Retired Delta Force Officer Brings Spy Thriller Craft to Pasadena Library Talk

A retired Delta Force commander who turned two decades of classified military operations into a bestselling thriller series will speak to Pasadena-area readers next Tuesday in a free virtual event hosted by the Pasadena Public Library. 

Brad Taylor, a former U.S. Army Special Forces lieutenant colonel and New York Times bestselling author, will discuss the craft behind his 20th Pike Logan novel, Shadow Strike, during the library’s online author talk on April 14, from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. The book, published by William Morrow, is set for release on April 21 — one week after the talk. The event is part of the Library Speakers Consortium, a national partnership of libraries that brings author talks to local communities at no cost. 

Taylor served 21 years in the Army, including eight in 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta — the elite unit commonly known as Delta Force — where he commanded multiple troops and a squadron, according to his official biography. He participated in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, along with other operations he describes only as “classified.” He retired in 2010, and his final military post was as assistant professor of military science at The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina. 

That background is the engine of the Pike Logan series, which Taylor launched in 2011 with his debut novel, One Rough Man. The series had sold nearly three million copies as of 2022, according to Charleston Magazine. 

“Everyone told me to just write what I know, and I was in special operations doing counterterrorism stuff for 22 years, so that’s what Pike does,” Taylor said in an interview with Charleston Magazine. 

Shadow Strike, the latest installment, follows Pike Logan as he tracks a former adversary — an assassin known as “the Ghost” — through a plot involving rogue Iranian officials and an operation spanning from Argentina to the American heartland, according to the publisher’s description. 

In a March 2026 interview with Mystery Center, Taylor said real-world events regularly outpace what he considers plausible for fiction. He pointed to the Hezbollah pager attacks and Ukraine’s drone operations as examples of real events he would have considered too far-fetched for a novel. 

The talk, titled “On Writing Action-Packed and Suspenseful Spycraft with Brad Taylor,” will include a moderated conversation and a live question-and-answer session, according to the Library Speakers Consortium listing. Attendees can submit questions in advance during registration. 

The event is free and open to adults. Registration is available at libraryc.org/pasadenalibrary/146236. A recorded version will be available after the live session for those who cannot attend at the scheduled time. 

“I never thought I would be published; it was just something I wanted to do,” Taylor said in an interview with The Big Thrill. Twenty books later, the former soldier who once thought his first novel would sit on a bedside table is discussing his craft with library patrons across the country — including, next Tuesday, in Pasadena.