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The
Agency
by Australian author James Phelan is making a big splash here
in the United States. Anyone who likes the action continuing
at a harrowing pace will enjoy this story. There is also enough
fun dialogue between the characters to put a smile on readers’
faces. This prequel introduces Jed Walker, a former Lt. Colonel
in the Air Force who has decided to join the CIA.
The reason for a prequel, “I wanted to challenge myself
since this is the first prequel I have ever written. I think
it is more of a suspense novel than a thriller. I hope to
show how Jed is personally driven, wanting to hunt down the
bad targets. This gave me the opportunity to explain why Jed
decided to move from the military to the CIA. All the Jed
Walker books written to date will be released this year. They
were tied up for awhile with my previous publishers who had
first right of refusal. They dragged their feet and held things
up for a couple of years. Now we have the rights back. Although
it is the fifth book in the series, Americans will be able
to read them in order. I am working on the sixth book currently.”
Set in 2005, after completing his rigorous training with the
CIA’s Special Activities Division in Virginia, Walker’s
assigned mission is to exchange code phrases with a male contact.
But just as the meeting is to occur, a British intelligence
agent, Steph Mensch warns him of a set-up. After neutralizing
the threat, he and Steph join forces to find a secret weapon
that the Russians are looking to buy for hundreds of millions
of dollars from a Blackwater-like private security firm. They
must go off mission, operating in New Orleans, instead of
overseas. Besides all the bad guys to contend with they must
also deal with the hurricane that is barreling down.
Interestingly, Steph is introduced in the prequel but does
not appear in the other four books. “I will definitely
have her back in another book. I think she is intelligent,
funny, and very persuasive. I based her on an actress in the
British series, Luther. She has red hair and this is how I
picture Steph. The other person I based her on is Stella Rimington,
the first female director of MI5, the British FBI who is also
a thriller writer. She worked her way up as an officer. I
used my friend Stella as a model for Steph’s career.
The book out in 2019 takes place about ten years from when
this one took place. I am thinking of having Steph and Jed
team up again if not this book, maybe the next one. It might
be interesting to have them back together since the last of
the five books already written, Dark Heart, has Jed back with
his wife Eve, a family man living on a Texas ranch with a
baby on the way.”
The hurricane plays a strong role because it made such an
impression on Phelan. “I have family in the US where
we have visited since 1980. I remember when we had a family
trip in 1989 across the US. We were chased by Hurricane Hugo.
I have vivid memories of how we drove in the car and couldn’t
see out of the windshield, even with the wipers on at full
whack. As we drove, we saw how the rivers swelled over.”
An intense story where the action never stops. Readers are
able to get a good grip on what makes Jed Walker tick by reading
all five books in order.
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