The real-life rescue of Bowe Bergdahl, an American soldier who was held in Afghanistan by Taliban-aligned forces for five years, eventually sparked the plot of Brad Taylor's latest Pike Logan thriller, No Fortunate Son.

"I was looking for story ideas and started thinking about Bowe Bergdahl," the best-selling Taylor tells us. "We spent a long time looking for that guy." Taylor mused about the even more extreme efforts that would go into searching for a kidnapped soldier who was related to an important politician. The situation, he says, isn't that unthinkable. "We've got Vice President Biden, who has kids in the military. Senator McCain has kids in the military. The governor of South Carolina, her husband is in the military."

In No Fortunate Son, several soldiers, all relatives of high-profile politicians, are kidnapped and counterterrorism expert Pike Logan is sent to rescue them. The hostages are constantly being moved, which makes Logan's task especially difficult. Add to that the fact that Logan's mission isn't officially recognized (actually, he just got fired), so he has no support and authorization, and the situation seems impossible. Along with trying to find the hostages (who include the vice president's son), he has to battle the politicos who sit in conference rooms making decisions about what actions on-the-ground personnel (Logan included) should take."

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