SOME TRUTHS ARE HIDDEN. THIS ONE COULD CHANGE EVERYTHING.

A novel by Ivan Carl

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Book Release Fall 2026

 

A murdered professor. Two words written in blood. An equation that could change everything.

Nathan Brooks was a mathematician going through the motions — publishing papers, chasing tenure, measuring his life in productivity metrics — until his mentor was killed for a discovery he'd spent forty years documenting.

Now Nathan has the key to the research, a former intelligence operative at his side, and a target on his back.

The equation is elegant. What it proves is explosive — and the organization that has spent more than two centuries burying it will do whatever it takes to make sure Nathan never shares it with the world.

What would you risk to know the truth?

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PRAISE FOR THE EQUATION

"The Equation is a revelatory book that is impossible to stop thinking about.

Ivan Carl’s thought-provoking thriller cares more about its idea than its body count, which is both the book’s greatest strength and its biggest gamble. The prose is brisk and straightforward. Carl delivers a story that challenges as much as it entertains, leaving readers to wrestle with the equation it’s based upon. A contemplative thriller built on a dangerous idea. "

- Nicky Flowers, Indies Today 

"The dangerous idea, involving the control of the public in the interest of productivity and profit, is just the kind of cool hook that thriller readers could relish… Holt’s mysterious work, which reveals challenging truths of time and the “mathematical patterns underlying human well-being,” tantalizes, and there is power in the idea of society’s most powerful figures killing to shut down the humane communitarianism that could lead to lives of contentment."
 
- Booklife Reviews
 
"The Equation has been an incredibly rewarding journey... I was struck by the sheer ambition of the story."
 
- KA, Editor, Palmetto Publishing
 
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About the Author

Ivan Carl is a traveler, engineer, and educator. The idea behind The Equation began decades ago in the Andes mountains and took shape over years of time with friends, family adventures, and a persistent question he couldn't stop asking about what makes a life work. He lives with his family on Lake Tahoe, where he continues to explore the big questions of life.

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