In this episode of No Limits: The Thriller Podcast, we break down Andrews & Wilson’s major move into independent publishing with the launch of Andrews & Wilson Entertainment and their new short-story-driven release model.
We discuss why the duo is shifting their craft, what this imprint means for the future of thriller fiction, and how short-form releases fit into today’s action, military, and espionage thriller landscape.
We also review First Ranger, the first short story released under the new imprint, looking at its American revolution history-driven pacing, action, and whether the short format delivers the same punch fans expect from Andrews & Wilson—or serves as a preview of what’s coming next.
If you’re interested in military thrillers and the evolving business of publishing, this episode takes a close look at one of the most interesting moves in the genre right now.
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📚 ABOUT NO LIMITS:
• The Mitch Rapp Podcast: Deep dives into Vince Flynn & Kyle Mills' Mitch Rapp series.
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00:00:17
Hey, guys, I'm Chris. And I'm Mike.
00:00:21
And this is No Limits the Thriller podcast.
00:00:25
What's up today, Mike? Well, we've got something new,
00:00:29
short stories from Andrews and Wilson that are going to be
00:00:32
coming out once a month. Pretty cool initiative.
00:00:35
But if you want to hear all of our reviews of those short
00:00:37
stories and more, keep listening to the Thriller Pod, subscribe
00:00:41
on YouTube and think about joining the Patron Book Club, a
00:00:44
special group of the supporters who are the reason we can make
00:00:47
more podcasts. If you want to join that elite
00:00:49
group and be in the group chat with Chris and I around the
00:00:52
clock talking books, head to thrillerpod.com.
00:00:54
Click on the Patreon tab to learn more.
00:00:56
But yeah, Chris, what did you think about our first foray into
00:01:00
the Andrews and Wilson short story verse?
00:01:04
Yeah. I think, you know, we've said it
00:01:06
a couple times before that especially I think when we
00:01:10
talked about like a short story by Brad.
00:01:15
I don't know why authors don't do this more.
00:01:17
I mean, I guess I do like, you know, they prioritize things
00:01:20
that books like sell a lot of money, right?
00:01:23
You know, but I, I think there's a big audience that I'm, I'm
00:01:28
super excited to go down this journey now with Anderson
00:01:31
Wilson. I think that they're the kind of
00:01:33
people that can jump around from genre to genre and have done
00:01:38
that within their books. And now like, you know,
00:01:41
hopefully at the end of this, like they'll be able to sell an
00:01:43
anthology of all these short stories composed together.
00:01:46
And we're going to get a little bit into first Ranger, you know,
00:01:49
in a little bit. But I think, you know, just to
00:01:52
be to go, no spoilers in the beginning.
00:01:55
I, I loved it Like I, I thought it was, I was hooked.
00:02:00
Like, I feel like a short story, you know, should be satisfying.
00:02:08
You know, some of the best short stories I've read, Like they're,
00:02:11
you know, either either they're complete stories and then they
00:02:14
tell like something, you know, profound in a, in a very compact
00:02:20
way. Or like in, in this case, they,
00:02:24
they make you want more. Like they they're able to tell
00:02:27
like a complete, you know, succinct thing, but it's sort
00:02:32
of, you know, drives you to want more almost like a epilogue or
00:02:35
or, you know, just a little teaser.
00:02:38
I don't know what their intention is to do with these if
00:02:40
it's just a bunch of AI got 10 ideas, not quite fleshed out to
00:02:45
be a book each of them, but we just got to get them off our
00:02:49
chests and then boom, sign me up.
00:02:52
It's. Such a unique approach, you're
00:02:54
entirely right, but it's a double edged sword in that I can
00:02:58
just devour these things so quickly and I and I can't wait
00:03:00
to do that. But the biggest problem with
00:03:03
this book is it's too short. I want more of it.
00:03:06
It's almost the only critique I have of this is I want hours
00:03:10
upon hours of this story in this universe with these characters.
00:03:14
It's incredible to go back to the American Revolution.
00:03:16
I can't think of many thrillers that put you front and center in
00:03:20
the history and are also getting the history right.
00:03:23
I mean, apparently Knowlton was real leading this army of
00:03:26
Rangers. Yeah, look that up.
00:03:29
I think Prescott was in it. Putnam, Nathaniel Greene might
00:03:31
have even been mentioned. All these other power players
00:03:34
in, in Washington's army and the battle where in Breeds Hill, the
00:03:38
Battle of Long Island, the Battle of Brooklyn Heights, the
00:03:41
storming of Manhattan Island. It's just unreal that we are in
00:03:45
a fictional universe in a short story and getting to feel, I
00:03:49
felt like I I felt like I was in the colonial era on the front
00:03:53
lines with these guys. It was so visceral and it was
00:03:56
done in such a few amount of words.
00:03:57
So the only critique is I could have lived in that universe for
00:04:00
forever and I feel shortchanged by the short story.
00:04:04
But it really is a unique approach because the other short
00:04:07
stories we read with you mentioned, the one in the Scott
00:04:10
Harvath universe, even Chris Howdy, what he did with
00:04:13
Insurrection Day with Chaley Hill, they all seem to want to
00:04:16
plug in a character we already know and love and kind of like,
00:04:20
oh, here's something they were doing during this time period or
00:04:23
between these two books. Even Ward Larson, since you
00:04:28
mentioned Brad Thor, those two are Co authoring a book next
00:04:30
month coming out cold Zero. We're going to be talking to
00:04:33
them on the pod. Ward Larson did like an origin
00:04:35
story short story so we can get the origins.
00:04:38
I've seen that. Before from some places too.
00:04:40
Yeah, so, so those are all unique approaches, but this one
00:04:42
kind of shatters that whole mold in that these are characters we
00:04:45
never met before. Who knows if they're going to
00:04:47
write more in this time period with these characters.
00:04:50
It's not universe building and plugging in.
00:04:53
It's giving you snippets of different universes.
00:04:56
And they ultimately say the end goal is Hollywood.
00:04:59
I, I was glad they were very clear about this upfront because
00:05:03
there was a huge announcement a few months ago how they started
00:05:06
their own imprint, their publishers Blackstone and, and
00:05:09
yeah, now they have Andrews and Wilson Entertainment.
00:05:11
And I was curious about what is this group doing?
00:05:14
They're apparently getting other authors like Joshua Hood, Jack
00:05:17
Stewart, and even Don Bentley is listed as one of the authors who
00:05:20
will be publishing in their imprint.
00:05:22
And then they said, we're also using all of our TV and movie
00:05:25
and Hollywood connections because the end goal is to to
00:05:28
get some of these stories on film.
00:05:30
And so they were open and saying these will not be complete
00:05:32
stories. You might not even feel
00:05:34
satisfied with the ending of some of them it, but it's all on
00:05:38
purpose, they're saying, because we want to get you hooked so
00:05:41
that one day a universe of writers, directors, movie makers
00:05:45
and other storytellers can come into this world and finish it
00:05:48
with us. That's I mean, that's never been
00:05:50
done before that that is a really unique approach.
00:05:53
So they said to think of it like each of these books is going to
00:05:56
be the first act, setting the stage for more.
00:05:59
And if you enjoy appetizers as much as a main course, this is
00:06:02
right up your alley. They say that right up front in
00:06:04
the forwards. So how's the approach?
00:06:07
Yeah, it's, it's a great idea. You know, it's, if you think
00:06:11
about it, it's kind of monetize, monetize.
00:06:14
I can't even say it monetizing your brainstorming.
00:06:19
Like you know, if in the sense this is taking your
00:06:24
storyboarding or taking, you know, if you wrote a pilot to a,
00:06:30
to a story and then turning it into something that you can
00:06:32
share with your fans while also doubling as a this goes on the
00:06:37
market. This is what we push to
00:06:41
producers. I I saw that on their website,
00:06:43
Tier 1 is in like early. I don't know if it's what stage
00:06:46
to, but it's in development to have a series made after it.
00:06:52
The same thing with the I think the Shepherd series has been
00:06:54
optioned. Someone owns the rights to that.
00:06:59
I I think there's stuff like really like does lend itself to
00:07:03
the cinema. But yeah, but I, I want to, I
00:07:08
want to talk to you a little bit too about like, what is the why
00:07:13
do you think short stories like are authors like so against
00:07:19
doing it? Like what, what is the what's
00:07:21
the challenge with the short story?
00:07:22
And and do you think that this one, you know, even going
00:07:26
spoiler free, like do you think this executed as a short story?
00:07:31
No, I think this was executed perfectly and can really be a
00:07:34
model. And it's a good question because
00:07:37
sometimes we read books and our biggest complaint is they
00:07:40
lingered. They were drawn out.
00:07:42
It's almost an exercise. If you can cut all the fluff but
00:07:46
keep the plot as engaging. If if you can cut all the fluff
00:07:49
but keep a crisp pacing and create enough detail that the
00:07:55
reader feels immersed in the characters, it almost seems like
00:07:58
a perfect vehicle to kind of get ideas out there as opposed to
00:08:02
having to trudge through a whole book in very heavy, dense
00:08:05
manuscripts and an editing process that can feel on, you
00:08:09
know, unwieldy. Imagine all these new debut
00:08:13
authors. I feel like they they almost
00:08:14
feel like they have to go through that process and that
00:08:16
has to be a burden they put upon themselves.
00:08:19
But something like this makes me wonder, well, why can you like
00:08:23
prove your mettle or test your worth with just getting a bunch
00:08:26
of short stories out there? Why?
00:08:27
I'm sure All authors have them or have have jotted down things
00:08:31
here and there and then never flush it out.
00:08:33
Well, why not do it in this format?
00:08:35
I feel like it's a great idea to dip your toes in the water to
00:08:38
get wet. And and I think on the reader's
00:08:40
perspective, as long as the price is lower as these are.
00:08:44
How much was this book? Oh, I don't even remember.
00:08:46
I think that's a. Is it under $5?
00:08:48
I think it's 5 or 6, maybe 599, something like that.
00:08:51
Unfortunately, though, I think it's a full Audible credit, so
00:08:54
that that's a bit of an issue. That's a bit of an issue, but I,
00:08:59
I think you can get the Kindle version of this for relatively
00:09:02
cheap. That's a good way to try out an
00:09:04
author. And I think an author can really
00:09:05
get their name out there pumping.
00:09:07
A lot of content. People pay essentially, let's
00:09:09
call it half price, you know, from what a real novel would be.
00:09:13
But I can see the flip side as well.
00:09:14
If somebody's investing time and committing to a book, they're
00:09:18
probably willing to spend a couple weeks, however many
00:09:24
hours, you know, quite a significant chunk of hours.
00:09:27
And so there's the flip side of if you're going to commit to a
00:09:29
book, you, you kind of want it to be complete.
00:09:31
You want it to be full. But I don't think that has to be
00:09:33
the case for every single book you pick up.
00:09:35
There's frankly some books on this pod we read where I say you
00:09:38
can cut out 3040% of it. Well, why not cut out 70% of it
00:09:42
and make it a short? Term.
00:09:46
You know, an abridged version? Yeah.
00:09:49
Well, no, maybe not an abridged because then I think I, I think
00:09:53
you're making sacrifices, right? Where this is a different
00:09:56
approach that says without making sacrifices, I'm going to
00:09:59
do everything the story requires, but I'm just going to
00:10:02
do it in a way that's more digestible.
00:10:05
Yeah, I, I think, and we can begin to go into spoiler
00:10:08
territory soon. But I, I think especially with
00:10:10
this one, for me, a quality short story has to be able to
00:10:16
stand upon itself and then be able to get us engaged in the
00:10:19
characters quickly, not rely on like a bunch of you know, it has
00:10:24
to build the character relationship with us like right
00:10:28
off the bat. And I think it's a smart choice
00:10:31
choosing to do someone who is a, a figure that you could look up,
00:10:35
you know, after the fact, you know, like not, not see, not
00:10:37
trying to make like some character from whole cloth, you
00:10:42
know, or having a character that doesn't really, you know, it's
00:10:44
kind of amorphous. And then you have to have this
00:10:46
engaging propulsive, like one to two set pieces and then boom,
00:10:51
you're good. Like, because with this one,
00:10:53
we're at the battle of Bunker Hill in the very beginning,
00:10:55
right? And then we move to, you know,
00:10:58
we move quickly through like the ranks and then, you know,
00:11:00
culminate with, you know, sort of this, this final piece at the
00:11:04
end. And and, you know, it, it does
00:11:08
leave you wanting more. But, I mean, in, in, in total,
00:11:11
he he did a they did a good job telling, you know, the brief
00:11:15
story of this, you know, Nathaniel, what was the last
00:11:20
name? Thomas Milton.
00:11:22
Yeah. Yeah, I think it was Thomas
00:11:24
Milton. Yeah.
00:11:27
So yeah, do you want to get into a little bit of spoilers with
00:11:29
that? Yeah, for sure.
00:11:30
Before we really drop that spoiler alert though, I I was
00:11:33
also very happy because the other thing that's going to make
00:11:35
this work, which I I wasn't sure.
00:11:37
When you do all these different stories and you just keep
00:11:39
pumping them out, is there any through line?
00:11:41
Are they going to have any connection at all?
00:11:43
And what I like is the connection is not within the
00:11:46
plot or the universe of the story.
00:11:48
The connection is who Andrews and Wilson are.
00:11:51
So they they say right up front, and I'll quote this from that
00:11:53
forward. Andrews and Wilson entertaining
00:11:56
embodies the storytelling ethos of team and mission before self
00:12:00
to showcase heroes with a moral compass who risked their lives
00:12:04
for a higher purpose. Men and women forced to make
00:12:06
difficult choices in difficult times.
00:12:08
The type of stories that honor sacrifices of those who put
00:12:11
themselves in harm way to keep their friends, family or their
00:12:14
community safe. Like 1st Ranger does that
00:12:18
perfectly. The Shepherd series, perfect
00:12:21
tier one, perfect Sons of Valor that like they are spot on.
00:12:26
They know their mission, they know who they are, and they stay
00:12:29
true to it. When I was reading this, I was
00:12:32
like, this is as if, you know, the authors of Sons of Valor
00:12:35
wrote the Patriot, you know, completely, you know, they had
00:12:39
their take on, you know, essentially turning the Patriot
00:12:43
into a written story. It it's sung Andrews Wilson's so
00:12:48
hard, but yet it's in like this totally new genre of being this
00:12:51
colonial times and stuff like that and having like real life
00:12:53
characters. They do they make up this other
00:12:57
character, Remington or no Browning, What's the firearms
00:13:03
guy? Moses Browning is that.
00:13:05
Browning, Yeah. But they give him a new name,
00:13:10
but it comes like I like, oh, I didn't realize Browning was back
00:13:13
in the and then real brownie came like a much later.
00:13:16
So they they do take some some license and putting like a a
00:13:19
fictional character there who eventually does come up with a,
00:13:22
you know, yeah, real guns, but. But that is part of something
00:13:26
else they do that's very much within the at least the Sons of
00:13:29
Valor universe, which is the tech.
00:13:31
Just look at the cover, Look at the cover of an Andrews and
00:13:34
Wilson book about how those operators are just absolutely
00:13:37
kitted out. Even the Shepherd series I
00:13:39
remember like the 3D augmented reality type stuff they do,
00:13:43
they're always on the cutting edge of tech.
00:13:45
And I was like, historical book, how the heck are they going to
00:13:47
pull that off? Oh my God, they they've got the
00:13:50
first sniper. They have a group of dudes
00:13:52
hanging around thinking to put a a looking glass on top of a
00:13:55
rifle or a Mustang. Invent the sniper, essentially.
00:13:59
The event, what was it? Semi automatic weapons though.
00:14:01
Right, by adjusting it to to fire more quickly, Yeah.
00:14:07
Oh, without having to have the muzzle loaded cartridge.
00:14:09
Yeah, exactly. I just thought that it's so
00:14:13
crazy because if, if you don't know anything about these guys,
00:14:15
you, you could write that and be like, oh, that's kind of a cheap
00:14:18
way to kind of put that in. But no, it's like it's so
00:14:21
Andrews and Wilson and it works in the story and it gives our
00:14:25
heroes the advantage. So they invent something that
00:14:28
and that's all because of the teamwork.
00:14:30
Like when Knowlton had to approach the guys in that circle
00:14:33
who were doing this, he could have been a pompous asshole who
00:14:36
shut them down, tell them they're dumb.
00:14:37
They're just underlaying, stop wasting equipment because they,
00:14:40
they even I think wasted a few. They they messed up something.
00:14:44
It was like they had such a short supply of weapons.
00:14:46
And he was like, no, you have access to keep doing this.
00:14:48
Here's another one. And I, I, I think that embodies
00:14:52
the storytelling of sacrifice and trust in the team.
00:14:56
And that's just what Andrews and Wilson have always been about.
00:14:59
Yeah, very true. We're waiting into spoiler
00:15:02
territory here, So what else did you think about Knowlton and his
00:15:07
family and ultimately the ending from start to finish?
00:15:10
I think his family, who we only see in chapter 1 and then the
00:15:14
epilogue or whatever you you, you call it in short story
00:15:17
format, I was kind of a good way to bookend it.
00:15:20
Whereas if you write a full length novel, I feel like you
00:15:22
have to keep coming back to the family.
00:15:24
You have to keep playing the domestic front card.
00:15:26
You have to have their relationship pop up every once
00:15:29
in a while. The ups and downs, the turmoil.
00:15:31
I think here just kind of worked as a nice little bookend to it.
00:15:36
Yeah, no, it, it, it sets up the story.
00:15:38
It obviously sets up his motivations.
00:15:42
You know, he's a, he's a family man, you know, sets of his
00:15:45
values, that kind of stuff. You get the sense that this guy
00:15:50
is a is a father, is a leader, cares not only for his family,
00:15:56
but also cares for like these guys or just, you know, ragtag
00:15:59
bunch of, of people who are, you know, eventually it becomes
00:16:03
really good friends with that one guy who essentially is like
00:16:07
shitting his pants at at Bunker Hill, right?
00:16:09
And, but ultimately, like through that action and, and and
00:16:13
by leading these men, you know, begins to create a relationship
00:16:17
that quickly achieves it. That scene really quickly
00:16:22
establishes what we are to know about Knowlton, right?
00:16:26
Like that he is this guy who will, you know, go 1st.
00:16:33
And it ultimately leads us to that, you know, first
00:16:37
infiltration into like the British camp for him to like
00:16:40
boldly, you know, go in the cover of dark wearing a a red
00:16:46
coat, trying to get in. And then you know, he is he is
00:16:50
not going to leave from behind. He was going to leave from the
00:16:54
front. Yeah, no, completely.
00:16:56
And that was such a cool angle to take because this also
00:16:59
reminisced of spy thrillers and espionage books.
00:17:03
And how would you even consider putting that in in this time
00:17:06
period? And he pulled that off the way
00:17:08
Knowlton was willing to go behind lines and frankly, be
00:17:11
unconventional. And ultimately, that's why
00:17:13
Washington appoints him to to be the leader, to be the 1st
00:17:16
Ranger, is he's willing to use unconventional or asymmetrical
00:17:20
warfare. I was wondering if in some of
00:17:22
those conversations, a historian might roll their eyes because
00:17:26
they seem to be using language that describes kind of modern
00:17:28
day battlefield tactics. Of course, that Andrews and
00:17:31
Wilson are, are so versed in from their their personal lives
00:17:33
and their research for books. So I, I don't know what a
00:17:36
historian would say about the veracity of that talking about
00:17:38
asymmetrical warfare and whatnot.
00:17:41
Possibly that's how conversations would have went
00:17:43
back then. But that to me felt like a
00:17:44
bridge between, you know, modern day war and this colonial era
00:17:50
and how that clashed. Sorry, I was just going to say
00:17:52
how that clashed with the British established protocols of
00:17:56
gentleman's warfare and so many conversations both with
00:18:00
Washington. And then ultimately we saw with
00:18:02
General Howe on the other side. They thought what knowlton the
00:18:06
Americans were doing was so below British standards, was so
00:18:09
ungentlemanly, and yet at the same time, how else are you
00:18:13
going to win a revolution against the most powerful force
00:18:15
on the history of the world? Yeah, one of the.
00:18:19
I mean, I know you're not a you're a history teacher, but
00:18:23
your geography, right? Is that, is that true?
00:18:26
Like is before, like this time, like there was this sort of
00:18:29
unspoken code that you don't you don't shoot officers that are
00:18:34
just, you know, yeah. Is there like a gentlemanly way
00:18:39
to how people fought back then? No, of course, Yeah.
00:18:41
No, I can't speak to the specifics of if you target
00:18:43
officers and whatnot, but absolutely.
00:18:46
I mean, that completely was the way that that's why in all these
00:18:51
movies, the line approaches, you know, everyone's walking,
00:18:55
everyone's playing their music, playing their hymns, and then
00:18:58
you only fire when ready and the enemies assembled and you're
00:19:00
assembled. There was almost like this UN
00:19:03
unwritten code of conduct. It's almost as dance you play.
00:19:07
And I, I think that was just a kind of a British mindset from
00:19:12
the colonial era that they felt how they dignify themselves.
00:19:16
And so I think there was this gentleman's warfare.
00:19:18
And so I liked when that kept coming up because that reminded
00:19:20
me of true history, even without knowing all the insurance and
00:19:22
outs of it, that there definitely was this ethos of
00:19:25
gentleman's war. And this is how we fight
00:19:27
dignified and by going behind enemy lines by in, it's sniping
00:19:32
people right? By shooting from afar.
00:19:35
All of that I think is is grounded in real history for
00:19:38
sure. Even so much as going to say
00:19:41
that like spies were like the everyone hated spies.
00:19:44
The worst of the worst. The worst of the worst trash.
00:19:47
Yeah, no, that that also rang true to me, for sure.
00:19:50
That made sense. You're right, though, it felt
00:19:53
just like The Patriot. My goodness.
00:19:54
Some of these themes also come up in The Patriot.
00:19:57
Yeah, ultimately we we culminate with this, you know, pretty.
00:20:06
Crazy scene at the end where you know, we get that Ferguson
00:20:11
rifle, which I looked up obviously was one of our
00:20:14
revolutionary British flintlock breech loading designed by the
00:20:19
Scottish. Oh, and so even this in
00:20:22
connection was true. Yeah, he was.
00:20:26
Ferguson was Scott was Scottish, a Scottish officer, and it
00:20:32
allowed for rapid firing up to six to seven rounds per minute.
00:20:35
Wow, yeah, that's what they say. I I remember the first time it
00:20:38
was used on the battlefield, they were like flabbergasted.
00:20:41
Like, because they hear a shot and then immediately, like they
00:20:45
he's like, whoa, it's coming from the same direction.
00:20:47
Yeah. What is this devilry?
00:20:49
Yeah, exactly. I mean, you ever think about
00:20:52
that, how like if you could go back in time and you brought
00:20:55
like an AK47 to like Sparta like.
00:21:00
Dude, insane. Yeah, the the one I, I I even
00:21:04
think about. Like, what was it like to the
00:21:07
Mesoamerican people seeing armor and people riding horses and
00:21:13
Shields and even muskets like you?
00:21:15
They literally thought this was the gods, you know?
00:21:18
Sure. And they're on ships, these
00:21:19
massive ships. That just blows my mind.
00:21:24
Yeah, You don't think, I don't think about these things every
00:21:27
now and then, but like, yeah, like when I was reading this, it
00:21:30
really like highlighted. Wow.
00:21:31
They. Yeah.
00:21:32
And now thinking back to all the Civil War war, not Civil War,
00:21:36
but all the Revolutionary War movies that I've seen where
00:21:39
they're, you know, shoving the the thing down, shooting
00:21:43
exactly. And then they have to fall back
00:21:44
and shoving it like, you know. Yep.
00:21:47
Battle has changed over. But to learn those things like,
00:21:50
however they knew this and this information, to learn that and
00:21:53
put it in a novel, or in this case, a short story like that.
00:21:58
That's so cool that, that to be an author, to do that, it's,
00:22:02
it's just what a wonderful skill like you, you learn all these
00:22:05
little Nuggets of history. Well, imagine being the person
00:22:07
who actually sits down and takes that nugget and fleshes out a
00:22:10
whole story around it and characters.
00:22:12
And there's this book, I don't know if it's where they got it
00:22:15
from, but Washington Spies. I wanted to read it, but it it's
00:22:18
America's first spy ring and how Washington kind of commissioned
00:22:21
it. Did you see the TV show?
00:22:23
Oh no, they turned it into a show.
00:22:25
Yeah, there was TV show, I think it was on like AMC or something
00:22:27
like that. I'm seeing that now.
00:22:30
I I wonder how much things like that they borrowed from or gave
00:22:33
them the impetus to include these specific characters.
00:22:38
Interesting. Yeah, and I guess what I really
00:22:42
like about this book is like the the idea of, you know, I feel
00:22:48
like in any one of Andrews and Wilson's readers who have read
00:22:52
would likes tier one, likes Shepherds, likes Sons of Valor.
00:22:58
You would want to read the story about how like the first, you
00:23:01
know, essentially first special operators like came to be right,
00:23:05
right. These guys that would come in
00:23:07
and do things, you know, they had to think on their own, you
00:23:11
know, outside of outside of a chain of command, you know, not
00:23:14
to just he even mentions that, right.
00:23:15
Like I, I, I'm most people would sit there and wait to be told to
00:23:19
fire, but he was looking for people that would, you know,
00:23:22
move fire like you, you, you not wait for his command, you know?
00:23:26
Yeah, completely. And then there's that scene
00:23:28
where another guy takes over, makes a call in the battle, and
00:23:33
how traditionally. To go to like.
00:23:35
Right. You would never be empowered to
00:23:37
move the team or make that call if your leader is still on his
00:23:40
feet and alive and and he's like, no, we trust each other.
00:23:43
If my teammate is making that call, it was the right call for
00:23:46
all of us, you know? And you just know that in your
00:23:48
bones. That's such a strong connection
00:23:50
between the books we read about to today.
00:23:52
And now he's putting that in the American Revolution of how we
00:23:55
got the edge over the British. It's incredible to be able to do
00:23:59
that. That's a skill.
00:24:03
What did you think about Knowlton's death?
00:24:06
Yeah, I was wondering if they were going to do it.
00:24:08
So here's where that foreword with them saying some of these
00:24:12
will be unfinished stories caught me off guard because I
00:24:15
was expecting, OK, we're he we're going to end the story and
00:24:19
it's going to feel like a hard cut and we're not going to see
00:24:22
any conclusion. Well, obviously his his son now
00:24:25
and his teenage son was involved and he's the man of the house,
00:24:29
if you, if you will. So I think there's a possibility
00:24:32
of transitioning the story and keeping it alive.
00:24:34
But I was shocked that they went that far in this short story.
00:24:37
I thought that would be an opportunity to kill him, see his
00:24:41
ending his death later on. So yeah, no, it was, it was
00:24:44
shocking to me that it actually happened.
00:24:47
I loved how we ended with the family.
00:24:48
What a heartbreaking scene. We haven't even been on page
00:24:51
with them very much, but couple paragraphs, page or two in the
00:24:55
beginning of the story. But then to end it with them
00:24:58
getting that message felt so visceral, so powerful.
00:25:01
And again, to connect to the modern day and the warriors and
00:25:05
their families going through this, that knock on the door,
00:25:07
right? Seeing somebody pull up, knowing
00:25:10
what that means, that is timeless, that's eternal, that
00:25:14
the the grief and the feeling and knowing what's coming when
00:25:18
that announcement is when that knock is made at the door.
00:25:21
And so I feel like that was again, another parallel to our
00:25:23
world today that they captured so well in a story of the past.
00:25:27
So shocking it was. It was shocking that they did
00:25:30
it. It was shocking how emotionally
00:25:32
invested I was in the family hearing the news.
00:25:37
Yeah, I feel like they did if they left enough meat on the
00:25:41
bone that like there could be plenty more stories in between,
00:25:46
you know, him getting recruited to his death that you can plug
00:25:50
in. If you were going to turn this
00:25:51
into some sort of miniseries or some sort of I, I don't know if
00:25:55
you can get multiple seasons out of something, but you know, a
00:25:57
long form television show like this or, you know, even a movie
00:26:01
like so. Yeah, you could also fill in the
00:26:04
in betweens because that's another minor critique is the
00:26:06
time jumps. Very big time jumps.
00:26:09
Right. I understand they went back to
00:26:11
Lexington and Concord because Knowlton was right across the
00:26:13
border in Connecticut and would have you want to see the
00:26:16
messengers coming, spreading the word about that, getting the
00:26:18
militia together. So it's like a really gripping
00:26:20
way to start. But then we just jumped to
00:26:23
Breeds Hill or Bunker Hill. You know, it's like, OK, there's
00:26:25
a little bit of a gap there. And then after that, that just
00:26:28
seemed like an action scene just to establish Knowlton as as a
00:26:31
warrior and as a leader. And then boom, we have to cut to
00:26:34
Long Island where Washington is calling him in and then we're in
00:26:38
Brooklyn. So it's it's just like it, it
00:26:39
almost bounced too quickly between these major points of
00:26:42
the war, which made sense when you don't have a lot of time.
00:26:46
But you could see the in between, like you could
00:26:48
definitely see the retreats and, and being chased and like in the
00:26:52
camps, you know, you could flesh that out and spend a little more
00:26:54
time in between these battles because this just makes you
00:26:57
think it was rapid fire 1 battle after the next after the next.
00:27:01
And I think there was a little more time than that in between.
00:27:04
Yeah, exactly. So that's an opportunity to
00:27:07
flesh it out more, too. And there was something about.
00:27:15
Let me look this up. Another history tidbit.
00:27:22
Yeah. Something about do they mention
00:27:25
in the book about like the reason why we have like some
00:27:29
sort of signage or like all special operators or Rangers
00:27:34
have something or did I read that somewhere?
00:27:36
Anyways, you oh the Knowlton Award.
00:27:40
Oh. 1995 Military Intelligence established the Thomas W
00:27:45
Knowlton Award, which recognizes individuals who have contributed
00:27:48
significantly to the promotion of an Army military intelligence
00:27:52
in ways that stand out in the eyes of the recipients, their
00:27:55
superiors and subordinate peers. Yeah, now this is what I read
00:27:58
about the Knowlton ward, which actually contains the the coat
00:28:02
of arm of Thomas Knowlton, so. Oh wow, and that was established
00:28:08
in 95, you said? 1995, yeah, yeah.
00:28:10
Wow that's pretty cool, never heard of that.
00:28:14
And it could be any branch as long as you contribute to
00:28:16
military intelligence. Yeah.
00:28:19
Wow. Oh another one they I believe it
00:28:24
was in. It could have been the wax seal
00:28:25
on a letter or maybe how she knew the letter wasn't from her
00:28:29
husband was that it didn't have the right seal.
00:28:31
And it said the seal was the Washington coat of arms, which
00:28:35
is pretty cool with the stars and the stripes.
00:28:37
Well, that's the DC flag. That's where we get the DC flag
00:28:40
from was the Washington coat of arms.
00:28:42
So when I read that, I was like just another awesome little
00:28:45
super nugget. Oh, and in the battle of Bunker
00:28:48
Breeds Hill, the don't fire until you see the whites of
00:28:52
their eyes. Actual quote.
00:28:54
And I think they had Knowlton relay it or or one of the
00:28:58
superiors relay it and they it could have been there's a debate
00:29:00
of if it's Israel Putnam or William Prescott or or which
00:29:04
general actually said the line. But they eventually relay it
00:29:08
down the line and Prescott and Knowlton has to say it out to
00:29:11
the troops. Don't fire until you see the
00:29:12
whites of their eyes. So that's one of those possibly
00:29:15
apocryphal lines, but that's always contributed to that
00:29:19
battle that that was one of the famous sayings and and they put
00:29:22
that right in the book. So there's just so many of these
00:29:24
little things. I'm sure we're missing a bunch
00:29:25
of them too. Yeah, no, I really, we weren't
00:29:30
quite sure what what, what this is going to be, but I take my $5
00:29:35
every month. I'm ready for it.
00:29:37
I agree I may or may not have said it's possibly a money grab
00:29:40
to try to just push out more content, but 100% at least at.
00:29:45
Least this story was good. No, you're right.
00:29:47
I was just throwing that out there because I did not know
00:29:49
what to expect. So I was just saying with it's
00:29:51
within the realm of possibilities that this is just
00:29:53
trying to move more content. And in the end, if it, that is a
00:29:56
smart business decision because they're easily digestible.
00:29:59
You're willing to come back for once a month that's perfectly
00:30:03
timed out and the price is right.
00:30:05
I think if if I'm not mistaken with that price, let's double
00:30:08
check it. I while this Burt book is worth
00:30:11
full price of a full novel, It's that good. 499 on Kindle.
00:30:15
Yeah, that's what it is. I mean, you can't, you can't go
00:30:18
wrong if you want a quick read every month.
00:30:20
The audio book was really good too.
00:30:22
The audio book was great. Now, yeah, that's interesting.
00:30:26
Are you going to get the same person to do all these short
00:30:29
stories? Are they going to bump around?
00:30:31
I don't. Know I wanted to look up to see
00:30:33
who that. He was really good and I wonder
00:30:39
if they've worked with him in the past if he's done any other
00:30:42
books. Read by Bradford Hastings.
00:30:55
Has he done any Andrews and Wilson stuff before?
00:30:58
I'm looking that up now. Inaudible.
00:31:02
No. He's.
00:31:05
Got some RL Stein, some Brian Nelson, JJ Miller.
00:31:15
OK here's good news, you could get it on audible without using
00:31:20
a credit. So it's one it's one credit or
00:31:24
you can buy on audible for 7 bucks.
00:31:26
Oh OK, a credit may not be worth it because that could be like 15
00:31:30
bucks a month with your subscription.
00:31:32
But if you could also buy the audio book at a reduced price,
00:31:35
it's currently $7.33. That's a perfect price point.
00:31:39
So yeah, I think this is a really good deal for readers and
00:31:43
a good business novel for them. The whole Audible credit thing
00:31:47
boggles my mind because of what? It's like 15 bucks, but I could
00:31:51
get a Game of Thrones novel, which I think the Audible like
00:31:55
if you were to buy those outright, those were like almost
00:31:57
40 bucks. Yeah, but you can get it.
00:31:59
You can get it with one Audible credit.
00:32:01
Well, that's because they want you to get the subscription and
00:32:03
then forget to cancel your subscription and, you know, rack
00:32:06
up credits. But then on the flip side, they
00:32:08
occasionally have sales where a book like this one would go
00:32:11
below 15 bucks, which is the price of a credit a month.
00:32:14
So they also do run the sales every once in a while.
00:32:16
Like I got most of the Grey Man books for 5 or 6 bucks when they
00:32:19
were running a sale. So yeah, it it's, it's a weird
00:32:23
business model, this audible thing at ever and another
00:32:26
service we use is doing some sort of monthly credit.
00:32:29
They call it an unlock. You can get an unlock from their
00:32:32
premium. I was listening to this guy on
00:32:34
Instagram, which you know, everything on Instagram is real.
00:32:38
He was telling me that it is actually illegal for Amazon to
00:32:42
take away your credits. You know how like we were, they
00:32:45
were saying if you don't like use your credits by right, Like
00:32:50
that is illegal what they're doing.
00:32:52
Oh, they can't expire your credits all right.
00:32:56
Remind me of that when I'm chatting with AI to get my money
00:32:58
back. Yeah, I'll send you the I'll
00:33:04
send you that guy's. He's how he has this whole fight
00:33:07
against Amazon right now because he caught on the ring camera a
00:33:10
delivery truck thrown like sideswiping his his car, like
00:33:16
damaging it pretty, pretty much. And Amazon just is not returning
00:33:19
his phone calls. Oh my God.
00:33:22
So he's like going scorched earth, like showing you how to
00:33:25
track like the hidden price of everything and how like most
00:33:30
things like tend to spike right before Prime Day and then and
00:33:34
then come down like. Prime Day is a farce.
00:33:37
Prime Day is an absolute farce. I remember the first Prime Day,
00:33:39
I was excited. I was like, what?
00:33:40
Wow, what are we going to get? What do we need around the
00:33:42
house? And then prices just got jacked
00:33:44
up and they told me it's 60% off and it was more expensive than
00:33:47
usual. So yeah, like what?
00:33:51
Yeah, moral of this story is companies and billionaires are
00:33:56
not always the good guys, if you didn't know that already.
00:33:59
Support your local bookstores, guys.
00:34:03
Do good stuff that this was a fun story.
00:34:05
I wasn't sure what to expect. If this is the quality that
00:34:08
we're going to get in these stories, I'm reading them every
00:34:11
month, so yeah, hats off. The next one is Sledgehammer.
00:34:15
Total different story. Looks like a former CIA ground
00:34:19
branch team leader and Green Beret, a former husband, a
00:34:23
former father. But at least his dog Blue still
00:34:26
appreciates him. Already.
00:34:29
I don't even know what it's about, but that sounds like
00:34:31
something I'm interested in, so we'll get these coming in.
00:34:35
February, the beginning of every month.
00:34:37
I think so. Let's see if this one has a
00:34:39
date. Oh, January 20th.
00:34:43
Oh, came out today. Look at that sledgehammer
00:34:49
available now. Cool, good stuff.
00:34:58
Anything else? No man, I think for you guys go
00:35:05
and go and read Cold 0 or if you are, I guess you can't.
00:35:11
It hasn't hasn't become available yet.
00:35:16
Go pre-order your copy of Cold Zero.
00:35:17
We're going to be talking to Brad and Ward at the same time,
00:35:22
right? Yes, yes, Sir.
00:35:26
So we'll be giving you our interview with them as well as
00:35:29
covering that book. I'm Mike's done with the killer.
00:35:33
I'm about halfway done with the killer.
00:35:35
So we're going to do an episode on the killer by.
00:35:38
Tom Wood. Tom Wood.
00:35:40
Something a little different. Intriguing book like it.
00:35:43
It's different. I like it.
00:35:45
It's different. That's all.
00:35:46
That's all it could be for now. We'll get there.
00:35:50
But yeah, besides that, we need to thank our patrons, our deputy
00:35:53
director Sherry F and Brad E, our special agents, Adam, Mike,
00:35:57
Bandero, George, Matt, Dawn and Chris.
00:36:02
Subscribe, rate and review to all three seasons of Known
00:36:05
Limits. You can find
00:36:06
this@thrillerpod.com or on Twitter and Instagram at
00:36:09
Thriller Podcast. And as always, just like
00:36:13
Knowlton.