Choices of Power – Veteran Considers History, Politics, Morality In New Book

The Bulgarian Mafia and a dust-up with Marines.

Choices of Power
Choices of Power

WOODSTOCK, Ga. –-(Ammoland.com)- “Choices of Power” begins in the murderous bowels of post-communist Bulgaria.

Stefon Slavov, an Olympic wrestler turned mafia operative, flees after assassinating and desecrating Bulgaria’s defense minister and his bodyguards. In the Czech Republic, the culprit changes his identity to Branimir Korda and falls in love with Danica, an Olympic gymnast.

To avoid the reaches of an Interpol warrant, Branimir and Danica flee to the United States. In New Jersey, they become involved with a drug smuggler. Using a fast boat and creative procedures, they establish a smuggling operation with landing points stretching the length of the east coast. Branimir and Danica have a son named Andrei, who is endowed with superior athleticism.

Meanwhile, a barroom brawler, Sammy Borden, emerges in Georgia. In a chance encounter in North Carolina, Sammy and Andrei fight back-to-back against daunting odds. The incident creates a bond of friendship between the two.

Back in Georgia, Sammy engages a motorcycle gang in two savage conflicts. These clashes bring Sammy acclaim and launch him on a new career. In the midst of his career change, he discovers an alternate source of power.

Along with the fall of communism in 1989 came the Bulgarian mafia, which has lasted into the 21st century. Olympic sportsmen, mostly wrestlers, formed the fraternity, which is presumed responsible for more than 150 contract killings, one as recent as January 2013.

From that piece of history, John Dial has created a story of redemption starting with a well-known Olympic wrestler who assassinates the Bulgarian Defense Minister and including a New Jersey drug smuggler, a Columbian cocaine cartel, a motorcycle gang, an amateur boxer, and a barroom brawler.

“I spent quite awhile researching the formation of the Bulgarian mafia as well as politics in the country,” Dial said. “The history works as a background for the ideas that moral peace can’t be bought and that moral dilemmas prompt changes in people.”

A US Army veteran and a Christian, Dial lived through some of the scenes in Choices of Power, such as a fight with Marines at a Marine Corps base in North Carolina and the Christian transformation one of the key characters goes through.

“I felt I had a good story in me based on life experiences, research, and imagination,” Dial said.

By John H. Dial

ISBN: 978-1-4525-1975-3

Available in softcover, hardcover, e-book

Available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Balboa Press

About the author

John Dial is a former manager and engineer with over eighteen years of schooling. He’s used both life experiences and research to create this fictional novel. The characters and story in this book emerged from a combination of real life and ingenuity occurring over the past half century. In net effect, it is a work of pure fiction. Living in retirement in Georgia, he had the time to conceive and pen this story. It is his sincerest hope that readers will find it entertaining.

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