North Arrow Press Announces The Wartmann Series

North Arrow Press proudly presents The Wartmann Series, a pair of timely, high-stakes geopolitical thrillers by Kirkus-starred author Mark James.

🟠 Friendship Games — The spark of war
Winner of a Kirkus Star and a Bronze Medal from the Military Writers Society of America, Friendship Games is a modern take on the USS Maine incident that launched the Spanish-American War — except this time the spark threatens to ignite a global conflict.

When a U.S. aircraft carrier explodes and sinks off Bahrain, Washington blames Tehran. Retaliatory American airstrikes follow, and Iran — fearing an existential war with the United States — responds with a desperate preemptive blitz across the Gulf. In Washington, Vice President George "Daddy Longlegs" Wartmann scrambles to respond while the chain of command falters and soldiers, sailors, and civilians on the ground struggle to survive the chaos.

🔵 The Compass Room — The aftermath of war
The highly anticipated sequel, The Compass Room, carries the Wartmann story into darker, uncharted territory. The war was over before it even began — but the real battle was just beginning. As Washington unravels, Vice President Wartmann fights to hold the country together. Abroad, Turkish ambitions, European unrest, and a shattered U.S. military threaten to redraw the global order. From the Capitol to Paris to the skies of the Middle East, this is a story of power, betrayal, and survival in a world where yesterday's rules no longer apply.

⚫ Alter Road — A Wartmann Universe Story of an America on the brink
Mark James's debut novel, Alter Road is a stand-alone Wartmann Universe story set against the collapse of Detroit and the unraveling of America itself. As protests spiral into revolt, refugees flee to Canada, militias seize rural roads, and the U.S. Army enters a city sliding into urban warfare, local gang conflicts collide with national crisis and global opportunism. Gritty, violent, and sharply political, Alter Road traces America's fracture at home while forces far beyond Michigan prepare to exploit the chaos — ending where Friendship Games begins.

Together, Friendship Games and The Compass Room form The Wartmann Series — thrillers that explore how fragile peace can be when geopolitics, ambition, and fear collide.

All three novels are available now on Amazon in paperback and Kindle, free to read in Kindle Unlimited, and also available to bookstores and libraries through Ingram.