When Harlan Adams begins investigating the death of his best friend, Senator Tyler Benedict, he discovers that his two closest allies might be responsible. As the chief of staff for President Daniel Boynton, Harlan is equally concerned that the Meteor File, an administration top secret plan for the oil fields in Iraq after the war, could have fallen into terrorist hands and played a part in the Senator's death. In order to contain the Meteor Files and stop a serial blackmail demand for $250 million coming from the mysterious 'Black', Harlan enlists the help of former White House Secret Service Chief, Mason Hoyle, and Anne Cullen, a New York Times reporter and Tyler Benedict's former mistress. At the senator's funeral, the senator's daughter gives Adams a package from the senator found in hiss office. The carefully selected letters and emails cleverly reveal all the suspects. As Harlan begins piecing together clues and suspects from the seemingly innocuous information, the investigation reveals that the President's assistant, Noreen Daniels and Vice President Donald Jessup, may have been set up by the blackmailer. When the chief goes to Noreen's house for dinner she tells him that her family name is Sterling. Harlan has been investigating someone in the Benedict drama named Donna Sterling, an incredibly smart computer programmer who was identified as Gordon Lafferty's fiancé. Lafferty was Donald Jessup's eccentric and very wealthy partner in the oil business who has become increasingly suspicious in all the attempts to get the Meteor Files. Noreen implies that Donna is her sister. When Mason is implicated in the murders of people knowledgeable of the Meteor Files and his numbered bank account matches the blackmailer's, Harlan is certain Mason Hoyle is not only 'Black', but Tyler Benedict's murderer. Anne Cullen has been investigating the late senator's ties to the Middle East and the Muslim Brotherhood and why he was in Egypt before Easter to meet with the MB, possibly to make a deal with the for the Meteor Files to be carried out during his presidency. When a bogus plan to transfer the $250 million demand to the blackmailer is successful and Harlan is nearly killed trapping the prime suspect, the chief discovers that President Boynton was conducting his own investigation and had pierced Honor's Veil. Harlan discovers that Anne Cullen is really Donna Sterling and evidence proves that she killed the Senator. Anne is murdered, but it is made to look like suicide. Harlan seeks his own unique revenge with the blackmailer's funding .
About the Author: M. R. Purcell received his M.F.A. in Creative Writing from American University in 2010. He has written seven novels including Acappella Blue under the pseudonym, Raymond Michaels. He has also written for the Journal of Green Building and Corporate Realty magazines. He lives in Northern Virginia.