The memoirs of 11-time Emmy winning broadcast journalist Wayne Dawson.

Brash and brilliant, twenty year old Mathis Zieglar, Professor of Languages, faces an agonizing choice. Should he fight the Turks who take his family hostage and move to destroy Vienna? Or should he betray his army to save his kin? One by one, Muslim agents murder Mathis' closest associates in an attempt to isolate him from his comrades. As 138,000 Turks grind down Vienna's 11,000 defenders with no relief in sight, Mathis' only chance to save family and country is to use his ability to speak Tartar and the knack he learned as a child to leap, whirl and strike.Foreword to Vienna's Last Jihad, by Stephen O. Fought, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus and Former Dean of Academics, Air War College.Dawson's characters leap from the page, orient the reader, and immediately begin to unfold the drama of Vienna's Last Jihad. The personalities draw you into their times and circumstances and, in near-Shakespearean roles demonstrate frustration, betrayal, amazing trust, and philosophical brilliance. The drama educates the reader in matters of history and warfare, from the intricacy of armaments and fortress design, to the brutality of combat as well as the politics of the times. You are there and Europe must turn back the Ottoman Empire, but Europe is behind and Vienna, the linchpin in Europe's defense, is at great risk! At one point our characters have conducted a raid into the enemy camp, kidnapped an important warrior and seek to interrogate him.The individual is hung upside down and the customary torture begins. Mathis and Tannenberg cut him down with Mathis saying “I'm doing the right thing....Killing a man in battle is one thing. This stinks.” This brings to center stage the seminal question of: “How can we (as a civilized society) fight, and win, against a society that is so fundamentally different from ours, without so changing ourselves in the process that we might as well have lost in the first place?” This battle within the characters is their Jihad, and the question persists in our circumstances today. The book is worth your read. It is first and foremost entertaining and high, fast-paced drama. It is also history, as history should be taught -- in the circumstances in which it was created. And finally it deals with fundamental dilemmas we face today, but done in a manner just enough removed from today's circumstances to be instructive. Good stuff. A must read. And I am ready for Dawson's next book!

Women are disappearing off the streets of Vienna in 1684 and Captain Mathis Zieglar vows to find out why. Defying orders to break off his investigation, he discovers they are being trafficked into the Muslim slave market. His only hope of ransoming them from a life of abuse is to find the treasure of the Raven King. The treasure is a secret code lodged inside an ancient text that will rock the Ottoman and Holy Roman Empire to their foundations.

Based on sacred geometry, the most universal language of all, a classic tale arises from the increasing complexity of personal development and relationships, not uncommon to a child who is set to venture out of the home, and into the great unknown of academia. This is a fairy tale that exceeds mere grandiose fantasy and attempts to portray an objective morality in an interactive world where only conscious intent and hard work can obtain the highest pinnacle. Weaved craftily into this colorful story is the brilliant psychological model of Carl Jung, the wisdom of ancient Greece, the love of Christ, the serenity of Zen, and much more. Bits and pieces of worldly philosophy in cosmic proportions are sprinkled about in a simple tale of a young seeker's journey to find an answer to the mystery of life. This is a story for those who dare to dream big.

In 1684, Captain Mathis Zieglar and Sarah Oppenheimer, a brilliant Jewish temptress, are close to discovering the location of the Treasure of the Raven King. The documents they've uncovered will now empower them to free hundreds of hostages from Ottoman slavery. If they make the secret public, they will betray their emperor and country. Are they willing to risk everything to save others they've never met? Caught Between Two Pagans begins where the last book in the series, The Darkness That Could Be Felt, ends. Mathis Zieglar is alone in the cell that once held Vlad Dracula. By feeling his way along the engravings in the wall, he pieces together clues concerning the location of the treasure. But in order to recover the secret, he must combine his knowledge with information held by Sarah Oppenheimer, a bewitching and brilliant beauty who keeps her own secrets. Together, the two must brave the intrigues of the Church and travel through a country in the midst of a Catholic/Muslim war to obtain the treasure. As the inhabitants describe the conflict, they are "caught between two pagans." Mathis and Sarah's last chance to rescue the hostages ends at a farm hiding an alchemist's laboratory and the secret it contains. A secret the sultan and the emperor would kill for.