When the United States Intelligence Community learns of China’s bioweapon plans, it activates a phantom secret agent, known only as “The Hawk,” to slip behind enemy lines in this spine-chilling thriller. June 30, 2019. A top-secret intelligence op is activated as President Bob Emmett of the United States of America walks across the 38th parallel in North Korea to meet with supreme leader Kim Sung Jin. While the world’s attention is distracted by the historic meeting, a green light activates onboard a two-man submarine off a remote North Korean beachhead, near the Chinese border, 1,411 miles north of the demilitarized zone. No one from the US has entered North Korea without an escort since the end of the Korean Conflict. Scott Walsh—America’s phantom spy known only by his call sign “The Hawk”—would be America’s first. But will he survive the mission? From the moment Walsh surreptitiously enters North Korea, he discovers everything the US Intelligence Community suspected is wrong—deadly wrong. Despite being briefed on the likelihood of finding a hypersonic nuclear missile facility, he instead finds a sophisticated underground medical complex, with human guinea pigs and an open grave site where thousands of bodies are burned. He also learns it isn’t North Korea’s operation. Is it a lab for testing bioweapons? Or something even more sinister? Walsh’s initial findings set into motion a race to save an unsuspecting world. John Fitzgerald delivers a visceral, heart-racing tour de force and weaves together a captivating tale of “what ifs” in a US versus China conflict that blurs the line between fact and fiction in this cautionary tale for the future. "This novel works on so many levels. It's a gripping page turner with spellbinding plots that will keep you reading deep into the night. But it also is informative about the real world of espionage, international intrigue, bioterrorism, and geopolitics. In addition, is so well written and insightful in development of the main characters in the novel. John Fitzgerald writes like a mixture of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Tom Clancy." —Stanford Erickson, novelist, non-fiction author, forty-five year journalist, and member of the National Press Club covering US presidents, Congress, international trade, and economics "The embedded warning in this spy world thriller, Operation Deathblow , exposes the ongoing clash for world dominance between China and the United States. Heed the prescient lessons learned from the worldwide pandemic that spread from China's Wuhan Institute and killed more than seven million people. This is a chilling, silent, insider story that is rarely told of the unimaginable terror between the world's superpowers." — Michael Gaffney, photojournalist, photographer, and author of The Champ: My Year with Muhammad Ali "Fitzgerald has produced a captivating, propulsive thriller. Must-read." —John J. Waters, author of the postwar novel River City One "A timely and sometimes terrifying page-turner. Fitzgerald meets Follett in the pages of this political thriller. The gripping twists and turns of the storytelling collide with the realism of our present-day turbulent times. A must read for the coming year!" — Dean M. DeLuke, author of the thriller novel Shedrow