We are delighted to welcome back author M. A. Richards to Omnimystery News.
Last week we had an opportunity to talk with M. A. about his new thriller Choice of Enemies (Sunbury Press; January 2016 hardcover, trade paperback and ebook formats) and we also posted an excerpt from it, and today he provides us with a most entertaining feature, a roundtable discussion with the two lead characters from the book.
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Photo provided courtesy of
M. A. Richards
Scenario: A proscenium stage, spotlights muted, a circular table for four in the middle of the stage with two chairs facing outward from the edge of the shadows. There are no other props. Sitting in the chairs are two men. The first, Felix Sanhedrin, a twenty-five-year veteran of covert operations in Africa and the Middle East, is dressed like Allan Quatermain returned to the Dark Continent. White linen slacks, a blue Oxford shirt, a silk ascot, and a freshly pressed, khaki bush jacket adorn his thin frame. A device more computer than chronometer rests on his left wrist. His felt slouch hat boasts a faux leopard-skin band, and his canvas jungle boots gleam. A Glock 19 nests in a leather holster on his right hip. The second, Nathan Monsarrat, radiates a middle-America respectability. An inch over six feet, he possesses a thick mop of unruly, brown hair and weighs five pounds below two hundred. His unblemished skin shines with health, and his crisp, brown eyes flash with energy. The muscles of his chest and arms are firm. His six pack ripples. He carries himself as if he were still a three-letter athlete at the university in his native Iowa, football in the fall, basketball in the winter, and baseball in the spring, in the days when jocks proudly wore their padded jackets with the Churchillian "V" sewn over the heart.
The lights pointed toward the table in the middle of the proscenium stage rise, illuminating the two men. There seems to be tension draped over them, like a too-tight shroud. Neither man smiles; neither pays attention to the other until a polite cough is heard offstage. The larger man sighs and turns to fully face the audience.
Nathan Monsarrat: (waves to the audience) Good morning. I'm happy to be here. I don't often have the opportunity to speak my own mind so early in the process … usually, M. A. is in control for the first quarter of the book, until the plot reaches a point where he had to unleash the characters in the novel and let us write the story in our own words.
Felix Sanhedrin: (interrupting) You mean M. A. Richards, the author of Choice of Enemies, published earlier this year by Sunbury Press, right? I keep telling you, old buddy. You need to be specific in your dialogue.
NM: (ignores the interruption) Allow me to introduce my former boss at the Central Intelligence Agency, Felix Sanhedrin, one of the nastiest, most vile, untrustworthy, scheming, manipulative, self-centered sociopaths to ever grace a written page. He's the best at slipping a knife beneath the fifth rib since Joab roamed the ancient world.
FS: (leans over and pats him on the arm) You're too kind, old buddy.
NM: (gives the smaller man a withering glance) My name is Nathan Monsarrat. I'm a dean at a small college in the Berkshires. Until Felix betrayed me to a gang of ruthless FATA terrorists operating from the Niger Delta, I was a deep cover operative for the Agency. I was held captive by the number one terrorist in FATA, a huge bastard with biceps the size of footballs named Blessed, and his sadistic sidekick, Innocence. They tortured me daily and dragged me through the mud on a rope leash like a Delta dog. After I was finally ransomed, I accepted a medical retirement from the Agency and left northern Virginia for western Massachusetts.
FS: (smiling broadly) All's well that ends well, old buddy, but you need to set your bearing forward and think of the future. Tell our dear readers what M. A. has planned for fans of Choice of Enemies.
NM: (the slightest trace of menace in his voice) Ratchet it backwards, Felix. I have the stage.
FS: (still smiling broadly) Actually, old buddy, we're sharing it.
NM: (the trace of menace in his voice stronger) Actually, old buddy, you need to remember our Nipmuck Agreement. You stay on your side of the stage, I'll stay on my side of the stage, and never shall the twain meet.
FS: (reaches out to pat Monsarrat's arm but thinks better of it) Academia's dulling your mind, Nathan. Now tell our dear readers about our upcoming adventures in M.A.'s second novel in the series, A Thousand Enemies. Tell them about your hijinks in Moscow, Jerusalem, and New York.
NM: (scowling) You mean how you blackmailed me to go to Moscow to kill a high ranking government official — and then arranged for me to be whacked by a Mossad assassin?
FS: (becoming more and more angelic as he speaks) I don't know anything at all about your off-the-wall accusations, Nathan, but I tell you, as your mentor in the Agency, the man who taught you everything you know, the one guy who has always had your back, these wild charges disturb me immensely.
NM: (angry) Tell them about the half million bucks you deposited into my savings account from a bank in Teheran. Tell them about the slug marks you left to lead the green eyeshade types from the Treasury and OFAC to me. Tell them how you dropped me into the number one slot on the "Rewards For Justice" list and how the boys and girls the FBI and NCTC hunted me across Europe, the Middle East, and the eastern seaboard of the United States.
FS: (exudes innocence) Maybe you should learn to play more nicely with people, Nathan? Rise above all that anger?
NM: (laughs bitterly) Maybe you should tell our dear readers about Dragomirov, the Russian contract killer you sent to kill me in Tel Aviv and New York?
FS: (exudes more innocence) Yet, here you are, safe and sound and in need of an anger management intervention. You're a tad ungrateful, Nathan.
NM: (offers his own innocent smile) I'm a tad smarter than you, Felix. M.A. trusts me. I'm his protagonist. I'm his hero. The good guy. You're the slime off the back end of a garden slug. You're the bad guy. He doesn't like you. No one likes you.
FS: (interrupting again) Friends are highly overrated, old buddy. You need to learn to become self-sufficient.
NM: (leans over and squeezes his arm) You need to learn to predict the future, Felix.
FS: (smiling so hard his jaw muscles pop) Why's that, Nathan?
NM: (squeezing harder) Because it's not just gonna bite you in the ass. It's gonna rip your head off and shit down your throat … and I'm gonna enjoy every minute of your pain.
FS: (struggling not to grimace) There's only one problem with your plan, old buddy.
NM: (squeezing even harder) What's that, Felix?
FS: (rotates his arm out of the grip) I'm in charge here. I make the decisions, not you, not M.A., not our dear readers.
NM: (reaches for his arm) No way. This is M.A.'s game.
FS: (flicks his fingers toward the lights, which extinguish; when he speaks, his voice is heard from offstage) But it's set and match to me, old buddy. Say goodnight to our dear readers, Nathan, and tell M.A. it's been fun working with him, but no one controls Felix Sanhedrin.
NM: (laughing) There you go again, Felix, running away when the temperature begin to rise. You're a coward.
FS: (his voice growing fainter) I'm a survivor, Nathan, and a winner, two things you know nothing about. Give my best to M.A.
NM: (claps his hands, and the lights return) My apologies, dear readers. If you want to learn the genesis of our bad blood, pick up a copy now of Choice of Enemies at Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, SunburyPress.com, and all fine book purveyors. Go to MARichardsBooks.com to learn more about A Thousand Enemies — and read a sneak peak from the first chapter. Thank you for reading, and goodnight to one and all.
He claps his hands again, and the lights fully extinguish.
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Born in Lowell, Massachusetts, M. A. Richards received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Theater Studies from Connecticut College and his Master of Arts degree in English from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
During a career as a Cultural Attaché in the Department of State that spanned more than two decades, he served in Baghdad, Jerusalem, Lagos, Moscow, Seoul, Tel Aviv, and Washington, D.C. He also served at U.S. Pacific Command in Honolulu as the Special Advisor to the Commander. He speaks Arabic, Hebrew, Korean, and Russian.
M. A. divides his time between Palm Beach and Tel Aviv, where he indulges his passions for motorcycles, photography, and archaeology.
For more information about the author, please visit his website at MARichardsBooks.com and his author page on Goodreads, or find him on Facebook and Twitter.
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Choice of Enemies by M. A. Richards
A Nathan Monsarrat Thriller
Publisher: Sunbury Press
Light sweet crude is the mother's milk of the Niger Delta. As the price for each barrel of oil rises on the international markets and the stakes for securing the black gold increase, a consortium of American oil companies and the Central Intelligence Agency plot to secure the flow of the crude. In Africa, though, plans unravel as quickly as cheap socks, and promises between partners have the lifespan of a mayfly.
Nathan, now a Dean at a small college in Massachusetts, is visited by his former mentor at the Agency, who offers him a blunt choice: either travel to the Dark Continent to lay the groundwork for the coup d'état, or condemn the woman who saved his life to a brutal execution. Out of options, he returns to Africa, where he discovers that the Agency plans to reward his services with an oil-soaked grave.
Assisted by a coterie of new and old allies, including a beautiful vor with a thirst for power and a yeshiva bocher with a fondness for Armani suits, as well as his own sharp intelligence, considerable wit, and substantial charm, Nathan parries the Agency, circumvents the consortium, and exacts his own vengeance. In doing so, he learns that his choice of friends is as important as his choice of enemies.
— Choice of Enemies by M. A. Richards. Click here to take a Look Inside the book.
