DEATH CODE: A MICHAEL DOLAN SPY THRILLER

 CIA officer Michael Dolan is sent to Colombia to track and collect on FARC splinter group guerrillas with direct ties to a large money laundering operation in Bogota and Medellin. What begins as a routine surveillance operation goes awry when he is ambushed and his partner is captured. Dolan's efforts to save his colleague take him to the jungles of Venezuela where he uncovers a terrifying plot by a shadowy and ruthless organization intent on overthrowing the government and starting a war that could destabilize the entire region.

I recently spent 5 weeks in Colombia--a month in Bogota and a week in Cartagena. I'd already begun thinking about the plot for Death Code, and thought that having it unfold there would work well. I kept an open mind about what I should observe and research, particularly the culture, history, and geography. I met with an American journalist who's lived in both cities for many years and played a unique role in enabling the peace process between the Colombian government, agencies in the U.S., and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). I also met with a director in Bogota who was filming an action movie there. We spoke at length, and he is genuinely enthusiastic about my project.

Death Code: A Michael Dolan Spy Thriller is a spinoff that takes place during the two years that elapse between the end of Evolution and the beginning of Revelation, books two and three of The Devolution Trilogy. One of my goals is to write a novel that is truly terrifying. There will be scenes that make the reader wonder if the book is more a horror story than a spy thriller. But I won't let that goal overcome its true nature--the genre will be, first and foremost, a thriller. Someone close to me recommended I think about delving into difficult questions, uncomfortable truths, and consequences of the drug trade and blindly following damaging ideologies, a recommendation on which I plan to follow through.

To be released by PHiR Publishing in the Summer of 2025