A Political Crime Thriller · Out Now
The First Call
He found their mistake. They set the trap.
The error was a typo. The cleanup was a manhunt. John Thorn noticed the transaction, and by morning he had lost his firm, his name, and the night he meant to propose.
The Premise
Those in power can make you a terrorist by Thursday.
John Thorn checks numbers for the richest family in America. He is very good at it. That was his first mistake.
The transaction was small. Buried. Routine, except that it never should have existed, because money that funds a massacre is not supposed to touch a legitimate account. Someone got careless.
And they know he saw it.
Within hours, there is a federal task force with his name in its mouth. His face on every screen in America. A machine built to find terrorists, aimed by the people who create them. His accounts are dead. His name is a weapon pointed back at him. Every friend is now bait.
He can run. His brother taught him how, years ago, as if he knew.
But the woman he was going to propose to on Wednesday night is still out there. And they know exactly what she means to him.
From Chapter One
She is asleep when the door comes off its hinges.
Three men. She turns toward the en-suite bathroom. To the left of it on the wood-paneled wall is the button carefully concealed in a carved wooden egg at its border. She reaches out toward the button and the panic room it opens. Her fingertip finds the edge of the carved egg, the cool smoothness of it, and for a brief moment, she believes she is going to make it. Then a hand closes on her right shoulder, large and certain, and before she can turn or scream, another hand covers her mouth with a cloth that smells of nothing she can name. She has time to think that she was right there. Then the room goes black.
Same World. Different Stories.
Each novel stands on its own. Together, they add up to something larger.
David Rhue has spent 25 years helping businesses deploy and run their financial systems. A solution architect by trade and a storyteller by conviction, he writes thrillers about what institutions do to the people inside them. The First Call is his debut novel. He lives in Florida with his family.
The Particulars
| Format | Ebook, Paperback |
| Publication Date | September 15, 2026 (ebook), October 7, 2026 (paperback) |
| Price | $9.99 ebook, $19.99 paperback |
| Length | 462 pages (paperback) |
| ISBN | 979-8-90678-598-5 (ebook), 979-8174703667 (paperback) |
| Categories | Political Thriller, Crime Thriller |
| Series | Standalone |
| Content | Clean language. No explicit sexual content. Contains violence. |
Some mistakes get corrected. Others get buried.
The First Call. Out now in ebook and paperback.