Beyond Control: A Clandestine Conspiracy Where AI Surveillance and Deep State Power Collide

by Brandon Keller

340 pages, Paperback

Expected publication December 10, 2026

About the author

Brandon Keller is the award-winning author of the Tyler Rush thriller series. His debut novel, The Game, won the 2026 IndieReader Discovery Award for Popular Fiction, and its sequel, Beyond Control, releases December 10, 2026, through Black Rose Writing.

Keller is also a CEO in the financial services industry, where he has spent decades working at the intersection of risk, capital, and institutional decision-making. His thrillers draw on firsthand experience with power, leverage, and the consequences of decisions made at the highest levels. He writes about artificial intelligence as a force that reshapes human judgment and tests the systems designed to control it. He lives in Texas with his wife and family.

Connect with Brandon and follow his writing journey at BrandonKellerBooks.com.

Reviews

[Gary Gerlacher]

Beyond Control is another techno-thriller from Brandon Keller that combines emerging technologies, financial intrigue and family conflict into a power struggle among flawed characters. The plot centers around control of Rosie, the most powerful AI in the world, and Omniscient, a new technology that can uncover any data. Combined, these two would allow an individual to most almost anything before it happens. Tyler Rush and Jill Young want to hold onto Rosie, while Mike Hayward wants to combine Rosie with Omniscient. In the background is The Game, a centuries old contest to determine control among powerful individuals, and now run by the mysterious Maxwell Johnson. Keller weaves all of these plot lines seamlessly into a coherent story with multiple twists and reveals, ending in a cliffhanger leaving the reader anxious for the next book.

[Author Jolandi Stadler]

I really enjoyed this novel. It’s clever, gripping, thought-provoking and incredibly relevant to the world we live in now.
What I enjoyed most was how the book explores technology, power, privacy and control without becoming too technical. It raises some really interesting questions about how much power we should give technology and what happens when people start pushing the boundaries of what it can do.
Despite the bigger ideas, the characters never get lost in them. Family, loyalty, trust and responsibility give the story a relatable element and made me care about what was happening beyond the larger stakes
Beyond Control was engaging, intelligent, suspenseful and genuinely interesting. It’s the kind of thriller that entertains you but raises important questions
- Jolandi Stadler, Author of the Devil's Dance

[Donna Meredith]

Keller has produced rip-roaring, page-turning fiction with strong character development, a worthy sequel to his debut thriller, The Game.

Fans will encounter familiar characters: not only Tyler Rush, but also his former mentor Mike Hayward; Tyler’s girlfriend, now his wife Jill Hayward; and his younger sister Anna, a young woman now rather than a teen. But time and circumstances have changed each of these characters in surprising ways. Their growth and nuanced development is one of the novel’s strengths. The beauty of Beyond Control is that many characters aren’t who they seem to be at first glance. Keller is too fine a writer to produce flat characters that insult readers’ intelligence. Instead, they are complicated, just as real people are.

[Niamh McAnally]

All the characters: Mike, Jill, and Tyler from Keller’s first novel “The Game” are here. As well as the mysterious Chevron stamped on the Custodial Coin. The twists, conflicts and intensity of the story compel you to keep reading. What makes it captivating is the moral dilemma each character faces. Keller’s masterful storytelling draws you into those predicaments and compels you to figure out the choices you’d make yourself if you found yourself in a similar quandary.
While you can read this book as a standalone, you will enjoy it even more if you read The Game first. Looking forward to reading more from this author!

[Cam Torrens]

Beyond Control leans hard into the guts of a good conspiracy thriller: hidden knowledge, escalating stakes, and a plot that keeps revealing one more layer just when you think you’ve caught up. Brandon Keller's pacing is brisk and intuitive, and the story balances real-world tech business culture with the kind of puzzle-box plotting that rewards curiosity.

Fans of Dan Brown or the Nicolas Cage National Treasure films will recognize the DNA immediately—but this book is nowhere close to an imitation with its unique premise of a game of chance with global stakes. Keller's novel is smart, propulsive, and clearly written by someone who has mastered the art of how to keep a reader turning pages.

[Jann Alexander]

I inhaled Beyond Control, another addictive read in Brandon Keller’s high-stakes poker series. As he did in his first novel, The Game, Keller nails what’s freakily current in our world in plotting this fast-paced sequel. Beyond Control features the heroic Tyler Rush, a few years older, now in a stressed marriage with a child, and nominally wiser, facing a conspiracy of AI surveillance and deep state power—when another high-stakes poker game returns and ups the ante. Perhaps Keller has secret intel (or just keen insights), but the Tyler Rush series’ currency makes his books all the more real, and thrilling to flip the pages.

[Evelyn Arquette]

Beyond Control is a great book and a marvelous continuation of the of the series. Seeing Tyler and Jill married with a child made me so happy. The characters in this book are very human and Brandon did a great job portraying that through the complicated decisions characters had to make, the mistakes they made, and the growth they had throughout the book. This book made me very emotional at times and was well written. I read an advanced copy and have not yet read the final version. I will update this once I have.

[Jana Willey]

I don't read much fiction, but this one hooked me instantly and I finished it in two days. Nonstop twists, a brilliant second main character, and a hero/villain line so blurred I couldn't call it until the very end. Even better than the original. Highly recommend.