About the Book

Book: The Home Team

Author: Dave Pratt

Genre: Military / Romance

Release Date: November 11, 2025

Sam Anthem has always been a team player, leading his Home Team on secret missions around the world and chasing down bad guys for the U.S. government. But Sam has never had a place to call home or someone to go home to.
Consuelo Zamora has been serving as a missionary nurse, but her work has led her to be forced to work with some South American drug lords in order to provide medicine for the common people. After being rescued by Sam and his Home Team, Consuelo settles into a new position in Olympia, Washington, to work with a community center there. But somehow, trouble always follows her, and Sam Anthem seems to always be nearby to save the day.
When Sam is forced on a two-month vacation, he is introduced to a former covert ops soldier-turned pastor. But the vacation takes a turn when the Home Team comes under attack. As the team fights to stay alive against an unknown adversary, Sam begins to wonder if there is more to life than just the job. With his life on the line, Sam must decide between the job or his newfound faith and possible love.

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About the Author

David Pratt is a native of most of the U.S. west coast, from Bakersfield, California to Anchorage, Alaska. A retired U.S. Army officer and private sector project manager consultant, he is based in Olympia, Washington, and spends the majority of his time living and wandering the Pacific Northwest with his wife and family. Mr. Pratt has wide and varied publication credits, including magazine articles and short stories in a variety of regional and national magazines and journals, and six fiction and nonfiction books. His guiding light in life is Our Lord Jesus Christ, and his focus is glorifying God in all he does. He considers his wife, family, and friends as some of God’s greatest blessings in his life.

Author Interview

Can you tell us a little bit about what readers can expect from your books?

My intent is to provide readers with fast-paced, action-packed, clean Christian suspense stories that carry the reader across the United States and around the globe as the strong male and female members of the Home Team, an element of the State Department’s Extreme Operations Group, are called on to protect the interests of their nation, its allies and its people. Each member of the Home Team brings a unique character and skillset to the team, as covert operators, modern-day warriors, and people with a strong, shared Christian faith.

The close, family-like relationship within the team equips them to tackle unique, challenging, deadly missions with an energy and degree of creativity that will surprise and entertain the reader, while also delivering a subtle, important message about the power of our faith in Him.

What is the greatest advice you have ever been given about writing?

Prune without mercy! If a piece of the story doesn’t contribute directly to the plot, to the conflict, to the character development, delete it. This results in a much faster-paced story, which remains on point throughout the book.

What book made you fall in love with reading?

Until the 4th grade, I didn’t read much at all. In fact, my reading teacher advised my parents that, because of my poor reading skills (so slow), that I wasn’t very intelligent and would not amount to much in life. Fortunately, in the same school, my science teacher advised my parents that I was his best student. That suggested to my mom that my reading issue might not be related to intelligence, but perhaps to my vision. Right after that experience, my mother took me to an optometrist, who prescribed eyeglasses. My grades immediately shot up as my reading ability improved. And I discovered fiction. It started with the Hardy Boys and I’ve been addicted ever since. Fiction provided an escape from a challenging family situation.

Can you share 5 random facts about this book?

The martial arts demonstrated by the main character are very real.
The heroin’s father is based on my wife’s actual father, who was very accomplished.
The high-velocity paint-ball bullets used in the book are now being used by the Coast Guard to “tag” criminals making high-speed escapes on single-person watercraft, so they can track them later.
The city of Aguascalientes, Mexico, is beautiful and has amazing outdoor restaurants on the plaza, as described in the book.
Empty-hand fighting, referred to in The Home Team, focuses on utilizing fundamental techniques and body mechanics, rather than specialized weapons.

What was the inspiration behind it?

As a retired military officer, I wrestled with reconciling what I was called on to do in my occupation with my faith in God and His commandments. When I met my wife thirteen years ago, she motivated me to acknowledge my military career for the first time in twenty years. That led me to several pastors and the reconciliation with God, through Jesus, which I needed. All that forms the premise of the book.

Can you share something interesting or surprising you learned while researching for the book?

Drug smugglers build motor-less submersibles, which are towed behind large freighters, to smuggle drugs into foreign ports.

What was the most challenging part of bringing this book to life? 

The Home Team was a very fun book to write. If anything was challenging at all, it was ensuring the continuity of the timeline along which the events occurred.

What was the most rewarding?

In the privacy of my office, I wept when I read the final manuscript. As much as I believe The Home Team is an entertaining, fun read, writing it was a very personal experience.

What do you hope readers will take away from the book?

We all may be called on to do things others in our Faith might consider inappropriate. But our relationship does not exist between us and those people; it exists between us and God. There is real value in opening ourselves to Him and seeking help and advice from those who James (James 3, NIV) would consider good teachers. They can help us move forward in our relationship with God and understand what He may have called on us to do.