The story starts with an attack on Americans near the Syrian border–and then Foreign Agent, the latest thriller from Brad Thor, embarks on a new globetrotting, ripped-from-the-headlines adventure with series hero Scot Harvath.

In a 10-minute conversation with The Bookmonger, Thor talks about how he incorporates world events into his tales, whether suspending visas from Muslim countries is a good idea, and what he thinks of the 2016 presidential election.

Conservatives on the state level are rethinking imprisonment, says Steven Teles, co-author (with David Dagan) of Prison Break: Why Conservatives Turned Against Mass Incarceration.

In a 10-minute conversation with The Bookmonger, Teles explains why our polarized politics have created an opportunity for reform, whether new policies will cause crime rates to rise, and how liberal views about crime and prisons also have changed over the last generation.