After seeing his best friend incarcerated in one of Afghanistan's most brutal prisons, Damien Collins, part of an elite intelligence-gathering team enlisted in the fight against ISIS, returns to the United States to try to put his world back together.
Relapse picks up where Andrew E. Coussens' first novel, A Failed State, left off. We watch Damien wrestle with his powerlessness over Loki's situation and the ongoing protection order his wife has against him that keeps him from seeing his daughter. Despite his increasing anxiety that leads him to seek counseling, Damien also trains to deploy to a brand-new area of operations in the War on Terror. Meanwhile, Loki finds himself facing corrupt guards, Afghani officials, and Taliban commanders, all scheming to impose their wrath on the American operator in their midst. At home, his wife and daughter wait breathlessly for any word that he might be released.
Nor have ISIS' threats ceased. Leo, Damien and Loki's former case officer, finds himself in charge of an entirely new intelligence division working feverishly trying to keep ISIS from spreading north out of Iraq and Syria. Rumors of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and the elusive twins splatter the map like their victim's blood, beginning with their latest attack in Germany. Leo knows ISIS has even more dubious plans as war immigrants march northward and the threat of more lone wolf attacks hang like a specter over Europe.
Relapse takes you into the deteriorating family lives and minds of these three heroes' intent on defeating ISIS, regardless of personal cost.
