COMING THIS SUMMER 2023
KIRKUS REVIEWS
A novel focuses on who really killed President John F. Kennedy and all the fiendish machinations behind the assassination.
This story’s heroes are Andrew St. James, code-named Pegasus, and, to a lesser extent, his protégé, Justin Scott, code name Orion. They are both, thankfully, incorruptible and very good at their secretive jobs. Maj. Gen. Mykel Alexei Zakharov, reckoned the second most powerful man in the KGB, has defected and will only meet with Pegasus. Thus begins O’Connor’s twisted tale. It turns out, that the Russian ambassador, Anatoly Dobrynin, had warned Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson that Kennedy was in grave danger—not from the Russians, mind you, but from the Chinese. That meeting is filmed though not made public. Then comes the key element of the plot. Through technical legerdemain, the KGB takes that film and other clips of Johnson and Dobrynin to piece together a work that clearly shows the vice president conspiring with the Russians to have Kennedy assassinated. It is a masterpiece of fakery that must never see the light of day. The race is on to expose it as bogus in a way that ordinary people will understand, rendering the blackmail worthless. The Russians have set a deadline for Johnson, now president, to disavow Israel completely, giving the Soviets carte blanche in the Middle East, or they will release the film to the public. This is not O’Connor’s first foray into political thriller territory. Hi chops are evident, from the crisp pace—each chapter title suggests urgent bulletins (“Washington, D.C.—May 12-13, 1972”)—to captivating details: “A rumpled figure heaved himself up and lumbered forward, his eyes riveted on St. James.” The author is also a keen historian of geopolitics and takes readers on a compelling tour of the world in the 1960s and ’70s: the Vietnam War, Soviet-Sino tensions, the ousting of Nikita S. Khrushchev, and the rise of Leonid Brezhnev. It’s all here with newsreel urgency. O’Connor is a very dependable dispenser of this addictive material.
A meticulously detailed, gripping tale that will especially appeal to political thriller fans.
POINT OPTION
A Time-Travel Military Thriller
“An absorbing and thought-provoking action-adventure” — Kirkus Reviews
“… A thoroughly wild ride, barreling through time with a compelling and immersive premise. - IndieReader
United States Air Force Major Dave Fleming has a job most men would die for. As one of three exchange fighter pilots chosen to fly with the premier US Navy strike squadron aboard America’s newest aircraft carrier, little does he know that his life is about to change forever!
Point Option is a thriller that unfolds over a tense, six-day period aboard a carrier on patrol with its Strike Group in the Mediterranean Sea. Suddenly, and without warning, Fleming’s hyper-dangerous world of flying off a pitching deck turns into his worst nightmare.
Point Option is jam-packed with more twists and turns than an out-of-control fighter jet; a world where Major Fleming finds himself an unwitting passenger on a supersonic ride into the unknown – a place where even angels fear to tread. The odds for his survival are bleak, and any hope for a return will challenge all of the finely honed skills he can muster. It’s now become a matter of time, and time is the one commodity he is fast running out of!
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