Operation Stealth Seed

• Shortlisted for the Michael Van Rooy Award for Genre Fiction

NYPD Detective Nicola Cortese, veteran of three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, is leading a routine drug bust at a warehouse in the Bronx, but the SWAT team Commander pulls rank and starts a firefight that gets Cortese’s partner killed. The tragedy triggers combat flashbacks, sleepless nights with cold sweats, nightmares, and violent outbursts during which he assaults fellow officers.  He is demoted and transferred to a desk job in Operations.  For months, all his appeals are denied. But when a new Precinct Commander returns him to active duty, he is elated—until he’s told Captain Chase expects him to act out again and get kicked off the Force.  His first case, a B & E homicide, leads him to uncover an international conspiracy that is using a genetically engineered seed to take control of the world’s wheat. This draws him into deadly conflict with Corporate power backed by US Intelligence.  Haunted by issues from his military past, he must survive attacks by contract mercenaries, neutralize threats to loved ones, prove his innocence when framed for a Capital Crime and unravel the Stealth Seed Agenda. He has an ally, a therapist who is also a Marine, but can they clear up his symptoms before it’s too late?