Political Thriller
Date Published: August 13, 2026
Run Time: 10 hours 17 minutes
U.S. Senator Rick Taylor has been warning anyone who'll listen: the national debt is no longer a spreadsheet problem-it's a ticking bomb. But in Washington, truth is toxic. Colleagues dismiss him, constituents scream about "cuts to my benefits," and the media paints him as the villain who wants to gut Social Security.
Then the blackmail begins.
A shadowy network led by a ruthless operator making huge profits from unchecked government spending will stop at nothing to silence anyone who threatens the status quo. After Taylor's wife is targeted in a terrifying swatting attack and a sniper's bullet nearly ends Taylor's life, the message is clear. Shut up... or die.
Interview with Jack Meyer
Author of Debt Reckoning: Teetering on the Brink
Could you tell us about any research trips you took for this story? Which places did you visit, and what made them essential to your writing?
I didn’t travel to do location research but I used an area that I knew.
I lived in Minnesota for eight years, two in the south-central part of the state and six in the western suburbs of Minneapolis. I chose that ground for my last book, A Higher Betrayal. In that book, Rick Taylor and his wife were involved in a campaign that took them all over the state. It also involved a chase scene through the Boundary Waters of northern Minnesota. I wanted to use areas I knew well so my descriptions would be true and accurate.
Rick Taylor is also the main character in Debt Reckoning: Teetering on the Brink so the location was the same.
What's the strangest thing you've ever had to research online for your book?
Nothing very strange. A lot of it was simply the national debt and where we get the money to cover it.
I went through the history, the trend lines, the budget, and the deficits. Debt Reckoning: Teetering on the Brink is fiction, but I wanted the figures on the page to be the real ones at the time I finished the book. The scary part was finding that it didn’t feel like much of a stretch to begin with present day numbers and move the story into a crisis.
What research (history, mythology, science) goes into your world-building?
There isn’t mythology in these books. The world-building is the real machinery.
For this book it meant the debt and the budget, and also the government buildings in Washington. Authors get license, and I use it, but when a real place will do the job I want to use that, even if it means extra research. I typically test myself by asking if someone close to the real action, in this case a congressional staffer, could read the book without rolling their eyes at made-up locations.
Have any of the people you've known, past or present, left a lasting impression on your writing journey? If so, we'd love to hear about a memorable experience that stands out to you.
The person that stands out in my mind is my sister Nancy.
After the manuscript for Debt Reckoning had been through the first edit, I gave it to family members and a few key friends to read and provide feedback. Nancy told me she didn’t like how the book ended. When I sat with that, I realized she had caught me doing something fundamentally contrary to the way I write…I had made the ending of the story about the national debt issue and not about the people. I rewrote the ending.
Do you write in the same genre all the time?
So far, yes. Everything I’ve published has been a thriller—political thrillers, specifically.
If so, have you ever consider writing in another one?
I’ve thought about writing Christian fiction. I don’t have plans for it right now. The work in front of me is still the same job: take a live issue, put ordinary people in the middle of it, and see what they do under pressure.
Which character, supernatural or human, do you enjoy writing the most and why?
I enjoy writing human characters—not unlike you and me.
I want the reader in the character’s skin, not standing back watching how Jack Reacher handles things. I want them to feel it.
When I’m working a scene, my first resource is my own reactions. I don’t write myself into the characters, but I check the emotions. What would frighten me, hurt me, make me angry.
Ordinary people finding their way through extraordinary circumstances are the heroes I like to write.
Jack was introduced to thrillers when Tom Clancy's The Hunt for Red October was published. However, for most of his life, he was a reader rather than an author. During the 2000 Presidential election as he watched TV coverage of the Florida recount with 'dimpled chads' and 'hanging chads,' he thought an election conspiracy would be a great basis for a thriller. It wasn't until 2020 when he retired from his career, which included management positions in corporate America and small business ownership as well as a brief stint in ministry, that he sat down to write Wayward Patriot: Preserving the Vote.
His unique approach to political thrillers rips headlines from the news and weaves them through a thrilling tale of patriotism, political corruption and crisis. He says, "when I see some major new issue or technology in the news I want to learn more about it. I enjoy sharing what I learn with others by wrapping a story around it that will engage and entertain readers."
He and his wife, Barbara, have three grown children and seven grandchildren and divide their time between Colorado Springs and Tucson.
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