense of duty. For some, it leads to quiet decisions; for others, it drives action with far-reaching consequences. In Body Man by Al Pessin, two men follow those convictions toward the same breaking point.

From the White House to volatile regions across the country, a failed assassination attempt pushes an already divided nation toward chaos. The president’s response to rising extremism intensifies tensions, setting off widespread unrest.

Spencer, his trusted aide, operates at the center of decision-making, holding influence that extends beyond traditional boundaries. As pressure builds, he must navigate both loyalty and uncertainty.

Carl, a former Marine sniper, is recruited by a militia movement that sees itself as defending the nation. His mission becomes increasingly unclear as events spiral beyond initial expectations.

Violence spreads, institutions fracture, and leadership begins to falter. Both men continue forward, guided by conviction, even as the meaning of their actions becomes harder to define. In the end, the story asks a question with no easy answer: who is truly protecting the country?

Available April 21, 2026

Amazon: https://bit.ly/4tq8fHx

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/235788913-body-man

Excerpt

Chapter 1

Spencer

I’m the best person to tell you this story.

I was there. Saw the whole thing. I was the fly on the wall, the shadow, the potted plant. It was my job. I was the closest aide to the most powerful man in the world...

What I did, I did for the good of the country. There was no one else to do it. I stepped up and

did what needed to be done.

And that’s the reason you’re all living your lives like nothing happened.

Chapter 2

Carl

I woke up to what was really happening in America, and I did something. I defended it. I gave

everything.

Because that’s what American patriots do.

And that’s what I continued to do, no matter what you think, even when the Corps fucked me, even when the world turned upside down and inside out, even when “defend the Constitution

of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic” became more of a curse than an oath.

I’m Carl Reddy and this is my story.

I know you’ll remember my name. Everybody will.

But also remember that I’m an American patriot. Always was. Always will be.

Al Pessin is an award-winning author and veteran foreign correspondent whose decades of frontline reporting fuel his high-tension political thrillers. He’s covered war zones from Iraq to Afghanistan, interviewed militants in Gaza, and was once expelled from China for “fomenting counter-revolutionary rebellion.”

Before turning to fiction, Pessin spent nearly four decades with Voice of America, serving as a White House and Pentagon correspondent and reporting from global hotspots across Asia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. His debut thriller Sandblast launched the Task Force Epsilon series and was followed by Blowback and Shock Wave.

He lives in Florida with his wife and their Labrador, Rory.

Visit Al at his website and follow him on Facebook and Instagram.

Guest Post

They say there’s a fine line between Brave and Foolhardy. And it’s not much farther to Crazy.

So where do I fit on that continuum, publishing an American political thriller at a time of, well, political thrills in America? And how did I do walking the political tightrope while delivering hyper-realistic action and plot twists grounded in my experience as a journalist covering the White House, the Pentagon, elections, and war zones 

Well, the great thing about books in general and Body Man in particular is that you get to be the judge.

I first got the idea for Body Man in 2017, and no, I’m not a painfully slow writer. Around that time, I was offered the contract to publish my first book, Sandblast, and two sequels. So, I put Body Man aside to write Blowback and Shock Wave. By the time I picked up Body Man again, it was even more relevant. Maybe, too relevant.

America’s political divide was on full display and there was considerable reluctance to publish political fiction. But I pressed ahead, believing that a novel that cuts to the bone of the divide was more important than ever.

There is no shortage of nonfiction books exploring America’s 21st century politics, but I could find none that did so in a way anywhere close to what fiction can provide—sympathetic characters on both sides, with stories, problems, loves, hates, and motivations anyone can understand in an engaging, fast-paced story.

That’s the goal I set out with in 2017. And I believe that’s why early readers are proving the doubters wrong, describing Body Man with words like “relatable,” “riveting,” “unforgettable,” and “important.” It’s also the reason that the tag line on the cover is “Patriot or traitor? You decide.”

At a writers conference a few years ago, I asked a bestselling author whether it was a problem that some test readers liked my ostensible villain, Carl,  more than my apparent hero, Spencer. He said, “Yes,” and laughed. 

But I disagree.

I think the more you like Carl, the more invested you’ll be in the story and the more Body Man will achieve what I want it to. That’s not to say Carl is a hero. But it is to say he’s a human being. And you’ll find that Spencer is human and imperfect, too. Some readers may even see him as a villain of sorts.

So, perhaps Body Man reflects America in a way I hadn’t anticipated. Just like in today’s society, readers will see different realities in the same set of facts—who is good and who is evil, what is right and what is wrong, what is patriotism and what is treason. 

And if I’ve done a good job, they’ll also at least have some understanding of why others see the opposite.

If you read Body Man, I can’t wait to hear what you think.

Author Interview

What’s a detail, theme, or clue in your book that most readers might miss on the first read but you secretly hope someone notices?

I think people will discount one of the characters, who will play an important role later on. I intentionally drew this character with physical and personality traits that make them easy to ignore, both for readers and for the other characters. This works very well for the character in question. I think when this character’s true role is revealed, it will be both surprising and totally reasonable. And readers may think of people in their lives whose abilities they discount when they shouldn’t.

When did this story or idea “click” into place for you—was there a single moment you knew you had to write it?

There has long been a divide in modern American politics. You can date it at least to the Kennedy-Nixon election in 1960. And it deepened significantly in recent decades. I got the idea for Body Man in 2015, when Donald Trump’s entry into politics revealed that the divide had grown deeper than most people had realized. Since I mentioned President Kennedy in this answer, I must also note that political violence in America is not new. But it seemed to me in 2015, and still today, that the potential for violence has increased with the proliferation of weapons, the organizational strength of the Internet, and the increased role of the super rich in funding political movements.

Which character or real-life person surprised you the most while writing this book, and why?

Carl’s development as a young man was an interesting and sometimes surprising journey for me. To be honest, I was more like Spencer at their age. So he was relatively easy for me to write. But the more I worked to make Carl believable and three-dimensional the more I learned about and empathized with the impact of his upbringing on the man he becomes. In books and on screen I too often see two-dimensional villains. I was determined to make Carl relatable, to ensure that readers understood why he does what he does, even though they (and I) will still condemn it. I did this in my earlier books (Sandblast, Blowback, and Shock Wave) as well, where Islamist terrorist characters have backstories, understandable (though condemnable) motivations, individual personalities, and some of them are victims themselves. I strive to be cliché-free, and am most pleased when reviewers say things like Body Man’s characters are “believable (and) identifiable” and the plot is “all too realistic.”

What’s one belief, question, or emotional truth you hope readers carry with them long after they finish your book?

I hope readers come away from Body Man with a few thoughts. One is that the more extreme views proliferate the more likely we are to experience something like what happens in Body Man, or worse. Another is that, while I’m not suggesting moral equivalence, neither side is perfect or blameless. A third is that (as mentioned above) it’s important to make an effort to understand each person’s background and motivations in order to have any chance at all to avert deeper division and the potential for catastrophe.

Tell us about a moment during the writing process when the story (or message) took an unexpected turn.

The basic outline of the story and its message did not change. But I did deal with issues of how far to go in some instances, notably regarding what would happen at the Inaugural Parade and exactly how the crisis at the end of the book would be resolved. 

If your protagonist (or central figure) could give the reader one piece of advice, what would it be?

I’m not sure either main character gleans the advice from their experiences that they should. If I can speak for them, I’d say for Carl: get an education, think for yourself, don’t believe everything you hear. And for Spencer: don’t be over-awed by your heroes and know your own role and limitations.

What real-world place, object, or memory helped shape a key element in your book?

There are many. I lived in Washington for 20 years, so the locations there are very familiar to me. I covered the White House for a year and a half at the beginning of the Clinton administration, so I’m familiar with the building and its processes, which I hope helped me make those scenes seem real. In fact, like Spencer, I went job hunting in Washington during spring break of my senior year of college, toting a pile of resumés (though I was visiting news organizations, not congressional offices). I also grew up in Michigan, so I know some of the places I used in the book and I think I had more ability to paint characters from Michigan than I would have if I’d made them from another part of the country.

What’s something you had to research, learn, or experience to write this book that genuinely surprised you?

Police procedure was a challenge. Thankfully, a member of my writers group is a retired police officer. She kindly tore apart the last several chapters of my first draft and helped me put them back together in a more realistic way, hewing to proper procedures. This can be more difficult for writers than simply writing the plot the way they want to. But in the end, whether police procedures, military tactics or political structures, taking the more complicated route is always better, helping build tension and adding verité. My friend also enlisted the help of a ballistics expert, who added a lot to my (and the reader’s) understanding of Carl’s training, the challenges he faces in Washington, and how he performs there.

When the line between loyalty and betrayal starts to blur, every decision carries weight.

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