The Half a World series follows combat engineer Major Jake Reynolds as he journeys his way through a world torn apart by a devastating plague. After surviving the virus and the chaotic aftermath he’s been conscripted to lead Task Force 66 in its mission of converting surviving towns into livable self-sustaining cities. It’s a task he’s good at, but it takes a heavy toll. Without any options and nowhere else to go he forges ahead, waiting for something to change. That change arrives in the form of Harper Crowe, a woman who has a mission much different than his. Jake now has an option, if he’s brave enough to take it.
After the world ends, survival isn’t about saving cities — it’s about deciding which ones deserve to live.
Closure: A Jack Randall Thriller
When a prominent lawyer is shot while waiting at a suburban stop sign it sets off a nation-wide manhunt for an elusive killer. Special Agent Jack Randall of the FBI finds himself appointed to…
Pestilence: A Jack Randall Thriller
The bombing of an American Embassy in Africa pulls Special Agent Jack Randall out of his current doghouse status with the FBI and sends him on the trail of one of the worlds most wanted terrorist…
Closure
Just finished reading Closure and enjoyed it tremendously. Very well written and spellbinding storyline.
Reviewed in the USA on June 2, 2014
Scarcity: A Jack Randall Thriller
A teenage girl is kidnapped in Mexico City as a young boy in Afghanistan is wounded by artillery fire. A plane crashes in Florida while a man desperately waits for a new heart in Maryland…
Security: A Jack Randall Thriller
Deep under the city of Niagara Falls lies the largest tunnel ever constructed. Soon to be completed it will supply a steady supply of water to the Robert Moses Power Plant, a facility that supplies…
Closure by Randall Wood
An absolute page turner. I couldn’t put it down, i was so drawn into this story. I ‘ll definitely reading more randall wood.
by Broslin Creek boxed set by Dana Marton on May 2, 2015
Rebellion: A Jack Randall Thriller
Justice isn’t dead . . . yet. It’s been two years since Sam Shepherd embarked on a one-man mission to change the judicial system, a mission that ended on live television in front of a stunned nation…
Resistance: A Jack Randall Thriller
While Anna struggles with her new identity, the Shepherds mission continues. But a mistake is made. One that may compromise one of their own. At the same time, their opposition intensifies…
Great action from start to finish
Another great Randall Wood book. Keeps your interest from page one. Jack is much believable than most.
by George Coyle on January 23, 2015
Rubicon: A Jack Randall Thriller
In book three of The Twelve Shepherds Saga we discover that the mission of the Shepherds is more than just the pursuit of justice. The corruption and unscrupulousness of those in power have resulted in a public…
Revolution: A Jack Randall Thriller
***Previously published as HOMELAND*** With the escape of the captured Shepherd, Special Agent Jack Randall of the FBI finds himself and his case back to square one. Called back to DC to face the music…
Closure
Just finished reading Closure and enjoyed it tremendously. Very well written and spellbinding storyline.
Reviewed in the USA on June 2, 2014
Renaissance: A Jack Randall Thriller
After an unexpected battle with drug traffickers and mother nature, Jack returns to Washington DC, where he finds himself appointed by the president to be the public face…
Rebirth: A Jack Randall Thriller
Jack and his crew are distracted, searching for the escaped assassin, and not knowing that operation Rubicon is in motion. The General and William are determined see Rubicon through…
Closure by Randall Wood
An absolute page turner. I couldn’t put it down, i was so drawn into this story. I ‘ll definitely reading more randall wood.
by Broslin Creek boxed set by Dana Marton on May 2, 2015
Closure: A Jack Randall Thriller
When someone is murdered by a sniper with a military past, it sets off a nationwide manhunt for an elusive serial killer. FBI Special Agent Jack Randall finds himself appointed to track down and stop the shooter. Not by his superiors, but by the killer himself. As more bodies fall, the vigilante takes his political messages to the press, earning the support of the public with his choice of targets and confounding the FBI at every turn. From the desert of Nevada to the urban jungle of New York City, Jack and his team follow the trail of bodies and haunting messages left behind by the vengeful killer. With Jack racing against time, the assassin’s crimes grow bolder, and his message more sinister and closer to home. It becomes clear to Jack that, in order to find the shooter, he will have to look inside his own past and become the man he was years ago.
Pestilence: A Jack Randall Thriller
The bombing of an American Embassy in Africa pulls Special Agent Jack Randall out of his current doghouse status with the FBI and sends him on the trail of one of the worlds most wanted terrorist. While sifting through the debris, his team discovers a mysterious shipment of medications. Medications they soon discover that are valuable enough to kill for. Jack is forced to embark on two missions, catching the terrorist responsible for the bombing and discovering the source of the medications. The trail leads him from the deserts of Africa, to the Centers for Disease Control, and on to the higher offices of the United States Government. As the team uncovers the true nature and purpose of the medications, Jack is faced with a decades old plot involving secret treaties, biological warfare, and deadly plagues.
Scarcity: A Jack Randall Thriller
A teenage girl is kidnapped in Mexico City as a young boy in Afghanistan is wounded by artillery fire. A plane crashes in Florida while a man desperately waits for a new heart in Maryland. A senator’s daughter is critically injured in a car accident as a captured drug runner makes a deal with the DEA. Before he can settle into his new job with Homeland Security, Jack Randall of the FBI finds himself pulled into the seedy world of black market organ trading. With help from an old friend from Interpol he soon uncovers an evil well fed by the desperation of good people. An evil that strikes with the power to force its deeds on anyone. Jack soon learns that in order to defeat such an enemy, he may have to go to war against his own people, and himself.
Security: A Jack Randall Thriller
Deep under the city of Niagara Falls lies the largest tunnel ever constructed. Soon to be completed it will supply a steady supply of water to the Robert Moses Power Plant, a facility that supplies most of the energy for the upper east coast of the United States. Jack and his team arrive to inspect the security of the project before it goes into operation, but Al Qaeda has other plans. Taking over the facility the terrorist now hold the staff and the entire eastern seaboard hostage. Jack finds himself cut off and trapped. He has two problems. One, he’s 400 feet underground, and two, one of the hostages is his wife. The terrorist think they have the upper hand, but they don’t know Jack.
Rebellion: A Jack Randall Thriller
Justice isn’t dead . . . yet. It’s been two years since Sam Shepherd embarked on a one-man mission to change the judicial system, a mission that ended on live television in front of a stunned nation. His mission became a calling, a movement for change that demanded to be heard. They didn’t listen. From the ashes of that mission rises a new group, one that has vowed to succeed where Sam failed. Special Agent Jack Randall of the FBI is tasked with stopping them. It promises to be a fight such as he’s never known. This time he’s not after one killer. He’s up against twelve.
Resistance: A Jack Randall Thriller
While Anna struggles with her new identity, the Shepherds mission continues. But a mistake is made. One that may compromise one of their own. At the same time, their opposition intensifies, as Special Agent Jack Randall of the FBI returns from the cold to become the head of the investigation. He quickly monopolizes on the Shepherds mistake and zeros in on the band of assassins. But even if he manages to capture one, will the other Shepherds allow it? With the General refusing to back down, and the White House under increased pressure to defeat them, the Shepherds soon find themselves face-to-face with Jack Randall, and the outcome is like nothing either party expected.
Rubicon: A Jack Randall Thriller
In book three of The Twelve Shepherds Saga we discover that the mission of the Shepherds is more than just the pursuit of justice. The corruption and unscrupulousness of those in power have resulted in a public outcry that can no longer be ignored. With the help of the press the people themselves apply pressure on those in office, and as a result the mission reaches a turning point. The Shepherds now target the root of the problem, knowing that when crossing that line, there is no turning back.
Revolution: A Jack Randall Thriller
***Previously published as HOMELAND*** With the escape of the captured Shepherd, Special Agent Jack Randall of the FBI finds himself and his case back to square one. Called back to DC to face the music, he instead chooses to visit Florida and the scene of the latest Shepherd’s target. Getting there was easy, but getting out is something totally different. When desperate people fleeing the path of a major hurricane chose to do so through the tiny border town of Homeland, Florida, it brings trouble the town is not prepared for. Jack, and his partner Sydney Lewis, only want to get home to DC and pursue their case against the vigilante group known as The Twelve Shepherds. The shortcut looked like a good idea. A few cars ahead of them are four men who have the same thought, but with very different goals. Armed to the teeth and carrying 50 keys of cocaine destined for the east coast, the four men find themselves caught between the FBI and a pair of small town deputies. Cut off from the outside world by the storm and a washed-out bridge, Jack must team up with the young policemen to save the town from the four violent killers. One of which is someone he did not expect. Revolution is the eighth novel in the bestselling Jack Randall series of thrillers.
Renaissance: A Jack Randall Thriller
After an unexpected battle with drug traffickers and mother nature, Jack returns to Washington DC, where he finds himself appointed by the president to be the public face of the Twelve Shepherds investigation. The country and the government now look to him to stop their campaign. But the Shepherds have gone into hiding. With no new leads to pursue, and a growing unrest among the population both for and against the Shepherds actions, Jack finds himself in a no-win situation. He’s forced to wait for the Shepherds to make the next move. His wait won’t be long. The General has been keeping a close eye on the public’s reaction, and with the nation-wide protests dominating the people’s attention, he launches Rubicon, the final operation of the Shepherds’ plan. It’s a plan that places Jack between two warring tribes. To survive, he may have to pick one.1
Rebirth: A Jack Randall Thriller
Jack and his crew are distracted, searching for the escaped assassin, and not knowing that operation Rubicon is in motion. The General and William are determined see Rubicon through, and send the Shepherds out on their final mission. Haney and The Trust have other plans. But will they be in time? Jack senses something is coming—something big—and he doesn’t know that he is now in the sights of both groups. When the final day arrives, it is a day that the citizens of the United States will never forget, a day of new beginnings and fateful ends, a day when everything and everyone will have closure. Will operation Rubicon succeed? Will Jack survive? Will Anna find her way home? By the time the sun rises, those questions will all be answered. Permanently. Both the nation and Jack will never be the same again. Rebirth is the sixth and final chapter of the Twelve Shepherds Saga.
Half a World Book One
It’s been five years since the virus.
Some say it was the earth itself shedding its human parasites. Others say it was engineered by man and unleashed across the world before we could poison it forever. Whatever the cause may have been, it ended with the death of over five billion people.
The years that followed were chaotic. Every country lost people thought to be irreplaceable. The virus did not discriminate; presidents, dictators, scientists, and scholars all fell alongside the common man. Rich or poor, their fate was the same.
Infrastructure failed. Transportation died with the flow of oil. The world burned. For a while, it looked like the end of us all, until the virus eventually mutated and spared those that remained.
Those of us who survived are now heavily burdened to fill the roles of the deceased. Those who have the knowledge pass it on to keep the world running. We’ve had to hurry, both to survive and to protect what is left.
But it’s proven to be too much. Whole cities have been abandoned or shut down. When the power went off and the water stopped flowing, the people left, leaving a toxic wasteland behind them. Eventually, the government managed to reorganize under the former Secretary of Defense, and the world is now being prepared for a leaner and more efficient America.
That’s where I come in. My name is Major Jake Reynolds, and I’m here to kill your city.
Half a World Book Two
My name’s just Jake now. I’m no longer a Major or the leader of Task Force 66, but that’s my own fault. I’m also in a world of hurt.
Tossing aside my safe existence as the leader of Task Force 66 and sailing into the jaws of a class 3 hurricane may not have been the smartest decision I ever made, but I had a good reason.
Her name is Harper.
She and I are all alone now. Our entire world has been reduced to the size of a forty-foot sailboat. I have no sailing skills, there’s no backup plan, and no telling what’s over the horizon waiting for us. I have no idea what to even do next.
I’m going to have to think my way through this, just like I’ve done since the virus hit us. She tells me that danger on the sea is just as bad as the post-apocalyptic world we left behind. I’m not sure what to make of that yet, but I imagine I’ll find out very soon.
It’s only 8,000 miles. How hard could it be?
Half a World Book Three
My old mission was to rebuild the world.
Harper’s mission was all about escaping it.
I’m part of her plan now, but it hasn’t been easy.
We’ve been battling the ocean and a few of the people we’ve met along the way since we set off on this quest to cross half the world. But I’m learning. To sail. To fish. To navigate. I’m getting us there one problem at a time.
But every day we have less. Less wind. Less fuel. Less ammunition. And it’s hard to work on a boat while it’s moving. Mother Nature hasn’t been much help. Currents that work against us, shifting winds, and savage storms have made the journey so far a rough one.
A damaged boat and limited supplies are forcing us to alter our plans. Ahead of us lies the most remote inhabited island in the world. Everyone we’ve met so far has been less than friendly. I can only hope that whoever is left on the island is the opposite.
We won’t stay long. Just enough to patch the boat back together and hopefully stock up on a few things.
Sounds easy. But in this post-apoc world we live in now, nothing is.
Half a World Book Four
Our brief stay on Tristan was both impossibly good and incredibly bad.
While we accomplished our goals of repairing the boat and stocking it up for the remaining miles ahead, our departure was unexpectedly violent. I nearly lost both Harper and the boat. We traveled on, bruised and battered, but somehow still alive.
Somewhere in all that mess, we gained a passenger. Her name is Hope.
The three of us made it as far as the Indian Ocean before meeting one of the world’s largest creatures. That encounter has changed our mission from completing our journey to one of simply surviving to the next day.
Our entire world now consists of a few square feet of life raft. There’s no one to call. No rescue coming, There’s just 2,000 miles of open ocean to cross to Australia.
We’re very much on our own.
Half a World Book Five
Arriving in Australia unconscious and unarmed was not my plan.
After several weeks in a life raft on the open ocean, Harper and I have survived only to be thrust into a land of desert heat, limited resources, and warring clans of plague survivors.
Fortunately, our hosts are good people.
Harper and I are both grateful, but the last thing we want to do is get pulled into someone else’s war. Getting us back on our journey may come with a cost. I’m just not sure if I want to pay it.
To keep us both alive, I’ll have to devise a plan to escape this conflict. But leaving it behind is only the beginning of our troubles. We still have thousands of miles of Australian outback to traverse.
We’ve traded a world of water for the parched desert and death at every turn.
Half A World Book Six
Harper is asking a lot of me.
After crossing three oceans, outlasting storms, pirates, sunken boats, warring tribes, starvation, and the heat of the outback, she may have finally asked too much.
How am I supposed to drag six-thousand pounds of derelict sailboat across the sand and get into the ocean?
And what then? I’m expected to help her sail it along a hostile coastline, and then gamble our lives against one of the most dangerous stretches of water on the planet. I don’t see a way.
But we’re so close. Our goal seems just over the horizon. She’s counting on me to find a way there.
I will. Just give me a minute.
Half a World Book Seven
The boat may be a floating pile of carbon fiber grinding itself to pieces on the rocky shoreline of New Zealand, but Harper is once again on her home island.
But that’s the only good news. We’re injured, starved, ill-equipped, and all alone. Despite all that, we still have to find a way across Fiordland, climb our way over the mountains, and then get through hundreds of miles of unknown territory to reach her home.
The island is beautiful, but it hides dangers we didn’t expect.
We’ve come too far to fail now. I won’t let us, even if it costs me everything.
Why did I write the Half a World series?
I get this question a lot.
While I normally write thrillers, I’m also a big fan of the post-apoc genre. Maybe it’s because I was a Boy Scout? Maybe because I was in the Army? Maybe because I’ve done several long-distance treks in various parts of the world?
I don’t really know.
What I do know is that I received wilderness survival training from a young age, and then used it throughout my life ever since, so it wasn’t hard to make the transition.
There’s a lot of post-apoc books out there. Most of them start the day of the big event. I always wondered what the world would look like two, five, or even ten years after that. How would the world change? What would people do to live in it? What would become the new normal? Is there still coffee?
I wanted to explore those questions.
So I created Jake and threw him out into it. To navigate his way through this new world, he’ll have to rely on his brains as well as his rifle, but he’s pretty good with both. I picture him much like Andy Weirs Mark Watney, a man marooned on Mars. To get home he’ll have to solve one problem after the next. He’s not sure where he’s going, or what awaits him when he gets there, but it’s where she needs to be, and for him, that’s all that really matters.
So, if you like post-apoc books with a little prepper, a little science, a little MacGyver, and the entire world as a backdrop, this series is for you.
Lemme know what you think,
Randall