Brief

When one of his army buddies is killed and another goes missing while writing his memoirs, a man who left Korea behind long ago begins to wonder if someone is trying to cover-up surgery he witnessed and was sworn to secrecy about over 20 years ago. As the threats on his own life mount, he races to uncover a truth that leads to senators and cult leaders alike. The closer he gets, the clearer the threat to American democracy becomes.

What We Liked

The protagonist is at risk for the entire story, which is a unique and compelling way to immediately engage an audience as they fear for Owen’s life. He doesn’t let that stop him, though, and he proves to be a stalwart hero willing to sacrifice himself if it means saving the country. He’s battling against not only the political capital of the religious right, but the influence of a gregarious cult leader as well. Everywhere Owen turns, a new mystery arises, further complicating his search.

Film: Thriller is a genre practically made for film, as the suspense builds to a satisfying ending that’s perfectly buttoned by the runtime. Owen’s race to figure out who is killing his friends, and trying to kill him, would be represented at a breakneck pace as he tries to stay one step ahead of dangerous men who have friends almost everywhere. Owen survives by the skin of his teeth, and there’s never a moment the audience isn’t rooting for him to succeed.

TV: Similar to films that feature great journalists on an investigation, Owen ruthlessly tracks down what his old friend uncovered before his own death. Through tracing the other man’s footsteps, he travels far and wide, and all of these locations could feature predominantly in a television show. In future seasons, Owen could uncover more truths while serving at the president’s behest, as he’s proven his loyalty. There’s always a threat to the country, and there would be no shortage of mysteries for Owen to solve.

Key points: Great protagonist; Unraveling the mystery; Cult elements; Unique locations; Successful genre

Synopsis

In 1970 in Korea, senior medic OWEN MACDARA is called in to assist MAJOR WHITESIDE with an unusual surgery. He has MURPHY ARMSTRONG watch his post so he can help, and Owen attends as Whiteside removes several objects from a mysterious COLONEL’s rectum. After the colonel leaves, Whiteside swears him to secrecy. Twenty-four years later in 1994, Owen is a successful investment banker in New York. He’s set to meet Murphy and their other army buddy JAY RUSSO for dinner that evening, but Murphy is killed by an ALBINO MAN while on his way. While Owen and Jay are drinking to his memory, Owen sees on the restaurant’s TV that GENERAL WALKER has been promoted to replace the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who just died. This puts Walker in charge of the US Armed Forces and makes him the chief military advisor to the president. Owen recognizes Walker from Korea: he was the mystery colonel.

Six months earlier, Walker is visited by Whiteside who is currently writing his memoirs. Whiteside has learned that Walker’s anal injury was not the cause of deviant homosexual behavior alone, but that he was involved in a cult orgy. He agrees to keep Walker’s secret if Walker will help get him more access in Washington. Panicked, Walker contacts SENATOR HARDY, who also knows this secret. Without Walker’s knowledge Hardy puts a plan in place to keep Whiteside and anyone else involved quiet. Hardy is secretly planning a coup with the religious right and the help of a cult run by COLONEL MCNAB called the Millennium Covenant and TONY THACKERAY, an Englishman who heads a think tank and, secretly, his own cult — the eponymous Circle of Sodom. They all have the same goal, to oust the current, liberal president and ensure they’re in charge by the millennial changeover to 2000. They need Walker as he can advise the president to stand down the military when they begin, though Walker knows none of this and left an altogether different cult he was pressured into long ago. Hardy knows that Owen is a loose end. Owen looks into Murphy’s death, as he finds it suspicious. The albino who killed Murphy has a red snake tattoo, which he later learns indicates the Circle of Sodom. In the process, two attempts on his own life are made before he makes it to the Whiteside home. Harry Whiteside is missing, and in actuality he’s been killed by men Hardy hired. Whiteside’s widow, RUTH, turns over his journal, as it’s all she has of his memoir notes. Owen also meets KATE, their adopted daughter who is part Korean. Meanwhile LIZ RUSSO, Jay’s wife with whom he has an open relationship, meets Thackeray and the two get together. She can’t divorce Jay, which she shares with Thackeray. Shortly thereafter, Jay is killed, and it’s made to look like an accident. Owen only gets more suspicious as more of his friends die. He regularly reports to BART SHIELDS, a trusted confidante who he knows from his time in Korea and now works at the NSC. Shields in turn talks to the PRESIDENT, who gives Owen permission to run this down. Owen tracks down everyone he can who Whiteside spoke with, slowly uncovering what Walker has to hide.

Owen and Kate begin dating, becoming closer even though the same people who killed her father clearly want Owen dead. He learns that Kate’s biological father is Walker, and that her biological MOTHER died in childbirth in Korea. No one knew her true identity but Walker and Whiteside, who adopted her from Walker. Owen decides not to tell Kate. He gets a tip that leads him to witness a cult ceremony of the Circle of Sodom. He recognizes the leader’s voice as being Thackeray’s. He tells Shields and the president. The only conclusion that Owen can come to is that Walker — or someone acting on his behalf — seeks to hide that he’s gay. The president talks to Walker, who spills his own past but confesses ignorance to everything else. He’s not a liberal, but he doesn’t believe in the terrifying future that Hardy, Thackeray, and McNab long for. He tells the president to look into Hardy, as he’s probably responsible. Owen goes to investigate McNab’s cult and is taken prisoner. He barely makes it out, and then he must lead a strike back into the compound at Shield’s behest wherein McNab is killed.

Liz Russo realizes that Thackeray killed Jay “for” her, and she’s horrified. Thackeray then kills her, also made to look like an accident, but not before she calls to warn Owen that they’re after Kate. Kate is kidnapped by SAL, the same man who had a hand in killing her father, but Owen rescues her. They go together to Hardy’s house, where Walker is confronting the senator for his role in all of this and telling him to let go of Kate. Hardy and Thackeray are content to let McNab take the fall for everything. In the ensuing fight, Walker dies to protect Kate, and Thackeray makes a run for it after killing Hardy. When everything has settled, Kate receives a box with a ring from the late Walker. He tells her it’s her biological mother’s, but not that he was her father. In an epilogue, Thackeray is shown to still be bent on domination, in close contact with the MAN who would soon be appointed governor of Hong Kong. An array of news clippings show that any enemies of Thackeray’s plan from within Hardy’s circle have been taken care of.

About The Author

Pat Mullan is a member of International Thriller Writers. His thriller novels, poetry, and short stories are published in the US, Ireland, and the UK. He was one of fifty Irish writers chosen by Oxygen Books in the UK for inclusion in City-Pick DUBLIN, published to mark Dublin being chosen as UNESCO's City of Culture for 2010. His short story "Galway Girl" was short-listed for Galway’s WOW Awards. He has published five thriller novels, and The Circle of Sodo received two nominations, one for Best First Novel and one for Best Suspense Thriller, at the Love Is Murder conference in Chicago.