The Last Reporter · Book One
The Tenth of Av
Veteran reporter Ray Mercer uncovers a government secret: a hole in a hillside in Israel that opens onto first-century Jerusalem.
Something deadly has already come back through it, and powerful people want it.
Ray goes through, into a great city about to be wiped out. He knows what’s coming. He can’t stop it. And the people who sent him would rather he never came back.
Kindle preorders open now — publishes November 3, 2026
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Meet Ray Mercer.
Detroit, winter 2003. Three men are dead in a rooming house fire, and the only witness is an old Army veteran nobody believes. Ray Mercer, a young TV reporter who will not run a story on one source, sets out to find a second. A complete, standalone story from The Last Reporter series, free.
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The Premise of the Last Reporter Series
In the spring of AD 70, four Roman legions closed around Jerusalem and the greatest city of the ancient world began to starve. Inside the walls, a working reporter kept notes on everything — the factions, the famine, the fire. The Tenth of Av is the story of what it costs to keep reporting when the world you cover is ending.
“The entire book kept me engaged and unable to put it down. The storyline is something I’ve never read before, and that says a lot! I am on the edge of my seat waiting for the next book.”
Della Collins — reader review
From the Desk
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Why the siege of Jerusalem is a reporter's story
Four legions, three factions, one city that refused to fall quietly. Notes on the research behind The Tenth of Av.
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The road to Pella
On the escape route at the heart of the book, and the map that had to be drawn to tell it properly.
The Author
A working reporter for four decades, now telling the story of the first one.
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