The Allies Series

When a dedicated veteran jihadist from the United States is smuggled across the border into Canada to meet with a fledgling and entreprenurial leader of two new Canadian cells, their operation runs afoul of a joint police and military exercise involving both American and Canadian participants. Amongst the fatalities from the resulting shootout is an American Special Forces soldier. The new Canadian Chief of Defence Staff and the Commander of the US Special Forces Command each appoint a senior officer to a joint inquiry to determine the circumstances of the incident. The Inquiry introduces the Allies: Colonel Phil Sambrook, a veteran of 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta, and Colonel Kurt Richter, a former commander of Joint Task Force-2 still recovering from wounds sustained in combat. The two officers, friends and comrades for years, lead a multi-national team to track the homegrown cells operating in each of their countries. Frustrated by Canadian police more interested in long term infiltration of the Canadian cell than in quickly identifying the American one which is bent on an imminent strike, the team joins up with CIA operatives and other Special Forces personnel to follows leads which take them from the United States and Canada to England and Germany and eventually to Pakistan. Along the way the Inquiry explores not only the makeup and motivation of the principal characters, both government and jihadists, but also looks in detail at the threat of homegrown and international Islamist jihad to Western society.

Operational Detachment Alpha 053 finds itself at the scene of a fatal night firefight between newly arrived personnel from the British Army and the Taliban and rogue Afghan National Police elements near the town of Sangin in Helmand Province. Colonel Phil Sambrook, a veteran of 1st Special Forces Detachment-Delta and Colonel Kurt Richter, a former commander of Joint Task Force 2 are dispatched to investigate the circumstances of the incident. Their mission leads them into the ever changing environment along the key rivers of Southern Afghanistan during the time when British and Canadian troops from NATO are taking over responsibility from the Americans at the same time that the Taliban and their foreign allies are surging into the region for a major decisive operation. The action moves from a series of major battles along the Afghan rivers to the halls of power in Washington on the banks of the Potomac. Along the way their eyes are opened to evidence of corruption carried out by their Afghan allies, a US government official and private contractors and a threat that will come to their very homes.

Allies: The Trial continues the story of Colonel Phil Sambrook, a veteran of 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta, and Colonel Kurt Richter, a former commander of Joint Task Force 2 started in the novel, Allies: The Inquiry and its prequel novella, Allies: Anaconda. Sambrook is in Afghanistan completing the investigation of a failed special forces mission when he is retasked to investigate the hostage taking of an international team of archaeologists in Herat. Joined by Richter, who is himself in Afghanistan assisting with the stand up of Canada’s new force deploying to Kandahar, they lead a team of American, Canadian and Australian special forces personal tasked to rescue the hostages who have been moved by the Taliban to Panjwaii. The mission leads through Italy and Hawaii to Perth, Australia and their participation at a court martial and the defence against a terrorist attack. Along the way the novel continues the exploration of the make-up and personality of its principal characters and their allies; both military, civilian and their opponents.

Allies: Anaconda is a prequel to Allies: The Inquiry which introduced the Allies: Colonel Phil Sambrook, a veteran of America’s 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta, and Colonel Kurt Richter, a member of Canada’s Joint Task Force-2. The two officers, friends and comrades for years, find themselves in March 2002 engaged in the factual events of Operation ANACONDA: America’s first conventional battle against al-Qaeda and the Taliban in the Shah-i-Kot valley of Afghanistan. In one of the coalition’s most difficult battles the allies fight an enemy much more numerous and more tenacious than expected. Sambrook’s vastly outnumbered American infantry must overcome inadequate intelligence and support to fight not just the enemy but the rugged mountain terrain, the frigid weather and ever changing mission priorities. Richter’s combined special operations force of Canadians and New Zealanders must unravel the secret of the valley that inspires the enemy’s fanatical resistance. On the peak of the 10,240 foot mountain Takur Ghar, a veteran Taliban commander must contend with a disastrous American special forces insertion that threatens his troops and those of his despised Uzbek al-Qaeda allies while fending off a nearby patrol from Australian Special Air Service Regiment. In the end, Operation ANACONDA was questionably declared a massive allied victory by its senior leaders. Along the way its participants, those with boots on the ground or flying helicopters into the valley, had to contend with, and overcome, many systemic circumstances that brought them within a hairsbreadth of an unparalleled disaster. Allies: Anaconda tells the story of the crucible of fire that forged the bond that unites its main characters.