Author biography: Jason Kasper is the USA Today bestselling author of the Spider Heist, American Mercenary, and Shadow Strike thriller series.
Before his writing career he served in the US Army, beginning as a Ranger private and ending as a Green Beret captain. Jason is a West Point graduate and a veteran of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, and was an avid ultramarathon runner, skydiver, and BASE jumper, all of which inspire his fiction.
The Suicide Cartel is the 5th book in the internationally bestselling David Rivers series. Get your copy here
TFx: Where did you come up with the idea for The Suicide Cartel, and what can you tell us about the plot?
Kasper: “The idea was simple: David Rivers goes to war. In the last book, Vengeance Calling, David misses the outset of a criminal war while he’s on a deep cover assignment. But being an adrenaline junkie and combat addict, David negotiates a ticket to the war—not just as a shooter, but as a mercenary team leader. In The Suicide Cartel, his wish is granted.
He takes a leadership position for the first time in the series, and finds out that his dream has come at a cost: who is assigned under his command, where they’re being sent to operate, and what forces are trying to stop them.
So the idea for the book was that David gets everything he asks for, but in the worst possible way. And now that he’s gotten this small recon team immersed in chaos, he’s got to get them out. Doing so proves more troublesome than he expected…and that’s before everything goes wrong.”
TFx: You set this book in the Triple Frontier of Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina. How did you choose this setting?
Kasper: “I was committed to South America from the previous storyline. So I went to a friend who’s spent multiple military deployments running around that continent, and told him I needed a setting. I said I wanted the worst possible place to drop a small recon team in the middle of—that I wanted narcos, terrorists, and as many chances for chaos as possible.
That kind of stuff that’s terrible in the real world becomes solid gold for writing an action thriller. And he said the Triple Frontier was my ticket. It’s got organized crime, terrorism, and drug trafficking.
So I set the story there, and had David fast rope off a helicopter into the jungle with four teammates. From that point on, the Triple Frontier was the perfect setting for all hell to break loose.”
TFx: What are you reading now, and what good books have you read lately?
Kasper: “Right now I’m reading The Killer Collective by Barry Eisler. It’s fantastic, and I’m really interested in seeing how he manages to weave together storylines from multiple book series into a single plot.
And the last book I finished reading was The Force by Don Winslow. It blew me away! One of the best books I’ve ever read in any genre.”
TFx: What’s next for the David Rivers series?
Kasper: “David Rivers Books 6 and 7 are plotted, and will combine every character and story thread from the first five books. They’re the conclusion of the first story arc of the series; the edge of the universe for everything I’ve created to date.
My readers have been following intertwined story threads over the course of five books, and the next two books will bring everything together in a fairly explosive, two-book climax.
After that I’m not sure what’s ahead for David…but he’s got plenty of fight left in him, and fortunately for the future of the series, he’s only in his twenties.”
TFx: What are you working on now?
Kasper: “I’m writing my first book outside the David Rivers series. Not a spinoff, but an entirely new book. It’s about a woman who joins a mega-successful heist crew, with one catch: she used to be a cop on the federal task force responsible for catching them. And now she’s switched sides.
The book is about how, and why, that happens—and it sets the stage for a new series of heist thrillers. The story has thrown me for a major surprise every day or two since I started on it. The title is The Spider Heist, and it will be released later this year.”
David Rivers wanted to lead his team in war. What he got was a suicide mission...
David Rivers is no ordinary mercenary.
He’s just been assigned command of a team in the international criminal war raging in South America.
But the Triple Frontier region is deadly. Narcos and terrorists rule its remote jungle, and David must lead his team into the heart of danger.
Getting in is easy. Getting out might be impossible.
When a high-risk recon mission turns deadly, David’s team must fight for survival against overwhelming odds. Desperate and on the run, they use everything at their disposal just to stay alive.
But getting out will require something more… and if David doesn’t discover the truth behind his current mission, it will be his last.
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