Gary McGugan launches a new novel of international suspense: Contention

 

I'm excited to get to feature the amazing Gary McGugan again on my blog with yet another fast-paced thriller! I can't wait to hear more!

Gary D. McGugan loves to tell stories and is the author of 7 novels of international suspense and intrigue. His most recent is titled Contention and was released on Labor Day. Other titles include Three Weeks Less a Day, The Multima Scheme, Unrelenting Peril, Pernicious Pursuit, and award-winning novels A Web of Deceit and A Slippery Shadow. After a forty-year career at senior levels of multinational corporations, Gary’s writing uses artful suspense to entertain and inform. His launch of a new writing career—at an age most people retire—reveals an ongoing zest for new challenges and a lifelong pursuit of knowledge. Home is near Toronto, but Gary thinks of himself as a true citizen of the world. His passion for travel and his broad experience are evident in every chapter.

 

Links: 

Author Gary D. McGugan Website: www.garydmcguganbooks.com

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Tell us about your life outside of writing.

I love to travel. For about 25 years, I’ve avoided winters in Canada by going somewhere else to live--usually to a place much warmer but always to a different location. There, I live among the residents for a few months, learning about the place and the people. But I also usually write in the mornings and explore the cities in the afternoons.

Do you have a work in progress?

My next work is still in the research stage, but it will be a prequel to my first novel, Three Weeks Less a Day, capturing stories of the goings on at Multima Corporation in its earlier days.

What was the most difficult section/piece you ever wrote? What made it difficult?

I can’t identify a single passage I struggled with, but there are dozens I’ve rewritten multiple times until I was happy with them! My habit of thinking while I take long walks helps me to prepare for a day’s writing in advance, and I can usually put down words with relative ease.

What sort of research do you do for your work?

I live! Each of my 7 novels draws on my life experiences working with large multinational corporations around the globe. When I retired from corporate life, my Contacts list exceeded 10,000 names. I’ve been fortunate to meet hundreds of interesting characters, listen to stories, live in different places, and encounter dozens of fascinating circumstances. I draw on memories of those rich experiences, then use tools like Google to check facts, verify locations and distances, or refresh small details perhaps lost from memory.

Which books and authors do you read for pleasure? Is there an author who inspires you?

I read widely in many genres, but my favorite writer is John Grisham. I’ve read all his books and appreciate his writing skills. The late Wilbur Smith was another favorite. A prolific writer, Smith wrote outstanding stories set in Africa. I haven’t yet visited that continent, but feel that I have from his remarkably detailed descriptions and intriguing stories.

Was there a person who encouraged you to write?

Yes. My wife. She has always maintained that I have a knack for telling stories and an “overactive imagination.” Throughout our more than 50 years of marriage, Linda has always encouraged me to write and now supports entirely the enormous amount of time I spend writing and promoting my novels.

 

CONTENTION

 

Fidelia Morales is supreme mobster in the world of organized crime, with international interests in prostitution, illicit drugs, gambling, payday loans, and money laundering. She also rules her outfit with an iron fist. How will she react when her sometime lover and top financial genius wants out?

 

Howard Knight has lived under Fidelia’s rigid control while he invested, scammed, or stole hundreds of millions in cyber currency for her and her criminal outfit, The Organization. But he craves freedom.

 

Will she let him wade into a new corporate espionage venture from a Caribbean Island? Can the notorious crime boss manipulate her on-and-off lover’s ambitions and still realize a long-held dream of controlling one of the world’s largest publicly traded businesses?

 

Contention pits the aspirations of one against the unimaginable power and reach of the other, setting Multima Corporation’s CEO—Suzanne Simpson—squarely in their criminal crosshairs. Will the high-powered executive recognize signals of impending danger soon enough to defend the massive company she inherited?

 

https://books2read.com/Contention

 

Reviewed by Chinazo Anozie for Readers’ Favorite Contention by Gary D. McGugan is a crime thriller that follows two women leaders heading up multinational corporations but on different ends of the spectrum: one, a conglomerate with a chain of supermarkets, and the other, one of the largest crime organizations in the world.  Suzanne Simpson is the CEO of Multima Corporation, and she is doing her best to take it to its full potential, while Fidelia Morales is the ruthless head of a crime syndicate known as The Organization. Both women are seeking to cement their positions in power while making a play for the other’s business.  They’ve never met but have more in common than they realize. In this corporate power play, who will come out on top?  I loved reading about both women in power; I admired how they handled it—regardless of their respective roles as protagonist and antagonist. The plot development is superb.  McGugan starts by introducing the key characters and their roles in both Multima and The Organization, which, at first glance, seem like worlds apart, leaving readers wondering how Fidelia and Suzanne connect. The pacing and suspense intensify as both worlds gradually collide, and Fidelia and Suzanne slowly make their way toward each other through a host of secondary characters.  Switching between some of these characters’ perspectives also gave insights into their feelings, especially as Fidelia closed the book on some of her rebellious associates. I loved every bit of Contention, and McGugan’s past experience of the corporate world and its power play is evident in his storytelling.

 

A SLIPPERYSHADOW

 

Snatched from her private jet, crime boss Fidelia Morales barely escapes with her life. Now she wants revenge. But her gang of criminals is thrown into chaos as dozens of key operatives suddenly disappear.

 

Howard Knight-Fidelia's former lover and accomplice in her latest heist-walks free from the same plane only to flee in a desperate quest to escape The Organization. He too is hounded by menacing encounters.

 

Both become entangled with massive Multima Corporation led by Suzanne Simpson. Amid a global pandemic, this powerful CEO scrambles to fill crucial executive roles while dealing with bizarre threats and mysterious interferences on three continents. All seem connected and threaten her empire.

 

With breathtaking reach and bewildering influence, is it possible an unseen and elusive Shadow can pull strings to manipulate people, companies, criminal organizations and governments?

 

https://books2read.com/A-Slippery-Shadow