PRO CONNECT
Terence Kuch’s fiction and non-fiction has been published in the U.S., U.K., Ireland, Canada, Australia, India, and Thailand, including Commonweal, Diagram, Dissent, Penguin Review, New Scientist, New York magazine, North American Review, Slow Trains, Thema, Timber Creek Review, Washington Post Book World, Washington Post Magazine, and others. His work has been praised by the New York Times and Kirkus Reviews.
He is the author of two novels (see www.amazon.com/author/terencekuch), and is Fiction Editor of The Again, a British speculative-fiction magazine.
His popular dark-microfiction blog www.terencekuch.com has logged 22,000+ page views. He lives in Pimmit Hills, Virginia, with his wife and several opinionated cats.
For more information, see his writer-promo site at www.terencekuch.net.
“... a shocking dose of humor and a handful of riveting scenes...”
– Kirkus Reviews
Kuch’s debut thriller combines technology and an unusual method of terrorism.
Former cop Duane Rondo has fallen into a job near Washington, D.C., using a program called ISPI to gather information—even the smallest details—on individuals who seem suspicious or are running for a position in the government. That’s how he discovers the perfectly clear record of Sybille Haskin, a nominee for secretary of Homeland Security, and comes to the conclusion that someone is tampering with top-secret, supposedly secure information in order to make sure that Haskin lands the governmental position. Rondo will stop at nothing to get the information he wants, from giving Haskin a ticket that she doesn’t deserve in order to track it through ISPI, to taking her to bed. What follows is a loosely plotted tumble down a rabbit hole of suspicion within the organization, interchangeable government officials and extraneous characters, a hunt for Rondo by amateur terrorists, spying, techno-speak, unanticipated humor and a galvanizing chase scene that ends in another country and raises more questions. The story is also sprinkled with hints of information via ISPI searches regarding the long-term effects of the nonfatal mustard gas to be used in a massive terror plot as well as excessively detailed peeks into Rondo’s relationship with his cat. While the concept of slow-moving, silent terrorism is unnerving and the intended execution of the plot to spread mustard gas seems feasible, there are several questions left at the end, even after the major threat has been extinguished. The story presents an atypical terrorism concept, a shocking dose of humor and a handful of riveting scenes, but misses the mark by not tying up all the loose ends and introducing an unwieldy number of characters.
Pub Date: March 15, 2011
ISBN: 978-1612351674
Page count: 180pp
Publisher: Mélange
Review Posted Online: March 20, 2012
Day job
Information Technology Manager (retired)
Favorite author
Michael J. Sullivan
Favorite word
What If
Hometown
Pimmit Hills, Virginia
Passion in life
survival with skin reasonably intact
Unexpected skill or talent
ad libs
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