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Strap in tight for this one.

Alexander Hawke, Ted Bell’s larger-than-life globe-trotting adventurer and lethal British intelligence operative, has never been the kind of man who stays quietly on the sidelines. Whether sailing into danger aboard his superyacht, trading quips over a Dark ‘N’ Stormy, or dismantling threats to the free world with ruthless precision, Hawke has always embodied a throwback style of heroism fused with modern-day stakes.

And now, in Ted Bell’s Warmonger, available everywhere on March 31, 2026, Lord Hawke is once again unleashed on a world teetering toward chaos, and this time . . . not everyone will make it out alive.

Well, this is a fun book announcement to write.

By now, most of you know that when I’m not moonlighting as The Real Book Spy, I’m also writing thrillers under my real name—Ryan Steck—including this series, which I took over for the late Ted Bell two years ago. My first contribution to Bell’s New York Times bestselling franchise was Ted Bell’s Monarch, which came out in March of 2025, and earned praise from James Patterson (“Monarch is that rarity in thrillers: first-class writing, wit, and suspense. This is one of the best Alex Hawke thrillers, and I’ve read all of them”), Nelson DeMille (“Hawke has never flown higher!”) and Dirk Cussler (“A pulse-pounding thriller of the first order”).

Now, Hawke is back, and if you read Monarch, then you might have an idea where the story is headed in Warmonger.

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Lord Alexander Hawke is used to going after big game, but his pursuit of a mysterious figure code-named Warmonger brings him up against his most deadly foe—Vladimir Putin—in the latest entry in this New York Times bestselling series.

Lord Alexander Hawke’s hunt for the Warmonger—a shadowy figure orchestrating chaos across the globe—is put on hold so that he may undertake an urgent mission for the Crown. His assignment: Travel to Russia, escorting the lovely Dr. Ariadne Silk; confront his archnemesis, Vladimir Putin; and recover a secret document that threatens to shake the British monarchy to its core.

While Hawke makes a perilous journey across Europe, his good friend Ambrose Congreve’s routine investigation of a bizarre murder takes a deadly turn, pulling him into a cat-and-mouse game with Silence, a cold-blooded assassin who may be targeting Hawke himself.

Hawke will soon discover that he is a pawn in the Warmonger’s Byzantine plot to bring the world to the brink of total war and resurrect a fallen empire.

Without giving anything away, I can tell you this much—Warmonger is bigger, bolder, and even more action-packed than Monarch, as Alex, Stoke, and Congreve race to try and stop another World War before it’s too late.

A huge fan (and friend) of Ted Bell long before I was ever given the opportunity to write in his universe, my goal here was to deliver a throwback Hawke novel, one that has all the action of the later books, but also the intricate plotting and timeliness of Ted’s earlier entries. Warlord, which Ted released in 2010, is one of my very favorite thrillers ever written, and I certainly drew inspiration from that title when constructing Monarch.

Now, though, my goal was to give Bell’s readers the ultimate showdown, and what better opponent for Hawke, the Warlord himself, than the man known only as Warmonger?

It’s Warlord vs. Warmonger, and the stakes have never been higher.

I honestly cannot wait to get this one into readers’ hands and hear what you all think of it. I’m very proud of all of my books—including my Matthew Redd series and The Second Son, which I co-authored with Simon Gervais—but I honestly think that Warmonger is the best thing that I have ever written, for a couple of reasons. The plot is pretty layered, and there’s even a small, dual-timeline thread that follows one of Hawke’s ancestors, but the action is front and center from beginning to end, and I’ve never written anything that has quite this many . . . uh . . . explosions? There’s also some pretty twisty stuff in this one, and just in case you’re not yet sold, I can confirm that not everyone will make it out of this book alive.

Who lives and dies? And who, exactly, is the Warmonger?

Well, for those answers, you’ll just have to read the bloody book!

Ted Bell’s Warmonger hits bookstores on March 31, 2026, and is currently available for pre-order everywhere books are sold.