Joe Battaglia
Beneath the Rings
Seasoned content executive and award-winning journalist, EVP Media Strategy Track Star League, and member of the National Sports Media Association and International Sports Press Association (AIPS)
College Station, TX
BOOK COVER
BOOK DETAILS
Pub Date: October 2, 2025
Genre: Suspense/Thriller
Publisher: Franklin Publishers
Page Count: 442
Format: Hardcover, Paperback, Ebook, with Audiobook forthcoming
ISBN:9798893247923
Price: $24.99
ABOUT THE BOOK
The Doha 2040 Summer Olympics are supposed to be about gold medals and global unity. Instead, they kick off a descent into terror when 12 Israeli and Lebanese athletes vanish, leaving behind only the chilling threat of The Obsidian Hand and an impossible $500 billion ransom. Veteran journalist Nova Mendelsohn finds herself entangled with a cryptic Ancient Arabic note and a mysterious local merchant, forced to race the clock. Her pursuit of the truth will take her from the glittering Olympic Village into the city’s darkest corners and onto the blood-soaked sands of the desert, where a centuries-old vengeance threatens to ignite a catastrophic final act. What secrets lie beneath the surface of the Games, and what will it cost Nova to uncover them?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joe Battaglia is a seasoned and award-winning journalist who spent years in The Olympics arena. With over two decades in sports media, Battaglia has led content creation across news, politics, and athletics, including a role on the NBCOlympics.com team that earned a Sports Emmys for Outstanding New Approaches To Sports Event Coverage for the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Summer Olympics. He currently lives in Texas with his family and Beneath the Rings is his debut novel.
TALKING POINTS
- A look at how institutions—governments, media, and sports federations—maintain silence in the face of wrongdoing
- Fiction that mirrors real-world journalists and truth-seekers who risk everything to reveal the facts
- The author’s process of blending real geopolitical tensions with high-stakes fiction
- The inspiration behind the novel’s fearless journalist
TIMELY TIE-INS
- National Novel Writing Month – November
- National Author’s Day – November 1
- International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists – November 2
- International Journalist Day – November 19
- International Anti-Corruption Day – December 9
- 2026 Winter Olympics – February 6-22
- Texas Writers Month- May 2026
SUGGESTED INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
- You have been a sports media journalist for more than three decades, from your experience in the world of sports what served as inspiration for Beneath the Rings?
- The story takes place during the 2040 Summer Olympics in Doha—why did you choose an international setting, and especially Qatar, for your novel?
- Beneath the Rings has a rich character list, in all of your years as a journalist has there been any particular person or event who inspired one or any of the characters?
- Beneath the Rings takes place in 2040—as a forward-thinking thriller, are there any elements that fans of science fiction would appreciate?
- How does your real-life experience in the media community shape your characters, plots, and authenticity?
- Will Beneath the Rings be the first in a series featuring Nova Mendelsohn?
- There are several high-profile and internationally systemic issues that are front and center in the plot of Beneath the Rings, such as government overreach and sex trafficking. What inspired you to place these issues at the forefront, and what research did you do to center them so vividly in the novel?
- What are some similar books and/or authors to yourself and Beneath the Rings fans might enjoy?
- Why did you choose the Summer Olympics as the scene for Beneath the Rings?

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