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The “Right” Call
Rogue Vengeance is the third installment in the Colt Hawkins Series and follows a network of CIA and special forces operations figures as their personal lives collide with international violence. What draws you to the espionage thriller genre?
There’s a particular tension in espionage that you don’t find anywhere else in fiction- the collision between the personal and the geopolitical. A spy can’t have a normal conversation, can’t fully trust the person across the dinner table, can’t ever truly come home. That fascinates me. The genre lets me explore loyalty, deception, and sacrifice at their absolute extremes, where a single decision ripples across borders and lives.
With the Colt Hawkins Series, I wanted to write thrillers that move at full throttle but never lose the human heartbeat underneath. The CIA briefings and the firefights are the engine, but the fuel is always the story and the characters. Rogue Vengeance is where that combustion really ignites- the stakes feel global, but every chapter comes back to people you’ve grown to care about over three books.
Colt is repeatedly forced to choose between duty and personal happiness. Why was that conflict important to the story?
That conflict is Colt Hawkins. A man who’s exceptional at his job precisely because he’s willing to give up everything- and a man who’s slowly realizing that “everything” includes the people he loves most.
I built that tension into the story because I think it’s the truest thing about anyone who serves. The mission demands total commitment, but commitment has a cost, and someone always pays it. By the third book, Colt can no longer compartmentalize. The two halves of his life crash into each other, and watching him try to be both the operative the world needs and the man his loved ones deserve- and learning he may not get both- is the emotional core of Rogue Vengeance. Readers who’ve followed Colt from the beginning will feel that weight in a way that hits hard.
What does the novel say about the limits of patriotism?
This is the question that kept me up at night while writing. Patriotism is often portrayed as uncomplicated–love your country, serve without question. But real loyalty gets tested in the gray spaces, where the “right” call and the “being ordered” aren’t the same thing.
Rogue Vengeance asks what happens when serving your country means betraying your conscience, or when the institutions you’ve bled for stop deserving that blood. Colt and the network around him are forced to define where their loyalty actually lives- in a flag, in their orders, in each other, or in their own sense of right and wrong. I don’t hand the reader an easy answer, because there isn’t one. What I do offer is a story that makes you feel the cost of every choice and respect the people willing to make them.
What is the next book you are working on, and when will it be available?
We are going to release an Audio version of Rogue Vengeance that will be out around August. The sequel to Rogue Vengeance, Book 4, The Price of Freedom, picks up moments after Rogue finishes. And it is the centerpiece of the Colt Hawkins Series. It is completed and sitting on the shelf. We are going to wait a bit before its release. I have maybe a standalone WWII Historical Epic Fiction Novel, Ties That Bind (179K words), that just went through final edit. That I will seek representation for. And we have done the rough outline for Book 5 of the Colt Hawkins Series, Arch Angel.
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Their own government outcasts Colt and his team, Task Force 24, as ruthless Chinese assassins brutally attack the woman he loves on their wedding day, leaving her severely wounded.
But Colt isn’t dead- Now, it’s personal, he won’t rest until he’s hunted down every last person responsible.
With a mole at the highest levels of power and a ruthless enemy leader pulling the strings, Colt finds himself a target of both the intelligence community that abandoned him and a vengeful Chinese death squad. Aided by his former teammates, Colt uncovers a conspiracy that goes deeper than he ever imagined. Now, his quest for revenge becomes a race against time to save his country from a devastating espionage plot.
The lines between loyalty and betrayal blur as Colt must decide if he can trust the very agency that cast him out. With a new CIA director at the helm and an elite operative watching over the woman he loves, Colt must navigate a deadly game of international espionage where the only rule is survival.
Rogue Vengeance
Rogue Vengeance, by Charles A. Stewart, is a military espionage thriller about betrayal, loyalty, and the heavy cost of service. The story follows Colt Hawkins, Liberty Starr, Jesse, and a network of CIA and special operations figures as personal lives collide with international violence. What begins around a wedding and a fragile hope for peace quickly turns into a larger conflict involving China, covert missions, political pressure, revenge, and survival. It’s an action-heavy thriller, but underneath the gunfire and strategy, it’s also about people trying to hold onto love, purpose, and identity after trauma.
The pacing in this story is fantastic. Stewart writes in short, sharp bursts that often feel like quick camera cuts. One scene is intimate and warm, with family gathered around a ranch house or Colt trying to imagine a quieter future, and then the next scene drops into surveillance, ambush planning, or prison brutality. That contrast works well for the genre. It keeps the pressure high. The book feels almost built for the screen, with clean scene breaks, direct action, and a strong sense of movement. I did sometimes want a little more breathing room, especially when the cast widened and the operational details stacked up. But I also understood the choice. This is a thriller that wants the reader alert, not settled.
I was most drawn to the emotional spine of the book. Colt isn’t just another tough operator who can take a bullet and keep moving. He is a man being asked, again and again, how much of himself he can give before there’s nothing left. The scenes with Liberty give the story its heart, and they make the violence matter more because there is something real at stake beyond mission success. Jesse’s captivity adds another layer, showing endurance in a quieter but no less brutal form. Stewart’s ideas are clear: duty can save people, but it can also consume them; loyalty is noble, but it can become a chain; and governments often treat sacrifice like a renewable resource. That’s where the book feels most grounded to me.
I would recommend Rogue Vengeance to readers who enjoy military thrillers, CIA action stories, and revenge-driven espionage novels with a large cast and a strong patriotic edge. Fans of high-stakes operations, tactical detail, and stories about brotherhood under pressure will probably appreciate it most. Readers looking for a fast, emotional, mission-focused thriller with both firepower and heart should find plenty to enjoy here.
Pages: 429 | ASIN : B0GFXJYSQ2
