Missions

Missions

Marc McGuire | April 16, 2020
Black Rose Writing | Political Thriller

Paperback | 978-1684334605 | $18.95 

SAN FRANCISCO — An explosion in the heart of Paris launches an international investigation that propels Doyle O'Gara, a computer scientist at a technology supplier to the CIA, from the periphery of the new war into its moral nerve center in Missions (April 16, Black Rose Writing) the debut novel of international lawyer Marc McGuire. As the suspense-filled investigation leaps from one surprising clue to the next, O'Gara hurtles toward a disastrous miscalculation and a moral dilemma that tests him and the country he serves.

The book is a fast-paced, thought-provoking political thriller with an offbeat plot and unexpected outcomes. The resurgence of Islamic jihad has inspired several best-selling novels, but Missions delves more deeply into the dark recesses of the human spirit that permit a select few to murder in the name of God or politics.  These new enemies emerge from the story not as cardboard background villains but rather as complex personalities fighting for causes they believe justify their crimes. 

With equal candor, Missions probes the corrosive effects such crimes may have on the liberal values of a free society. Seemingly minor errors in the translation of intercepted messages, combined with Doyle O’Gara’s silence during a critical meeting with the CIA, lead the investigation awry as French and American authorities rush to prevent a second attack. When O’Gara confronts the consequences of his mistakes in a Marseille hospital burn ward and finds himself facing criminal charges back home, he cannot avoid haunting questions about his personal responsibility in the midst of his nation’s war. 

MARC McGUIRE is an American-born international business lawyer who has lived much of his career in Europe, first in Zurich, Switzerland, and later in Paris, France. He received his J.D. from UCLA School of Law, and he currently resides in California. Missions is his authorial debut.