Ralph DeFalco
The Counterfeit
Navy veteran, Pentagon insider, National security intelligence officer
Fernandina Beach, FL (Jacksonville)
BOOK COVER
BOOK DETAILS
Pub Date: April 13, 2026
Genre: Fiction/Thriller
Publisher: Lost Coast Press
Page Count: 292
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 9781935448563
Price: $29.95
ABOUT THE BOOK
“The Counterfeit has all the ingredients of a first-rate political thriller that’s far too close to contemporary politics for comfort. I couldn’t put it down.”
—Dr. Barry Zulauf, Defense Intelligence Officer for Counternarcotics and Transnational Organized Crime, Defense Intelligence Agency
In the near future, China wins the Pacific War that leaves the United States vanquished and bankrupted. Beijing is plotting to make a puppet of the next U.S. President, in command of a corrupt and hypocritical government that has created two Americas: one of ease, affluence, and influence, and one where people struggle to survive. Now, paroled military officers and ordinary Americans are beginning to fight back. Their audacious plan is to put a spy into the highest reaches of government. Philip Nolan, Commander, U.S. Navy, survived the war and captivity as a POW. Paroled in Chicago, Nolan agrees to infiltrate the Internal Security Division—America’s Gestapo—and replace his look-alike brother as the head of a vast secret police network built to intimidate, arrest, and imprison the government’s critics. As treachery and political intrigue swirls around him, Nolan is pulled into a whirlpool of deceit and foreign intrusion. Hidden in the corridors of power, Nolan risks capture, torture, and death as he works undercover to aid the rising Resistance.
The Counterfeit is a gripping dystopian thriller that explores the themes of loyalty, identity, and the struggle for freedom in a world where truth is a rare commodity and courage is the ultimate weapon.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ralph DeFalco is a historian, writer, and national security intelligence professional with a career that spanned five decades and five continents. Retired from a 25-year career in the rank of Captain in the U.S. Navy, he also served as a civilian intelligence professional on the Pentagon staff of the Director of Naval Intelligence. He is a distinguished graduate and former faculty member of the National Intelligence University. He graduated, with highest distinction, from the U.S. Naval War College and later served as Fleet Professor on the college’s faculty. DeFalco writes about history, world affairs, national security intelligence, strategy and policy, and geopolitics. His essays, articles, commentaries, and reviews have appeared in a variety of publications and online. His current work is online at Law & Liberty.
When he is not writing, DeFalco will be tooling around Amelia Island, FL, in his 1976 Cadillac Eldorado convertible, or on cruise ships where he is a featured speaker presenting the maritime history of ports of call or his insights on world affairs.
TIMELY TIE-INS
April
- NATO Day – 4
- Drop Everything And Read Day (D.E.A.R.) – 12
- World Book Day – 23
May
- Military Appreciation Month
- World Press Freedom Day – 3
- Memorial Day – May 25
June
- Father’s Day – 21
July
- Independence Day – 4
- National Intelligence Professionals Day – 26
- Paperback Book Day – 30
SUGGESTED INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
- As an accomplished writer of non-fiction, what made you decide to write your first novel, The Counterfeit?
- The Counterfeit is a look into America’s future. Is that future cast in stone?
- What parts of The Counterfeit are based on real world events?
- How is The Counterfeit different from other thrillers?
- How deeply did you draw on your nearly five decades of experience as an intelligence officer to write The Counterfeit?
- Why did you include chapter notes in your book? That’s very unusual for a novel.
- What writers of thrillers do you most admire?
- How likely are we to see a follow-on to The Counterfeit in the works?
PRAISE
“This is a ripping tale of a dystopian, but plausible and not too distant future….The Counterfeit has all the ingredients of a first-rate political thriller that’s far too close to contemporary politics for comfort. I couldn’t put it down.”
—Dr. Barry Zulauf, Defense Intelligence Officer for Counternarcotics and Transnational Organized Crime, Defense Intelligence Agency
“DeFalco combines a storyteller’s gift for suspense with an insider’s knowledge of geopolitics and warfare gained during a distinguished military career….This fast-paced novel is a dystopian warning and a glimpse into the near future.”
—Jon Parrish Peede, President, Ashland University, Former Chairman, National Endowment for the Humanities
“A writer with the story-telling skills of the masterful John le Carre, DeFalco shows us the dark side of a rising national resistance against a nation felled by its worst enemy and its own failing policies. He creates an America readers will find gut-wrenching.”
—Eric Wentz, author of Zero Two Hundred Hours: A Fact-Based Military Thriller
“The book’s incredible detail, real characters, and sense of place, made it even more frightening. And plausible. Read The Counterfeit, and you will want to know what you can do to help stop that year from becoming real.”
—Mari K. Eder, Major General, US Army (RET.), author of The Girls Who Stepped Out of Line: The Untold Stories of the Women Who Changed the Course of WWII
“Plot twists I never saw coming kept me turning page after page. So right on target it’s scary. DeFalco must have a crystal ball to see the future so clearly.”
—Fred Borakove, Special Agent in Charge (RET.), US Treasury Department, IRS-Criminal Investigation
BOOK DETAILS
Pub Date: May 17, 2022
Genre: Memoir / Christian Inspirational
Publisher: She Writes Press
Page Count: 304
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 978-1647429003
Price: $15.99