No Country for Patriots

A nation divided. A system broken. One man refuses to play by the rules.

Calvin Mercer never planned to run for president. A retired Marine and former senator, he walked away from politics when it stopped serving the people it was meant to represent.

But when both parties offer more of the same—and the country edges closer to tearing itself apart—Mercer does the unthinkable.

He runs as an Independent.

What begins as a long-shot campaign quickly becomes something more. As Mercer and his team build a movement that refuses to bend to party lines, they gain momentum—and make powerful enemies.

When an assassination attempt changes everything, the fight moves beyond the campaign trail and into the shadows of power, where influence is bought, truth is buried, and justice comes at a cost.

In a world where loyalty is currency and truth is negotiable, one question remains:

Can a single idea—freely chosen, not forced—still change the course of a nation?

No Country for Patriots is a gripping political thriller about power, principle, and the cost of standing for something when everything is on the line.

B.A. Ritzenthaler served nearly three decades in the U.S. Navy and Military Sealift Command, where he learned to fix just about anything with duct tape, sarcasm, and coffee. He's been a medic, a leader, a sailor, and occasionally the guy who asks, "Is this supposed to be leaking?"He writes both memoir and political fiction - sometimes funny, sometimes unsettling, occasionally both at once. His novels explore what principled leadership looks like when the system pushes back.When he's not writing, he's probably woodworking, birdwatching, or pretending not to be emotionally attached to a hummingbird feeder. He lives on the East Coast with his wife Susan.