Shelf Media hosts the annual Shelf Unbound Indie Best Book Competition for best self-published or independently published book. You can find the winner, finalists, long-listed, and more than 100 notable books from the competition in the December/January 2025 issue of Shelf Unbound.
Relentless
On the eve of her five-year wedding anniversary, a devastating terrorist attack in Paris thrusts former CIA analyst Kate Preacher into a lethal cat-and-mouse game of kill or be killed…
Kate’s husband, retired Navy SEAL Jake Church, is the right man in the wrong place. Caught in the middle of the Paris attack, Jake’s actions spark an international media storm, drawing unwanted attention and awakening old enemies.
Refusing to let the suspicious attack go unquestioned…or the perpetrators go unpunished, Kate’s lured back into a world of deception and betrayal—a world she thought she had escaped. And as the pieces in a twisted puzzle reveal a shocking global conspiracy, the investigation paints a target on her back.
Is Kate just a pawn in a deadly international plot, or can she outplay a ruthless killer?
Relentless is a story ripped from the headlines, and the riveting first book in the Kate Preacher Thriller Series. If you like smart, tough characters, intense action, and emotional tension, then you’ll love Michael Maloof’s vigilante heroine. You’ll love Kate Preacher.
About The Author: Michael Maloof
Michael Maloof is the award-winning author of Relentless and its highly anticipated sequel Unstoppable. His globe-trotting adventures across forty countries—from dredging for gold in Honduras to training alongside Navy SEALs and CIA operatives—infuse his thrillers with unparalleled authenticity. He’s not just writing thrillers—he’s lived them.
Interview with Michael Maloof:
What first sparked the idea for your book, and how did it grow into the story it became?
MM: A lifetime desire to write fiction became real one evening at my kitchen counter. My wife is my best friend and biggest fan—she also happens to be brilliant, beautiful, 5’6″ with hazel eyes and dark auburn hair. Coincidentally, so is my badass protagonist, Kate Preacher.
Kate was born over a glass of red wine and a conversation with my wife about pursuing my dream to write. That conversation was also the genesis of the social media handle that represents my wife’s gentle guiding hand and unwavering support: @MichaelGoWrite.
Introduce us to the world of your book. What should readers know about the story and the people (or ideas) at its center?
MM: While the thriller world is populated with leading men, I wanted to write a leading woman—not only as the hero, but as an inspiration.
Kate Preacher is real: she’s faced trauma and loss, overcome obstacles, and excelled professionally. As a digital forensic investigator, skilled hacker, and former CIA analyst, she married the love of her life—medically retired Navy SEAL Jake Church. Together they learned their scars don’t define them, and Jake found new meaning building an internationally respected executive protection team.
Relentless thrusts Kate into a world of encrypted secrets, global surveillance, and billion-dollar conspiracies—where technology is weaponized, trust is scarce, and one woman’s determination becomes a relentless force. Was there a particular moment or scene that changed how you understood your own story as you were writing it?
MM: That’s challenging to answer without spoilers, but I’ll say this: while writing, whenever a scene choked me up, I hoped that emotion would translate to the page—that readers would feel what I felt.
Those moments made me realize these characters were flesh and blood. They were alive. I cared deeply what happened to them, and I hoped readers would too. That’s when I knew the story was working—not because of the twists or the action, but because these people mattered.
What themes or emotions run beneath the surface of your book—what were you hoping to explore or uncover through this story?
MM: Placing a competent, capable woman at the center of my story was an intentional decision. Kate learns painful lessons early and trains relentlessly with Jake—both to help him find himself after losing a leg and to discover her own inner strength.
At its core, Relentless explores trauma and resilience. Kate and Jake both carry scars—physical and emotional—but they refuse to let those scars define them. Beneath the action, the book explores darker questions: What happens when the technology we trust betrays us? How far would you go for the truth when everyone tells you to stop looking? Kate’s journey is about reclaiming power in a world designed to strip it away—proving that the most dangerous weapon isn’t a gun, it’s a person who refuses to be silenced.
If a reader stops you to talk about your book, what do you most hope they’ll say it made them think or feel?
MM: I hope they’ll say it felt like watching a movie—that they couldn’t put it down. I’ve had some wonderful comments: dishes piling up in the sink, staying up all night reading, even crying in their car. It’s incredibly gratifying when someone takes a chance on my book and then tells me they can’t wait for the next one, and the next.
And as an unknown author, it’s always thrilling when readers compare me to major thriller writers. The most recent said Relentless reminded her of reading the first Mitch Rapp and Jack Reacher novels—I was floored! That’s the ultimate compliment.
Find a featured excerpt of Relentless on PAGE 51 in the December/January/February Issue: 2025 Indie Best Award Winners.
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Article originally Published in the December/January/February 2025 Issue “2025 Indie Best Award Winners”