When I first started writing Bradley’s Gambit, I didn’t set out to create a thriller series. I set out to explore a man trying to outrun himself.

Bradley Ghast came to me as a quiet figure at the edge of a Colorado ridge—worn down, carrying more scars inside than out, and convinced that isolation was the safest path forward. What unfolded surprised me as much as it did him: a web of danger moving unseen through small-town America, and a reluctant hero who couldn’t look away once he realized the truth.

The Heart of the Story

The core of Bradley’s Gambit is simple:

A quiet town.

 A haunted man.

 A threat no one else is willing to see.

From the moment Bradley notices the unmarked trucks on the ridge at night, his world shifts. And what begins as a curiosity becomes a collision between his desire to disappear and his instinct to protect.

But beneath the gunfire, the investigation, and the storm of tension, the book is—at its roots—about healing.

 Or the attempt to.

Bradley’s dry humor, his guarded warmth, and his stubborn refusal to let the world break him again are what drive this story. And if you felt a connection to him, you aren’t alone. Writing him forced me to breathe my own demons into words that needed to be said, even through a different voice.

The Town That Became a Character

 I did a lot of growing up in Colorado, from high school age into early adult life and the feel of the entire state is just... frankly, legendary. Every city, mountain range and farm has a long history and eventful past. I chose a place that I have little connection to, but felt like the right kind of place for Bradley to begin this adventure.

Montrose wasn’t meant to be a fully fleshed-out character in the early drafts, but the moment Teagan stepped onto the page, the story shifted.

 Her presence added grounding—and vulnerability—that pulled Bradley out of hiding in ways he wasn’t prepared for.

The town, with its murmured conversations, unspoken fears, and slow-building tension, became the perfect pressure cooker. A place where danger could hide in plain sight… and where someone like Bradley could blend in just long enough for trouble to find him.

And trouble does find him.

The Secrets I Couldn’t Reveal… Yet

Readers often ask me:

“Did you always know this book would turn into a series?”

The honest answer is no—not at first.

 But around the midpoint of Bradley’s Gambit, something changed.

A shadow began to take shape around the criminal network on the ridge. There were deeper motives at work… whispers of connections that stretched far beyond one county line. Bradley’s past, too, began to tug at the edges of the story in a way that refused to stay quiet.

Let’s just say this:

Some enemies don’t stay buried. Some investigations don’t stay local. Some ghosts don’t stay ghosts.

By the time I reached the final chapters, it was clear that Bradley’s story wasn’t finished. Not even close.

There were bigger forces at play. Inside and out for this veteran. 

 Questions I didn’t know how to answer yet.

 A truth about his past that Bradley himself doesn’t know.

And someone—out there in the wider world—has been watching far longer than he realizes.

What Comes Next

I’ll be sharing a full post soon about Book 2: Bradley’s Reckoning, but here’s your first breadcrumb:

The small-town shadows of Gambit were only the beginning. In the next book, Bradley is pulled into something far larger, far older, and far more dangerous than he—or the town of Montrose—ever imagined.

 And the cost of stepping into that world may be greater than he’s prepared for.

If Gambit was about survival and awakening…

Reckoning is about collision.

Stay tuned for the next blog post—because Bradley’s past is about to catch up with him, and nothing on that ridge was as simple as it seemed.