In the world of espionage and terrorism, nothing is ever quite what you expect.

It's always worse.

Beck Casey, the college-professor-turned-spy protagonist of the bestselling Final Epidemic, returns, now to confront the very real nightmare that that haunts every national security expert today: Nuclear terrorism in the American homeland.

Joining him in Fire Of The Prophet is a cast of faces both new and familiar:

Jeffrey Connor, a rising star at the FBI's Counter-Terror Division; a natural leader despite his youth, he's tasked to lead a desperate hunt for an elusive "blue-eyed terrorist."
Katie Casey, Beck's daughter and an ambitious D.C. lawyer; she is fiercely loyal, romantically —and unexpectedly— linked with Connor... and trapped both in a doomed city and in a hackles-raising relationship between father and lover.
Fatíma Huntsman, the daughter of a Palestinian activist and an American woman, now radicalized as a terrorist and armed with a nuclear device in a mission against her fellow American citizens.
Dennis Littrell, a self-described "overly seasoned" veteran news journalist, looking for professional redemption through one last story— a story that might save his nation and the world from a devastating global conflict... or could plunge it irrevocably into one.

In suspense-filled progression, Fire Of The Prophet builds from an opening set along the U.S.-Mexican border through the battlefields of the Middle East, and ultimately takes the reader to a looming Armageddon... in the capital of the United States.

"Hits you like a freight train, then drags you along for the ride. Earl Merkel's latest is a master's degree in terrific writing, strong characters, and just plain excitement. Don't you dare miss it." —National bestselling author Shane Gericke, Torn Apart

"Earl Merkel's new thriller, Fire Of The Prophet, is a frightening and extremely well-crafted narrative of today's domestic-terror nightmare, from the specter of the 'blue-eyed terrorist' to the dark international conspiracies aimed at the heart of America in our world today..." —Bob Hamer, author of The Last Undercover and former FBI undercover agent