AMIRA, Matthew Betley [best books to read in life txt] 📗

they could ask for.  Their today was enough for each of them, as no one was ever promised a tomorrow.

Author’s Note

Dear Friends, Fans, & Readers,

Over the years of the Logan West series, I’ve received more fan letters and emails about Amira since I introduced her in my second thriller, OATH OF HONOR.  She has been one of my most-cherished characters to develop, and her story arc has been filled with love, heartbreak, loss, and resolve, especially after the events of RULES OF WAR and the death of her father.  I’d always planned to write her origin story and revisit her past, including her mission in Sudan that I referenced when you first meet her in OATH.  And now, for a variety of reasons, the timing seemed perfect, and I wrote this story from December 2020 to January 2021.

The goals of this story are, first and foremost, to entertain; to elicit an emotional response; to delve deeper into the origins of Amira’s character; and to draw you further into the world of Logan West.  I hope you love it as much as I loved writing it.  I have to admit, the scene in Sudan is one of the favorite things I’ve penned.  It’s just chilling and terrifying when you really envision yourself in that scene.

As for what comes next in the world of Logan West, I honestly don’t know.  Since I’ve been in this business and signed my first book deal in 2014, I’ve often been accused of being too honest, too direct, and too open, but as a recovering alcoholic and former Marine, I truly don’t know how to be any other way.  As much as people in this business want me to change – and they’ve tried; believe me – I won’t.  It’s just not in my nature.  I will succeed or fail on my own merits, and like the alien hunter says at the end of PREDATOR, “I am what I am.”  And in that vein, I have to tell you that after four Logan West books, I amicably left Simon & Schuster.

As you likely know, THE NEIGHBORHOOD, my next major novel, a standalone about a gated community that comes under siege one night by an assault force looking for something and turns into a modern take on a spy thriller with atypical characters, comes out from Blackstone Publishing in 2022.  I actually finished that novel early last year, which was why I had the time to write AMIRA.  And while AMIRA is as polished as any of my thrillers (fun fact: I love editing, for real), I’m self-publishing this one through Amazon.  It gives me the flexibility to do it exactly the way I wanted and deliver a high-quality product at a greatly reduced price.  Having said that, to write a full-length Logan West thriller (and I’ve had a great story line in my head for two years, and it’s still current), AMIRA will have to do well.  That is just the brutal truth of this business.

No matter what you may think of publishing, it is infinitely harder than you can imagine, with roadblocks created at every junction and business models that literally operate backwards.  I was naïve when I started in this business, but a few years beat that naivete right out of me like Amira beat Omar.  Having said that, no matter where my writing takes me, I want to return to the universe of Logan West at some point.

And with that, I wish you all well.  I pray you made it through 2020 safe and healthy, and I pray life will return to some sort of normalcy as soon as possible.  I am forever in your debt, for without you, there is no Amira Cerone, and there is no wonderful world of Logan West.  Onward.

About The Author

Matthew Betley is a former Marine officer of ten years.  His experience includes deployments to Djibouti after September 11, and to Iraq prior to The Surge.  A New Jersey native who grew up in Cincinnati, he graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, with a BA in psychology and minors in political science and sociology.  Most importantly, Matt is a recovering alcoholic 12 years sober and an advocate for victims of toxic burn pit exposure from deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan, and other bases around the world.