Checkmate Protocol

CHECKMATE PROTOCOL The Red Room Chronicles: Book One – Queen to E5 She wasn't trained to play the game. She was born to break it. When FBI profiler Haley Dawn McGarrett steps into a locked-door murder scene in a forgotten Washington D.C. brownstone, she expects another crime to solve—not the opening gambit in a deadly conspiracy that stretches across the globe. The only clue left behind: a single, hand-carved chess piece. As the body count rises, Haley is pulled into the shadows of a clandestine network known only as The Red Room—an intelligence collective that has shaped world events for decades. Its reach is invisible, its motives chillingly precise, and its final directive is terrifyingly clear: Control the game. Or be sacrificed by it. When her partner vanishes, federal agencies begin erasing witnesses, and Haley discovers her own name buried in enemy files, she realizes the conspiracy is personal. Her father's hidden past ties directly to the Red Room's agenda, and every truth she uncovers places her closer to checkmate. With assassins in pursuit, allies who may not be what they seem, and time running out, Haley must flip the board entirely—or lose not only her case but her life. Because when the second queen rises, only one will survive. For fans of Gone Girl, Orphan X, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, this adrenaline-charged thriller is packed with mind-bending twists, psychological warfare, and a heroine who refuses to obey anyone's rules. What happens when the truth is too dangerous to survive? You don't play their game. You break it.