A couple in the pipeline:

First, Steven Pressfield has a new historical novel out about special ops in North Africa. The author of Gates of Fire, about Thermopylae, and The Virtues of War, on Alexander, leaps two millenia ahead to take on Rommel, or more accurately, the folks who took on Rommel in 1942 and early 1943. We meet the SAS, the LRDG, and my favorite, Popski’s Private Army.

As with all of Pressfield’s work, the historical characters do what they actually did, while the fictional personages weave them together into another page-turner. I’m about half way through, but first impressions are that Killing Rommel may be his best work. While you’re waiting for your copy, play The Full Monty (no, not that one) at www.killingrommel.com. Turning from special ops to covert ops, I’m also about half way through Pat Lang’s The Butcher’s Cleaver.

Confederate spies in DC — it doesn’t get better than this. Lang is an expert in the Civil War and a guru of intelligence (I crossed a path or two with him when we were both in DIA). The two make an irresistible combination. Stay tuned.