I wrote my newly released Lily Wong novel, The Ninja’s Oath, during the pandemic when my newborn granddaughter was in lockdown in Shanghai. Twenty-three months would pass before I could hold her in my arms. Writing this book helped me feel as if I were there, not in lockdown Shanghai, but in the extraordinary city it would have been during Lily Wong’s rescue mission in the Fall of 2019.

As luck would have it, I was able to visit Shanghai at the end of 2018, just after signing the two-book deal for my debut novel, The Ninja Daughter and what would become The Ninja’s Blade. I had set both of those stories in Los Angeles, but I expected the third book, if there was one, to send Lily to her mother’s homeland in Hong Kong. Until that mind-blowing trip, it never occurred to me to send Lily to Shanghai.

Our son was living and working in the Former French Concession at the time and brought us over, via a short stop in Tokyo, to celebrate Christmas with his future wife and in-laws. I was particularly excited about visiting our future daughter-in-law’s family in Hong Kong—which I loved—but I fell head over heels for the city known as “Paris of the East.” As I walked up the garden path to our son’s shikumen lane house, I anchored the memory in my mind for a future book. Since Lily’s father had hired a Shanghainese cook, I knew the as-yet-unimagined story would center around him.

Uncle was more than my father’s crotchety old cook. Lee Chang had been the chief enforcer of the Shanghai Scorpion Black Society. A few days earlier, we had fought together in a Hong Kong alley where he bested tough young gangsters without breaking a sweat. How could Red Pole Chang have allowed a ragtag army of bullies to do this to him?

To learn Lee Chang’s story, I researched Shanghai’s history and created a genealogy for him that entwined with the city’s historical figures and events. Chang’s family unlocked the plot of my novel and guided me every step of the way. The more I researched, the more I felt as if I were still there. It also helped me to understand what was going on politically with China during the hardships of total lockdown our son’s family faced.

I channeled my tension into writing high-stakes action for Lily Wong and by reading books set in countries that piqued my interest. I dove into stories bigger than me, immersed myself in other cultures, reveled in heroic exploits, and vicariously explored. Even now, when the pandemic restrictions have lifted, I still have at least one international action thriller on deck in my TBR pile. Here are five to add to your own.

FORGOTTEN WAR by Don Bentley (Matt Drake, Book 4)

Don Bentley also pens the Tom Clancy Jack Ryan Jr. series. (I have Weapons Grade in my audiobook library right now.) I’ve read all of Bentley’s books, but Matt Drake, a Department of Intelligence Agency operative, impacts me the most. Trauma, humor, and steely determination go hand in hand with this protagonist in whatever clandestine mission he runs. Bentley’s experience as an Army Apache helicopter pilot and his connections to the U.S. Special Operations Community adds an additional punch. With Forgotten War, he was able to work through his own frustration and emotions concerning the U.S. exit from Afghanistan. This book won’t make you wish you were there, but it will definitely take you away from here.

DEMPSEY by Andrews and Wilson (Tier One, Book 7)

This is military action at its best. High stakes. Riveting characters. Multifaceted hero. If Demsey fails in his secret mission, the Kremlin retribution will undoubtedly lead to World War III. I picked this book up for the action and stayed for the characters, all of whom felt so real I could see them as friends. Brian Andrews and Jeffrey Wilson amp up the emotional stakes with coinciding timelines between John Dempsey’s Ember teammates, his son, and himself. Although this is the seventh book in the Tier One Series, Demsey, like its protagonist, can definitely stand on its own.

IT ENDS WITH KNIGHT by Yasmin Angoe (Nena Knight, Book 3)

I guarantee you’ve never met a protagonist like Nena Knight—stolen from her Ghanaian village as a child, adopted into a powerful family, and trained to become an elite assassin for a pro-African business syndicate called the Tribe. It Ends with Knight takes Angoe’s Ghanaian assassin away from her home in Miami to Tanzania on a mission to rescue a kidnapped member of the Tribe. With her traumatic past inescapably entwined with her present, Nena wrestles with the horrors pulling her down as she rises to lead. Although this marks the exciting conclusion of this trilogy, Angoe has cleverly made certain that readers can begin Nena Knight’s story where it ends.

CAVE 13 by Jonathan Maberry (Rogue Team International, Book 3)

The Rogue Team International series takes Mayberry’s hero, Joe Ledger, a former Baltimore cop and Echo Team leader, away from the U.S. Department of Military Science into an international team of troubleshooters led by Mr. Church. Having penned the ten-book Joe Ledger Series and numerous short stories and anthologies centered around Joe Ledger’s world, all of Maberry’s characters run deep. He’s known for his science-based fiction, heart-wrenching emotion, and hard-driving action. In CAVE 13, Joe Ledger and his RTI team plunge into a deadly arms race between Middle East terrorist groups and multinational corporations out to use ancient magic found along with the Dead Sea Scrolls as a 21st Century WMD. Readers can dive straight into CAVE 13, but the first two books in this series, RAGE and RELENTLESS, are too good to miss.

THE NINJA’S OATH by Tori Eldridge (Lily Wong, Book 4)

The fourth Lily Wong thriller takes this Chinese-Norwegian modern-day ninja heroine to Shanghai and Osaka in an explosive joint mission with her father’s former-triad cook, Lee Chang, and the assassin J Tran. As they attempt to locate and rescue Chang’s grandniece, Lily’s father is hospitalized back in Los Angeles with an unknown disease. As Lily fights against potentially insurmountable odds abroad and at home, she is shocked by the true identity of her ninja teacher—known only Sensei—and the truth behind why he left Japan. Although The Ninja’s Oath concludes a four-book segment of Lily Wong’s ninja exploits, it can be read first as an exciting introduction to the series.