Current Novels

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The McGowan Collection Series By Col. Lee Martin » Novels

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Wolf Laurel

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Wolf Laurel

…and Cause the Blood of Every Man, Woman and Child to Run in the Streets of the Great Satan (The McGowan Collection Series). Book 1

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 a massive explosive device in a Charleston, West Virginia, area large chemical factory that manufactures deadly Hydrogen Chlorine and Cyanide Gases.

While staying at a local Bed and Breakfast, named Wolf Laurel, McGowan also becomes involved with the Proprietress of the Inn, Adrianna Wolf.

As McGowan uncovers a terrorist plot, hatched by three other Islamic fascist students, he pulls double duty…protecting Adrianna and her guests, while strategizing with the “Birdman”, his boss at CTT, and a young Charleston, West Virginia, FBI Agent, to neutralize the suspects before they can put their horrific plan into action.
Will an entire city of 100,000 perish at the hands of these extremists or will Bruce McGowan take them down?

PROVOCATION

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Provocation Return of the Weatherman

The McGowan Collection Series, Book 2

Department of State Counter-terrorist operative, Bruce McGowan returns in this sequel to Col Lee Martins acclaimed novel, Wolf Laurel. It is the Christmas season following the 9/11, World Trade Towers terrorist attack and McGowans 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 cellular range on a hiking venture in the Rockies or has she in fact been kidnapped? From out of McGowans past resurfaces a domestic terrorist, Jonas Karn, who McGowan rather ruthlessly took down years before when he himself was an FBI agent. And to McGowans horror, Karn, obviously out for revenge, says he has taken Caroline. As McGowans search for his daughter begins, he simultaneously uncovers a plot by Karn and his new order of the “Weatherman Underground” against the American government to set off explosive devices in several US cities. Angry, yet fearful for Carolines life, the unrelenting McGowan temporarily breaks from CTT to hunt down Karn, stop the madmans plot, and get Caroline back safely. But as Karn taunts and provokes McGowan, keeping him in the dark as to Carolines whereabouts, McGowan goes off on his own tangent, ignoring FBI orders to stay out of the investigation, and obstructing justice in the process. As usual, McGowan will dish out his own brand of justice. A word to the wise never, ever provoke and antagonize Bruce McGowan by taking something precious of his.

For the most part, I investigate and run down factions of a foreign enemy that plans to methodically destroy America by murdering its people, disrupting its infrastructure, and planting fear in the heart of every God-fearing citizen. And when I do, I for the most part make sure that law enforcement does not get its hands on them to read them their Miranda rights. And then the courts will, after a laughable trial, sentence them to life in a jail cell that is a hell of a lot more cushy than the tent or cave they’re used to living in. But then there is also an enemy within our country of the home-grown type. He might be an American citizen who was raised as a child in the most utopian of all societies to have ever existed on this earth. Then along the way as he fell in with a subversive lot, brewing up a maelstrom of dissent and contempt for America, he grew up to hate our government and its laws.

A Hateful Wind

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A Hateful Wind

The McGowan Collection Series, Book 3

Although he has now chosen to only work part-time for the Department of State, counter-terrorist operative Bruce McGowan continues to debate himself whether it is time to abandon the action life he has lived for over thirty years and finally settle down with his new bride, the beautiful Adrianna Wolf, or continue in his quest to protect Americas people. But 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 Americas best operative to investigate the thirty year old massacre of a Montagnard (Degar) village by an American infantry unit during the Vietnam War. Chosen for the mission not only for his investigative and special ops skills, McGowan is historically familiar with the ethnic group, having lived with the Degars in the early 1970s while training their soldiers. With a Vietnamese counter-part named Thanh, McGowan travels into the Central Highlands of Vietnam to seek out the only survivor of the village massacre to secure the statement that would bring down the former American commander, who is not only a man of prominence and wealth, but someone of personal interest to the White House.

Author recommends, reading book 12

Killing the Viper

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Killing the Viper

The McGowan Collection Series, Book 4

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. But would this former counter-terrorist operative actually agree to come out of his retirement to take on yet another mission for the Government, and in doing so, break a promise to his wife, the lovely Adriana, proprietress of Wolf Laurel? And who is the mysterious hitman, Atticus Steed that McGowan has been tasked to locate…this cold and calculating killer still on America’s Most Wanted list? Is the Government really serious about Bruce engaging an executioner like Steed to take down the Viper in exchange for a full Presidential pardon? In this latest installment of The McGowan Chronicles, much to his chagrin, Bruce will reluctantly and with immense skepticism establish an alliance with hitman Steed and set him up to kill the Viper. Based on the latest Intel, al-Massoud will enter one of the thirty-five American al-Qaeda training compounds in early September. McGowan must now devise a tactical plan that will place him and Steed inside that camp to set up for the kill. Will McGowan’s clandestine plan be successful? Will the number one sniper in the world get his crack at the most dangerous terrorist in the world? No matter what…the Viper must die.
Saving Eagle One

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Saving Eagle One

The McGowan Collection Series, Book 5

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. This 5th installment in the McGowan series finds the President now compelled to trust only one man for his protection. Can Bruce arrange to get the President safely returned to Washington on his own while the insurgents, who are leaving scores of innocents in their wake, continue their relentless hunt for Eagle One? And will the terrorists actually follow through with their threat of detonating a radioactive dispersion device in city after city until the President surrenders, wreaking even greater devastation than was realized on 9/11? All the ingredients McGowan fans enjoy are here edge-of-your-seat intrigue, non-stop action, violent execution, unforeseen betrayal, and dogged resolve on the part of America’s most daunting former G man. But let’s not leave out those timely splashes of Bruce’s witty humor. In this slam-bang terrorist novel, you will again find McGowan operating at his unrelenting best.
Blood Protocol

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Blood Protocol:

Avenging the Viper

The McGowan Collection Series, Book 6

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. While she lies in ICU near death, Steed, who is himself now out for revenge but helplessly compelled to stay at Maria’s side, engages the support of his old comrade-in-arms, ex-counterterrorist operative Bruce McGowan. Unbeknownst to McGowan, however, he is likewise on al-Massoud’s hit list and must take necessary steps to protect his own wife, Adriana, from certain peril. In this gripping cat-and-mouse sequel in the McGowan Collection series, McGowan and Steed once again team up to find and kill the dangerous al-Massoud before he puts his heinous plans of attack into action. Tick tock.
Red Kings Rising

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Red Kings Rising

The McGowan Collection Series, Book 7

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. Working undercover as a homeless vagrant outside of a Russian restaurant, a known Mafiya operation base, Bruce is not only gathering evidence to bring down the malevolent mob boss and his organization but end the senseless slaying of the homeless on the street who seem to always be getting in Guryev’s way. Bruce, working in tandem with the lovely Russian-bred Misha Orlov, herself a Bureau plant inside Guryev’s operation, in turn becomes the pursued and number one on the crime boss’ target list. Although Bruce can be composed, compassionate and cool-headed, you will not believe he’s the same man when you experience his ruthless side. He plays by the rules…mostly…but don’t make the mistake of going after his family or otherwise pressing his buttons. You may not live to see tomorrow.
Sting of the Scorpion: McGowan Collection Series, Book 8 (The McGowan Collection Series) Kindle Edition

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Sting of the Scorpion:

McGowan Collection Series

The McGowan Collection Series, Book 8

My name is Bruce McGowan, and contrary to everyone’s belief, I have not 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 madman 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. If I found these nuclear and chemical devices and placed them into his hands, he stood to net millions by selling them to Iran. But, where were the WMDs? Chalmers believed they were shipped to Yemen. I had two weeks to find them or my cousins would die. It would prove to be my most dangerous undertaking.

Sting of the Scorpion: McGowan Collection Series, Book 8 (The McGowan Collection Series) Kindle Edition

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A Lure to a Kill:

McGowan Collection Series

The McGowan Collection Series, Book 9

A Lure to a Kill is the most exciting and compelling Bruce McGowan novel yet. The ninth offering in the series by acclaimed author Col. Lee Martin.

Ex-counterterrorist agent Kurt Albrecht, long retired and becoming increasingly angry with the current government and its policies, is the self-appointed commander of a home-grown militia group called The Constitutionalists. As Albrecht is suspected of hatching a destructive plot against the government, the U.S. National Security Advisor engages trusted former counterterrorist operative Bruce McGowan to infiltrate Albrecht’s organization and determine the particulars of his plan. McGowan, upon learning the madman is days away from exploding an EMP bomb into the atmosphere over the Washington, D.C. grid, finds himself wrapped up in a deadly cat-and-mouse game that could cost him his life. Can he stop his former friend and associate, Albrecht, before he paralyzes the nation’s capital and surrounding cities?

Sting of the Scorpion: McGowan Collection Series, Book 8 (The McGowan Collection Series) Kindle Edition

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The Constitutionalists:

McGowan Collection Series

The McGowan Collection Series, Book 10

(Newest Novel Now Available)

Ex-counterterrorist agent Kurt Albrecht, long retired and becoming increasingly angry with the current government and its policies, is the self-appointed commander of a home-grown militia group called The Constitutionalists. As Albrecht is suspected of hatching a destructive plot against the government, the U.S. National Security Advisor engages trusted former counterterrorist operative Bruce McGowan to infiltrate Albrecht’s organization and determine the particulars of his plan. McGowan, upon learning the madman is days away from exploding an EMP bomb into the atmosphere over the Washington, D.C. grid, finds himself wrapped up in a deadly cat-and-mouse game that could cost him his life. Can he stop his former friend and associate, Albrecht, before he paralyzes the nation’s capital and surrounding cities?

The McGowan Collection Series, Books 1 & 2, Wolf Laurel and Provocaton, Return of the Weatherman Kindle Edition<br />

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Bundle Book (2 in 1)

The McGowan Collection Series, Books 1 & 2, Wolf Laurel and Provocation, Return of the Weatherman, Book 13

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 a massive explosive device in a Charleston, West Virginia, area large chemical factory that manufactures deadly Hydrogen Chlorine and Cyanide Gases.

While staying at a local Bed and Breakfast, named Wolf Laurel, McGowan also becomes involved with the Proprietress of the Inn, Adrianna Wolf. As McGowan uncovers a terrorist plot, hatched by three other Islamic fascist students, he pulls double duty…protecting Adrianna and her guests, while strategizing with the “Birdman”, his boss at CTT, and a young Charleston, West Virginia, FBI Agent, to neutralize the suspects before they can put their horrific plan into action. Will an entire city of 100,000 perish at the hands of these extremists or will Bruce McGowan take them down?