Here is an opportunity to emphasize the Warlock series is better understood when read as a complete series. Seems obvious, but it becomes more apparent as you go down the pipeline of the progression of books.
Book #1-- LVOTDAD. I won't reveal all the things that go on (there are many as it details the 20+ year career of Jon Prescott), but I will drive one point home: the litany of operations or organizations to which he is a cog in the wheel transform him. He either summons or bolsters his integrity and character as he is subjected to a crucible of hard times or operational challenges. Going forward throughout the series, this attribute is featured in many of the participating characters, and is done quite deliberately. This book is quite technical, but so are the subsequent operations from book 1 to book 6.
Book #2-- WTF. I mentioned 'the pipeline' somewhat tongue in cheek already, and here is where fiction wrought in the 2016/2017 timeframe is brought into today's headlines: the sabotage of NordStream2. First, WTF introduces the main protagonist hereafter--the Warlock. The Warlock is a mechanism of US foreign policy not held to the same laws under which CIA, for example, labors. The Warlock is extrajudicial; the Warlock is not constrained by 'wokeness' nor political bias. The fulcrum to change the trajectory of global alliances in this case are the nat gas/oil pipelines stretched out on the sea beds of the Baltic and Black Seas.
Today's headlines feature a fairly heavy-handed kinetic interdiction of NS2; WTF initially targets NS2 but moves to TurkStream using the same cyber manipulation methodology. The objective in WTF is to place a wedge of distrust between the originators of the commodity, Russia, and the receivers/distributors of the commodity, Turkey and Iran. The timeframe of the operation is 2016ish, well before the current RU/UKR invasion starting Feb 2022. Turkey is identified as a target due to their regional belligerence and questionable loyalty to NATO. Even at this point in time, the Warlock is aware the Russian Bear may have unsavory ambitions.
Book #3--TBC. The Warlock observes Putin takes advantage of the Obama administration's failure to defeat Assad after crossing the chemical 'red line' in Syria; Putin, in fact, occupies a port on the Med called Tartus and asserts influence into the Syrian fray. TBC really gets cooking in the 2019 timeframe where punitive raids to Putin's external vanguards in Georgia, Donbas and Syria are subjected to intense attacks through proxy means. The objective in TBC is to overload Putin's capacity to assert regional dominance through a million paper cuts. The Warlock sees the stranglehold Putin's natural gas supply has on an unhealthily dependent EU and seeks to rebalance energy diversity by investing in vastly increasing LNG terminals along Europe's coastline by covertly supporting the Three Seas Initiative. I'm afraid there is a whole lot more going on; here is where the geostrategic fun begins. Read it!
Remember, both WTF and TBC were meant to prevent what has happened in today's war torn Ukraine.
Book #4--TBG. Up to now, the focus has been elsewhere, although it is stated throughout the series there is a greater villain-- China. TBG bluntly asserts that all roads lead to China, and that the West has been in an economic conflict with China since they joined the WTO (at least). And speaking of roads, the Warlock expends resources on interdicting Xi's Belt and Roads Initiative in order to inflict extensive, but still constrained, damage to the Chinese economy in the hopes of fomenting contagion.
Book #5--TZC. The broad alliance of China/Russia/Iran/Turkey is defined. Whereas China has its east/west axis of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Iran and India desire to add a north/south component called the North South Transit Corridor (NSTC) stretching up to Moscow from Chabahar port. Unfortunately, it passes though a crucible of enmity called the Caucuses, and the Warlock takes advantage of century old frictions as he lays his traps. Disruption of the NSTC is desired to break the link between Russia and Iran as well as disrupt a legitimate revenue source to fund Iran's nuclear program. Turkey takes the blame for kicking off a major conflagration-- oops. Israel enters the chat.
Book #6--BOW. Evil is resilient; all the things the Warlock has brought about to set conditions were not taken advantage of by this administration. As the US is set on pursuing a 'green agenda', the Warlock concludes that China still holds the cards-- they control 90% of the lithium ores required to manufacture batteries for EVs. The Warlock sets China against Russia by framing both countries in attacks on each other, and things unravel from there. Exactly what the Warlock had planned as we wobble on the cusp of world war.
There is a lot to unpack, but the Warlock invariably attacks a geostrategic fissure where countries interests do not align, and his plans are measured so the attacks are always plausibly blamed on someone else. The blame is placed on an adversary through deception or false flag (the term false flag is thrown around a lot lately; these books offer very realistic examples). In all cases, the desired end state is a weakened (or destroyed) alliance that aims to dominate the world.