Adventure, action novel

Unlikely Hero.

Garth Ahern, deprived of a daddy, needed a hero. He had reached the ‘old’ age of nine convinced he was destined to die in prison like his father.

Alex Cahill didn’t see the World as being any better and willingly rid society of its human contaminants. This hired killer unexpectedly connected up with the child when his car ran Garth down on stormy night in Ulster, Northern Ireland.

The year is 1979. A shrinking Atlantic allows for some unusual family situations that border on the macabre. Twelve years prior to the opening, Mathew Ahern, the eldest of three brothers, had gone off to America with his family’s blessing.  Success came to him but when his mother died, then his brother Daniel followed and his youngest brother David disappeared, he cut off all contact with the land of his birth.

The auto accident creates unexpected twists. The few days Garth Ahern spends in hospital are beneficial to the nine year old in that his wealthy American uncle learns of his existence. Someone else also becomes aware of the boy and Garth’s bruises from the accident haven’t faded, when his mother is murdered leaving Mathew as his only known relative.

Leona Ahern used her husband, her mother-in-law and finally her son as a meal ticket. She taught her child to hate and often it appears the boy is responsible for the cruelty inflicted on the people who anger him-- a number of people do irritate Garth. The brutal beating and demise of his caretaker quickly follows the rape-murder of his abusive mother. Then comes the torture death of the ‘Good’ Father Reagan. Garth, believes his mother is a witch (The ‘Good’ Father Reagan told the child this) who cannot die, so he continues to worry that she will return to claim him. The Northern Irish Police breathe a sigh of relief when Garth decides to accept his Uncle’s offer of a home in American. Mathew will attempt to give the child a secure and decent future but Garth takes his hates and dark heroes with him.

 Mathew Ahern is getting his feet wet in the international market. He is negotiating a deal with Kohl Brothers, a West German firm, when a politician is murdered and Mathew finds himself implicated as the family of the man discovers he made private loans to him.   In an effort to protect their business from a Yankee takeover, one of the Kohl’s puts a contract out on Ahern.

Meanwhile Alex Cahill manages to rescue a kidnap victim and in an act of revenge, another covert operator gives up Cahill’s cover life to the British authorities. Armed only with the knowledge the assassin they are hunting is an American news reporter; MI5 must dig him out themselves.  Already in Germany, Cahill, has been hired by Kohl to dispose of Cousin Hans Hendricks, he is first warned off that contract and then upstaged by someone else. 

So instead of killing Hendricks, Cahill becomes involved with the fellow’s cousin Hannah Kohl. Hannah, as an infant, was rescued from the concentration camp that claimed the lives of most of her family. Adopted and doted on by her German father, she rejects her Jewish father when he finally locates her. But there is more to the connection than just Hannah, apparently a bit of wealth belonging to Hannah’s parents and their Jewish friends disappeared while under the control of the Kohls. Allied bombing during the war destroyed the papers, along with the individual who could prove legitimacy of Weinberg’s claim—the old man won’t let it go.

In New York, Garth Ahern befriends an abused American boy and his belligerent nature puts both youngsters in further jeopardy.

My latest novel scheduled  to be released by IFWG  July 2012;