BRUCE MCGOWAN

Full Name:	Bruce McGowan
Nationality:	American
Organization:	CTT
Occupation	Agent

Creator:	Lee Martin
Time Span:	2008 - 2022

ABOUT THE SERIES

Bruce McGowan is an agent with the CTT.

That acronym stands for the Counter Terrorist Center, described to us by McGowan as "an elite, covert and classified department of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research", led by a director who "has no name on his door nor supervises a department known or recognized by ninety-five percent of all government law enforcement organizations. He has a code name like Falcon, Condor or some other freaking bird ... that is in times of crisis ... which would make one think he's James Bond or the Man from U.N.C.L.E. This is a sapient guy with steely eyes who walks and talks like Joe Friday and would never ever admit he was breast-fed by his mother ... that is if he ever had one".

McGowan's job with the organization is very hush-hush such that he is not allowed to tell anyone what he does, who he works for, or where he is going from one day to the next; "not my daughter, my ex-wife, or my brother". "What I can say is that I'm a contractor and these days my services are pretty much in high demand". He tells us, perhaps jokingly or perhaps not, that the old line about "if I tell you, I'll ..." might sort of be true "but I wouldn't necessarily go through with it".

"I'm in kind of a sales and service business for the government. Actually, mostly service," McGowan tells us though that does not say much. He corrects that with "Officially, our mission is to collect and analyze intelligence about foreign state-supported terrorist groups and warn appropriate government agencies and branches of impending terrorist operations or threats. As necessary, we will employ 'defensive' measures to prevent terrorist attacks from occurring or at the `very minimum weaken the enemy's infrastructure. Selected members of [CTT] will be fluent in a half dozen languages, and depending on their ethnicity, may actually infiltrate the terrorist organization".

McGowan is 54 years old when we first meet him and had put in his twenty with the FBI after serving in the Army's Special Forces "a hundred years ago". He was looking forward to settling down on a farm or opening a bar but a week after he retired, he got a call from an old friend who knew a guy looking for men like McGowan. They met and within a couple of weeks he was back in training for his new position with the CTT.

BOOKS

Number of Books:	10
First Appearance:	2008
Last Appearance:	2022


1			Wolf Laurel Written by Lee Martin Copyright: 2008 "Retired FBI Special Agent Bruce McGowan, now a counter-terrorist operative for the U.S. Department of State, returns to his childhood domicile in rural West Virginia to investigate a young, unidentified Middle Eastern male who was killed in a pedestrian accident. In the dead man's possession is alarming evidence of a terrorist plot to detonate an explosive device in a Charleston area factory that manufactures deadly hydrogen chlorine and cyanide gases."

2			Provocation Written by Lee Martin Copyright: 2010 "It is the Christmas season following the 9-11 terrorist attack and McGowan's newly-appointed FBI Special Agent daughter, Caroline, assigned to the Denver office, is missing. As she is an avid lover of the outdoors, is she merely out of call range on a hiking venture in the Rockies or has she in fact been kidnapped? From out of McGowan's past resurfaces a sixties domestic terrorist, Jonas Karn, who McGowan rather ruthlessly took down years before when he himself was an FBI agent. And to McGowan's horror, Karn, obviously out for revenge, says he has taken Caroline."

3			A Hateful Wind Written by Lee Martin Copyright: 2011 "Suddenly an early morning phone call from his preceptor boss, Lionel Byrd, summons him for what could be one final, but very significant mission. This time it will be different. This time he will go solo on the job without partnering with his Zulu teammates. The most powerful figure in the world needs America's best operative to investigate the thirty year old massacre of a Montagnard (Degar) village by an American infantry unit during the Vietnam War."

4			The Justice Club Written by Lee Martin Copyright: 2012 "Former Marine sniper and CIA target man, Atticus Steed, turns professional hitman, now only takes down special targets...people who for one reason or another have literally gotten away with murder. Directed by an unknown unseen employer who identifies himself simply as Omega, Steed receives his sketchy instructions for the hits via text message from a burner phone. But who is Atticus Steed, really? And how does his employer gain knowledge about cases from all over the country...cases involving those murderers who for whatever reason have been set free by the system? Finally, who is funding the kind of money that pays the best hitman out there?"

5			Killing the Viper Written by Lee Martin Copyright: 2014 "International terrorist Asahif al-Massoud, AKA The Viper, will soon arrive on U.S. soil to carry out the most heinous and murderous terrorist plot since 9-11. By engaging an American-based Jamaat ul-Fuqra element, his plan is to simultaneously detonate explosive devices in a number of American cities, including Washington, D.C. and New York's Manhattan, that will kill thousands and destroy the cities' infrastructure. Bruce McGowan would do almost anything to protect the citizens of the United States."

6			Saving Eagle One Written by Lee Martin Copyright: 2016 "Just when former counterterrorist operative Bruce McGowan has finally become comfortable in his retirement, the leader of the free world and his wife decide to spend a pre-Christmas weekend with the McGowans at their charming bed and breakfast retreat, Wolf Laurel. However, the President of the United States is scarcely settled in with his protection detail when Wolf Laurel suddenly comes under a deadly attack by a previously unknown terrorist faction bent on taking the President hostage until the group's demands are met."

7			Blood Protocol Written by Lee Martin Copyright: 2018 "If Zufar al-Massoud, the celebrated leader of the Salafist jihadists, accomplishes his planned terrorist act, Thanksgiving Day in the U.S. will forever be known as America’s Day of Blood. He and his fellow conspirators will not only place multiple IEDs along the New York City Macy’s parade route, slaughtering thousands of onlookers, but will release canisters of sarin gas on the subway landings in both New York and Washington, D.C. Hours later when America thinks it’s all over, two fertilizer bombs planted at the Cowboys-Lions game at the AT&T Stadium in Dallas will kill hundreds maybe thousands more. But this will not be al-Massoud’s only crusade. As he is also on a quest to avenge the murder of his brother, Asahif, AKA the Viper, by killing Asahif’s assassin, Atticus Steed, at Steed’s beach home in Antigua, he inadvertently shoots and wounds Steed’s wife, Maria."

8			Red Kings Rising Written by Lee Martin Copyright: 2019 "It is November, 1991. About the time the final nail was being driven in the coffin of the Soviet Union, from the remnants of its former Red Army leadership and defunct KGB came cold-blooded mobsters such as Andrei Guryev, a sadistic crime lord who set about terrorizing New York’s Brighton Beach with his extortion and sex trafficking racket. One man, however, stood in his way...Bruce McGowan. You might know McGowan as America’s quintessential counter-terrorist operative, but find out what he was like twenty plus years before when as an FBI Special Agent he took on the ever-surging Russian Mafiya."

9			Sting of the Scorpion Written by Lee Martin Copyright: 2020 "My name is Bruce McGowan, and contrary to everyone’s belief, I have not yet gone away. Remember when Saddam Hussein was suspected of having weapons of mass destruction, but then the U.N.’s inspectors found no evidence of them? Even though the American President, not at all convinced, subsequently invaded Iraq and fought a lengthy war over them, the world remained convinced the weapons never existed in the first place. Nonetheless, a dozen years after the inspections, I was taken prisoner by a former MI-6 mad man named Alistair Chalmers who knew for a fact they existed. As he also knew of my reputation as a counterterrorist operative, code name Scorpion, by threatening to kill my Scottish cousins who he was holding, I was coerced to go on a search for the weapons."

10			A Lure to a Kill Written by Lee Martin Copyright: 2022 "Was it true? Was former counterterrorist operative Bruce McGowan actually murdered on a Paris street? Only days before, he and his wife, the lovely Adriana, were enjoying a carefree, spring vacation in the beautiful City of Lights. Is this now the end of the McGowan saga?"

MY COMMENTS

I have been largely retired for a couple of years now - as of this typing - and I enjoy it. I do get some part-time work from my former employer and I still enjoy that as it keeps me from getting too rusty and it sort of keeps me feeling like I am in the game without having to go in to the office every day. I mention this because that is pretty much the same case of Bruce McGowan so we shared a nice affinity.

Except!! When a piece of work is dropped in my email, I spend a couple of hours, usually, handling a situation and such and then it is back to piddling around the house or reading a book or some other enjoyable activity. I do not find myself facing very bad men who want to hurt me or torture me or kill me or all three.

I far prefer my version of retirement ... except that I really had a blast reading about McGowan's. A big blast. The writing was very enjoyable and very well done and I applaud the author, Lee Martin, for giving spy-fiction fans these terrific adventures.

GRADE

My Grade: B+

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