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PHOENIX: A Psychological Thriller of Power and Paranoia
Not yet published
Expected 20 Feb 26They don’t need evidence to ruin you. They only need a forecast.Phoenix Navarro has spent years making his life small on purpose—school pickup at 3:05, dinner on schedule, a boring routine built to keep the old instincts buried. Because the moment he looks dangerous, the state has permission to take what matters most.
It starts with a badge on his a welfare monitor with a notebook, a calm smile, and the authority to turn every breath into data. She notes tone. She notes hesitation. Everything is for the file.
Then the government phone begins to train him. Random compliance pings. Route alerts. A green check that appears when he obeys. A red boundary on the map that bites like the ankle monitor strapped to his leg. The screen tells him where to turn, where not to stop, when to show up—and when to keep his child on the premises while an escort is en route.
At school pickup, ordinary life swirls around Phoenix—parents chatting, kids laughing, backpacks bouncing—until he spots the men in suits standing too still by the doors. And he understands the message beneath every polite your child is safe as long as you remain compliant.
And then the device displays a word that should be private. Intimate. Impossible.
WREN.
The name drags him back into the orbit of President Evelyn Cross—the woman he once loved, the woman the country trusts, the woman he can’t afford to even think about too loudly. No one will say her name in the rooms where Phoenix is processed. They don’t have to. It already lives in him, right where it hurts.
Now the system has decided the next seventy-two hours contain a single moment—a moment where Phoenix and the President intersect and blood becomes inevitable. Phoenix isn’t being contained for what he did, but for what the machine believes he will do.
Not proof. Not justice. A prediction.
When Evelyn finally gets a few monitored minutes on a screen, she’s terrified—not for herself, but for what the machine can do through Phoenix. She warns him that if they offer him a choice, it won’t be real. Then the audio crackles. The call is cut.
Deputy Director Rusk arrives with the kind of smile that never reaches the eyes. He promises “no spectacle,” no public process, no headlines—if Phoenix meets him halfway. Cooperate, and the oversight lightens. Refuse, and Rowan’s “stability” becomes a file, a placement, a permanent separation… while the public narrative turns unpleasant.
Phoenix’s lawyer, Tamsin Roe, calls it what it is—coercion dressed as concern. But the machine doesn’t need Phoenix to be guilty. It only needs him to react.
And someone is helping it.
An unknown call that won’t stop vibrating. A three-second voicemail like a lit fuse. A padded envelope with a wren stamp that arrives without a return address. An old broker name—Kite—spoken in Phoenix’s kitchen like a summons from the life he swore he’d never touch again. Every lever is pulled with surgical precision, not to prevent a tragedy… but to manufacture one that looks inevitable.
Because love makes you predictable. Grief makes you useful. And in a world run on forecasts, one shove is all it takes to turn a father into a headline.
Phoenix can keep obeying—watching his son learn that compliance is safety.
Or he can break the script they wrote for him… without becoming the monster they’re waiting for.
It starts with a badge on his a welfare monitor with a notebook, a calm smile, and the authority to turn every breath into data. She notes tone. She notes hesitation. Everything is for the file.
Then the government phone begins to train him. Random compliance pings. Route alerts. A green check that appears when he obeys. A red boundary on the map that bites like the ankle monitor strapped to his leg. The screen tells him where to turn, where not to stop, when to show up—and when to keep his child on the premises while an escort is en route.
At school pickup, ordinary life swirls around Phoenix—parents chatting, kids laughing, backpacks bouncing—until he spots the men in suits standing too still by the doors. And he understands the message beneath every polite your child is safe as long as you remain compliant.
And then the device displays a word that should be private. Intimate. Impossible.
WREN.
The name drags him back into the orbit of President Evelyn Cross—the woman he once loved, the woman the country trusts, the woman he can’t afford to even think about too loudly. No one will say her name in the rooms where Phoenix is processed. They don’t have to. It already lives in him, right where it hurts.
Now the system has decided the next seventy-two hours contain a single moment—a moment where Phoenix and the President intersect and blood becomes inevitable. Phoenix isn’t being contained for what he did, but for what the machine believes he will do.
Not proof. Not justice. A prediction.
When Evelyn finally gets a few monitored minutes on a screen, she’s terrified—not for herself, but for what the machine can do through Phoenix. She warns him that if they offer him a choice, it won’t be real. Then the audio crackles. The call is cut.
Deputy Director Rusk arrives with the kind of smile that never reaches the eyes. He promises “no spectacle,” no public process, no headlines—if Phoenix meets him halfway. Cooperate, and the oversight lightens. Refuse, and Rowan’s “stability” becomes a file, a placement, a permanent separation… while the public narrative turns unpleasant.
Phoenix’s lawyer, Tamsin Roe, calls it what it is—coercion dressed as concern. But the machine doesn’t need Phoenix to be guilty. It only needs him to react.
And someone is helping it.
An unknown call that won’t stop vibrating. A three-second voicemail like a lit fuse. A padded envelope with a wren stamp that arrives without a return address. An old broker name—Kite—spoken in Phoenix’s kitchen like a summons from the life he swore he’d never touch again. Every lever is pulled with surgical precision, not to prevent a tragedy… but to manufacture one that looks inevitable.
Because love makes you predictable. Grief makes you useful. And in a world run on forecasts, one shove is all it takes to turn a father into a headline.
Phoenix can keep obeying—watching his son learn that compliance is safety.
Or he can break the script they wrote for him… without becoming the monster they’re waiting for.
344 pages, Kindle Edition
Expected publication February 20, 2026
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January 11, 2026Received as an ARC from the author, with no anticipation of a positive review.
Another makes you think gem from Victor Peter. Non-stop thriller with an ending that will continue to make you think.
Another makes you think gem from Victor Peter. Non-stop thriller with an ending that will continue to make you think.
Review of advance copy
A five star read from the first word to the last. Phoenix is a man who must fight to protect what is most important to him. But he doesn't use his fists or weapons. The opposition doesn't fight fair and the tension builds to the very end. Equal parts psychological and thriller, you find yourself immersed in Phoenix' struggle. The ending is not at all predictable...but genius. Phoenix is a story you won't soon forget. A story you don't want to stop reading....until you have no other choice. Powerful and delicate, each sentence makes an impact to the very end.
Review of advance copy received from Author
Cold, precise, and deeply unsettling, PHOENIX tightens its grip with every page. Victor Peter builds tension through control rather than chaos, where obedience is currency and silence is survival. Every interaction hums with threat; every choice feels prewritten. It’s a smart, nerve-tight read that lingers long after the final page.
Review of advance copy received from Author
I loved this book. This was so different for the other books in have read from this author. Phoenix is caught up in something and he has no clue what, how, why or even how to get out of it. With many things redacted or on a need to know basis what is a single father to do? As Phoenix follows this path he has one thing he needs to protect at all costs Rowen. The ending will shock you.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews