Ed Ruggero Books In Order

Publication Order of Mark Isen Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Ed Ruggero is a former infantry officer, student, practitioner, and teacher of leadership turned author of historical fiction, mystery and thriller novels. He started as a leadership expert and for more than twenty-five years he was a most sought after trainer. He worked for A-list organizations that include Time, the FBI, CEO Conference Europe, CitiFinancial, The NYPD, Hugo Boss USA, the CIA, the SAS Institute, Forbes and the Young Presidents Organization among many others. He has given interviews and had his work featured on CNBC, CNN, the Discovery Channel, and The History Channel. He has also spoken to a variety of audiences across the globe on aspects of leadership, leader ethics, and development. He was on the panel of “On Leadership” series on The Washington Post and is an advisor to McKinsey and Company. Ruggero has spoken at the Wharton School of Business of the University of Pennsylvania and the Harvard Business School. Ed is also a prolific author having written fiction and nonfiction works in his long career in public speaking and the military. The first non-fiction work he wrote was “Duty First,” a non-fictional account that describes life in West Point, America’s premier military academy. He has also written other novels on Leadership such as The “Leaser’s Compass.” His first fiction novel was “38 North Yankee” which was the first of the “Mark Isen” series.

Growing up, Rugerro always dreamed of becoming an author and to serve in the military. Once he graduated from West Point, he was commissioned in the Army and spent several years climbing the ranks in the infantry before he became a tutor at West Point teaching writing and literature. It was after this period of service in the military that he decided that he wanted to share his insights with the wider world as a trainer, public speaker and author on the many aspects of leadership and life that he had learned over the years. He founded several leadership programs in Gettysburg, Normandy, The Valley Forge and Concord where he teaches leadership skills. These programs provide experiential learning courses that enable participants to learn battle-tested leadership lessons that help them deal with the challenges of modern-day business. Ed Ruggero and Marcia Noa his wife usually divide their time between their two homes in Lewes, Delaware and Media Pennsylvania.

Ed Ruggero’s big moment when he decided he was going to start working on his dream of becoming an author was when he invited Tom Clancy to visit West Point, where he was a tutor. Knowing that Clancy was fascinated by all things military, he invited him and given the draw of West Point the newly famous author agreed. When Clancy gave his talk to the writing course cadets, he said that it was never too late for anyone, since he started when he was forty and had made it. Ruggero took his advice and began working on the manuscript of a novel that would later become “38 North Yankee.” He would wake up at 4:30 am and work until six before he left for work every day of the week except for the weekends when he spent time with family. He got most of his material from reading history, his experiences and nonfiction accounts from American paratroopers from World War II. For his works, he interviewed more than 100 ex-soldiers and officers that fought in major campaigns. In his Mark Isen series, the lead is a veteran military man named Mark Isen who moves through the ranks starting as a rifle commander in South Korea. The series follows his work as he moves through the ranks training and leading his battalion in military tactics.

Ed Ruggero’s debut novel 38 North Yankee is a realistic, action-packed and suspenseful novel that introduces the lead of the series Mark Isen. Captain Mark Isen is the commander of a rifle company in North Korea where the threat of war is still very real. There has been a cease-fire that has held for more than five decades but since no treaty has ever been signed, war could break out at any time. Then he North Korean Army invades the south but Isen and his company are determined to prevent all-out war. They are between the North Army and the South Korean and American troops massed on the other side of the border. It seems like they will need a miracle if they are to survive as the fight between the vicious foes commences. It is a fast-paced novel that follows the soldiers and their commander as they fight for their lives and their beliefs. It also documents the actions of the Northerners who are working undercover to thwart the aggression of the North Korean military. The novel makes for an intense and compelling military action page-turner.

Ruggero’s “The Common Defense” continues the story of Captain Mark Isen. In this novel, he is no longer in North Korea but has moved to Mexico where he is working with Mexican and American drug enforcement agencies to fight drug trafficking. He is a member of Delta Force, an elite counter-terrorist unit that is nearly overwhelmed by a sophisticated German terrorist network. The terrorists moved from Europe to Mexico given the laxity in enforcement in the country. Now more powerful than ever, they are using their new base to attack the United States with deadly nerve gas and powerful bombs. While it was not so hard motivating soldiers in Korea since all were American, his charge in Mexico is harder. He still has the leadership skills and training but motivating and training Mexican soldiers unfamiliar with American tactics is a challenge. It’s a suspenseful and gripping novel full of action as it follows the building of a relationship between the United States and Mexico. It is also an insightful look at the challenges the armed forces have to deal with in the fight against drugs.

Ed Ruggero’s “Firefall” follows Mark Isen who has now been promoted to major and is now stationed in Europe. He is in charge of a battalion of Army Rangers that are training to parachute into Germany on a cold winter night. The exercise is made even tougher by the fact that they will be landing only with blanks for bullets. But things go wrong on the night and the Rangers cannot communicate with the exercise controllers of the German Army. It turns out that a xenophobic faction of the Army that styles itself as the German People’s Union has taken control of the army. The rebels intend to decimate the Rangers and while at it overthrow the legitimate German government. Faced with a hostile and armed enemy, Isen needs to figure out a way to keep his troops alive as they wait for reinforcements.