Additional provisions · Incorporated by reference

§ 1Everyone signed. § 2Nobody read the fine print.

TR-31-0447 · The agreement Knox signed in Dark Recipe(a) Consent to Monitoring. The Adviser consents to monitoring, interception, recording, retention, and inspection of all communications, data, and activity transiting or stored upon any government or personal device, account, network, or premises used by the Adviser, without further notice, at any time, for any purpose consistent with the interests of the Office, and acknowledges that no expectation of privacy attaches to any such communication or data. (b) Waiver of Review. Determinations of the Office as to assignment, suitability, performance, duration, and completion are final and are not subject to administrative appeal, grievance, arbitration, or judicial review. (c) Tolling and Extension. The term shall toll during any period of unavailability, investigation, medical leave, or suspension, and shall extend by a period equal to such tolling, which extension may recur without limitation.

Terms & Conditions, a Knox Ramsey thriller. Ebook and paperback November 10; hardcover December 1.

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Terms & Conditions

Everyone signed. Nobody read the fine print.

After Operation Harvest Cloud, industrial engineer Knox Ramsey thought the worst was behind him. Then the government came back with a contract.

To protect his son from a federal prosecution he did not deserve, Knox signs a five-year agreement with the Department of the Treasury. On paper, he is attached to the Critical Infrastructure Defense Office. In the fine print, he has been folded into Project Helios, a deniable Treasury-NSA operation built to protect America’s critical infrastructure from threats the public will never be allowed to see.

The next battlefield is Flint, Michigan: a city written off by politicians, remembered by industry, and suddenly central to a fight over energy, data, and control. Chinese intelligence is not attacking with missiles. It is using the devices Americans already invited into their homes, the data brokers they never knew existed, and the terms of service nobody reads. Smart televisions. Consumer firmware. Broken privacy laws. Compromised officials. A domestic battery project that could change the balance of power.

Knox understands systems. He knows how they fail. This one was compromised before he ever touched it.

A technically authentic geopolitical thriller for fans of Michael Crichton, Tom Clancy, and John le Carré.

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Explore the Book

Political thrillers of technology, power, and consequence.

Knox Ramsey is a systems engineer by training and temperament. He sees the world as interconnected structures—machines, networks, institutions, and people. When the official explanation no longer fits the evidence, he works backward: eliminating what cannot be true, isolating the failure, and following it to its source.

The truth is never merely technical. Each investigation draws Knox into conflicts shaped by ambition, institutional power, and the compromises people make to protect what they have built. Each novel delivers a complete central conflict while advancing Knox's larger story. Relationships evolve, loyalties shift, and his choices carry consequences from one book to the next.

Dark Recipe ends with a signature: a five-year agreement that puts Knox at the government's disposal. Terms & Conditions is where the fine print starts to come due, and that agreement binds every novel that follows.

Dark Recipe paperback by Robert Cummer
Book One · Available Now

Dark Recipe

"A recipe for digital destruction."

When thousands fall ill after a festival, agencies see an outbreak. Controls engineer Knox Ramsey sees fingerprints in the data — manipulated setpoints, corrupted telemetry, falsified logs. The weapon isn't a pathogen; it's the recipe that tells machines what to do. From Detroit to Shanghai, Knox traces a breach through real industrial systems while federal response grinds under pressure, and a single corrupted parameter threatens to turn the food supply into a delivery mechanism.

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Author Robert Cummer talks Dark Recipe on WNEM TV5

Saginaw, MI · February 2026

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Beyond the Knox Ramsey novels

The universe is expanding

Tate Ramsey, PhD, and Agent William “Bill” Steele lead their own forthcoming thrillers. Discover Project MindSeed, planned for 2027, and The Gambler’s Mind, set before Steele ever met Knox.

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Knox Ramsey

Meet Knox Ramsey

Knox Ramsey

Knox Ramsey is a systems engineer by training and temperament. He has spent his career building and safeguarding the platforms most people never think about—until something goes catastrophically wrong.

Where others see unrelated events, Knox sees the machinery underneath and the people quietly bending it to their will. He relies on ingenuity, perseverance, and the conviction that engineers do not get to shrug when their work puts lives at risk.

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The Field Guide

A companion to the Knox Ramsey universe — characters, systems, threats, and locations as the series unfolds.

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