“Sandblast is tense, believable and relevant.  Pessin calls on his years in the Pentagon and White House press corps for the keen details that bring this tale to life. There's a high emotional content here, too, as we follow the almost impossible quest of a likable and massively outgunned hero.”

T. Jefferson Parker, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Good Guy

"Sandblast is the definition of a terrific military thriller--straightforward, precise and devastating. This timely, realistic story--with its authentic and knowing voice, and courageous main characters-- propels readers to the peak of white-knuckled brinksmanship, and will be awarded top marks by fans of Alex Berensen and Vince Flynn."  

Hank Phillippi Ryan, Mary Higgins Clark, Anthony, and five-time Agatha Award winner

“In Sandblast, Al Pessin has crafted a taut action-thriller that really pulls you in. You’ll feel like you’re right beside the main character, on an increasingly perilous journey filled with impossible choices that threaten to change him at his very core. The plot is highly original, and I felt like I was there. It’s a great book.”

Henry V. O'Neil, author of The Sim War Series

"So exciting, and so terrifyingly realistic, you won’t be able to put it down. If you like complex international thrillers, keep Al Pessin on your short list of must-read authors."

D.J. Niko, international bestselling author of The Sarah Weston Chronicles 

"Sandblast is an aptly titled nail-biter of a thriller that opens at a pulse-rattling pace and only ratchets upwards from there. Al Pessin not only knows how to tell a story, but his journalistic background imbues this tale of an Afghan-American Army officer infiltrating a terrorist organization with compelling authority."

Les Standiford, author of Water to the Angels, director of the Creative Writing Program at Florida International University

“Sandblast vividly depicts a close-to-real scene, (which) makes the story more entertaining, real and educating.” 

 Ali Ahmad Jalali, author, Afghanistan Ambassador to Germany; former Interior Minister of Afghanistan and Afghan presidential candidate; Distinguished Professor at the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies (NESA) at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C.

“The author writes with incredible authenticity...exceptionally well plotted...complex and consistent...each chapter adds a new hook...the story will appeal to a broad range of readers. We met the people, felt their anxiety, sweated with them in their decision process. This is a deeper story than it appears...the inner turmoil of [the] protagonists propels the story. The reader is pulled along, seeing lives lived, lost, and changed.  [Faraz] is a heroic character of sequel deserving merit.”

Statement of the judges of the Royal Palm Literary Awards, given by the Florida Writers Association

Sandblast

SANDBLAST tracks U.S. Army Lt. Faraz Abdallah, whose assignment is to use his ethnicity and language skills to get close to the new leader of the Taliban and Al-Qaida in remote eastern Afghanistan, and to call in an air strike or Special Forces raid. In the process, Faraz is forced to actually become a terrorist, and starts to lose himself in the seductive vortex of militant Islamic ideology. West Point grad and combat zone veteran Bridget Davenport runs his mission from the Pentagon, navigating political obstacles, changing priorities and reports of an impending 9-11-scale attack. She fights the military brass, the bureaucracy and the president himself to keep Faraz safe. As Faraz falls more and more deeply into his undercover identity, Bridget finds herself in the White House Situation Room, the Oval Office, and under fire during a trip to Afghanistan. She is also adapting to her new civilian life as a single, 38-year-old woman working in a man’s world, and trying to figure out how she feels about her boyfriend Will, a Navy SEAL who is deployed in Afghanistan, just a few miles from the Taliban camp where Faraz is pursuing his mission. SANDBLAST is a tale of bravery and the ambiguity of outcomes in war and politics, and has an ending that is simultaneously surprising and inevitable, and begs for more from these characters.