Former Kailua-Kona resident M.A. Richards recently released “Choice of Enemies: A Nathan Monsarrat Thriller.”
The Sunbury Press book is the first in a series of espionage novels featuring Monsarrat, a retired Central Intelligence Agency deep cover operative with an extensive knowledge of black gold and expertise in weapons, women, and Benjamins.
As the price for each barrel of oil rises on the international markets and the stakes for securing the black gold increase, a consortium of American oil companies and the Central Intelligence Agency plot to secure the flow of the crude. In Africa, though, plans unravel as quickly as cheap socks, and promises between partners have the lifespan of a mayfly.
Monsarrat, a retired Central Intelligence Agency deep cover operative, now a dean at a small college in Massachusetts, is visited by his former mentor at the agency, who offers him a blunt choice: either travel to the Dark Continent to lay the groundwork for the coup d’état, or condemn the woman who saved his life to a brutal execution.
Out of options, he returns to Africa, where he discovers that the agency plans to reward his services with an oil soaked grave.
Assisted by a coterie of new and old allies, including a beautiful vor with a thirst for power and a yeshiva bocher with a fondness for Armani suits, as well as his own sharp intelligence, considerable wit, and substantial charm, Monsarrat parries the agency, circumvents the consortium, and exacts his own vengeance.
In doing so, he learns that his choice of friends is as important as his choice of enemies.
Born in Lowell, Massachusetts, Richards received his bachelor’s degree theater studies from Connecticut College and his master’s degree in Enlish from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
During a career as a Cultural Attache in the Department of State that spanned more than two decades, he served in Baghdad, Jerusalem, Lagos, Moscow, Seoul, Tel Aviv, and Washington, D.C. He also served at U.S. Pacific Command in Honolulu as the special advisor to the commander. He speaks Arabic, Hebrew, Korean, and Russian.
Info: www.MARichardsBooks.com.