When a British intelligence officer shows up on his farm to deliver this message, Conor McBride doesn’t trust the man, or the motives that brought MI6 to the west coast of Kerry on a mission to recruit an Irishman. The stranger’s summons is hard to resist, though. It promises the solution to a mystery that’s haunted him for years.

Before it all fell apart, Conor thought he had everything - a beautiful fiancé, a bright career in Dublin, and a talent that would carry him far beyond his quiet life in the west of Ireland. Those dreams shattered the day he was arrested, framed for a crime by the man he’d trusted most in the world. Now, he’s living with a permanent record, a mountain of debt, and unanswered questions: What turned his mild-mannered brother into the criminal who betrayed him; and where was he, now? 

MI6 says they know, but they’re not giving information for free. First, Conor must accept his recruitment for a club he never wanted to join, acquire skills he never wanted to learn, and take an undercover assignment that goes far beyond the mystery he’d hoped to solve.

Assuming a new identity, he disappears into the tumultuous back alleys and bazaars of India, working with an American partner who’s got a sketchy history and his own personal demons. While the mission grows more crooked and treacherous by the day, Conor’s own goal is unwavering. Traveling from Mumbai to the snow-capped mountains of Kashmir, he’ll do whatever it takes to get the answers he’s looking for, and to give his brother one last shot at redemption… before it’s too late.

Deceptive Cadence Excerpt

At a farmhouse inn tucked into a scenic corner of Vermont, a mysterious guest has checked in for an extended stay. Conor McBride, a tired-eyed Irish wanderer, arrives shouldering a violin, a duffel bag, and the burden of traumatic events he won’t discuss. His recent past is as hazy as his future, but the inn’s owner can relate to that. Kate Fitzpatrick has lived through her own share of trauma and uncertainty. 

She’d once been an artist living in New York, but when her husband’s death and its tragic circumstances crushed her creative spirit, Kate left the city to start a new life. Five years later, her inn is thriving, but the ramshackle farm that came with it seems doomed to fail. Her long-term guest has the experience to fix it, and she’s willing to accept a little mystery in exchange for the help he offers. Gradually, the gaps in his past seem less important than the growing attraction between them, but soon Kate will face a reality she’s not prepared for; because most of what she believes about Conor McBride isn’t true, and the secrets he’s keeping are darker than anything she imagined.

He’s a man on the run, haunted by enemies he’s never met and his own destructive actions. Conor came to Vermont prepared for the deception he’s trained for, but Kate’s friendship and straightforward trust has an impact he never expected. Unwilling to lie and unable to confess, he hides behind evasions while an intuition of approaching danger whispers in his head.

What he’s left behind isn’t far enough back, and when it catches up to him Conor discovers he’s not alone in the crosshairs, because Kate Fitzpatrick has secrets of her own, and as it turns out, hers are more likely to get them both killed.

The Secret Chord Excerpt

“A captivating series with irresistible characters and locations.”

An Iranian, a Bohemian and an Irishman walk into a bar. It isn’t a joke. It’s Conor McBride’s latest assignment.

Conor McBride has made a bargain he may live to regret, if he manages to live through it, at all. Lured by the chance to reboot his career as a violinist, he’s accepted a mission to Prague, agreeing to extract a defecting Iranian agent in exchange for the chance to perform while he’s there. His boss has promised a simple, stitched-up mission, but as he might have expected, it soon unravels into chaos and confusion. 

The Iranian has endangered his own life with a shocking indiscretion, and a suspicious MI6 agent is hatching a plot that might spiral into an international crisis. It’s a dangerous combination, and on top of it all the partner Conor brought with him is a freshly trained operative he couldn’t persuade to stay home.

A year earlier, he’d arrived at Kate Fitzpatrick’s country inn like a fugitive in the night, with little to say for himself. In the months that followed she’d poked her way through all his cautious evasions and given up secrets of her own. Conor hopes their relationship is on track to become a different sort of partnership, but his desire to shield Kate from the covert side of his life was no match for her determination to share in its risks. 

Before long it’s clear Conor is going to need all the new skills Kate can offer. Within hours of their arrival in Prague, a mysterious stranger is trailing their every more, and they are discovering the fabled lanes of this beautiful old-world city are not half as twisted as the secrets everyone is hiding.

What Readers Say:

“Kathryn Guare weaves story and characters together like a symphony - intricate, complex and building to a crescendo that will leave the reader a bit breathless.”

“I feel as if I’ve been on vacation with new friends and we’ve bonded through great feats of heroism and accomplishment.”

“Romantic and exciting. A wet Sunday afternoon, curled up on the sofa, coffee and cake to hand, kind of read - and a do-not-disturb sign on the door.”

City Of A Thousand Spies Excerpt

In the first week of December, the snow is working its fairy-tale magic and holiday guests are streaming in, but at their cozy bed-and-breakfast in northern Vermont, Conor McBride and Kate Chatham are struggling to find some Christmas spirit.

As part-time operatives, they’re trained for unexpected developments, but their current troubles have nothing to do with undercover work. Overwhelmed by meddling relatives, an engagement party they didn’t want, and their own short tempers, they’d welcome any stress-relieving antidote. They just didn’t expect it to appear in the form of stolen treasure, buried in a bloody mound of snow on a deserted back road.

Their startling discovery quickly turns to unstoppable escapade, and unlike others Conor barely lived through, it feels like a Sherlock Holmes caper more than any MI6 enterprise. In pursuit of an unknown thief, the mystery sends him north to the border, teamed with a deceptively folksy police chief, and a sergeant from the Royal Canadian “Mounties” who’s keen for the adventure. While they follow a trail of clues into the mountains of Quebec, Kate remains in Vermont, working with an eccentric gem expert and two FBI agents to identify the treasure and its owner.

The game is afoot and every bit the distraction they wished for, but as Conor chases their elusive thief up the St. Lawrence Seaway and into the teeth of a blizzard, the whispered warnings of his sixth sense are proving once again prophetic. Their escapade is turning deadly, looking more like an MI6 mission, after all. Now, he and Kate will need all their operational skills to finish what they started, and to make it home alive.

Star of the East Excerpt

When a stranger from Dublin comes to his coastal village looking for a boat ride to the Great Blasket Island, Tom McBride isn’t anxious for the job. He has enough to handle, working the farm that will one day be his inheritance, and dealing with a contentious father who’s threatening to withhold it. The stranger is hard to refuse, though; he’s on a mission from the prime minister. Tom agrees to the trip, curious about the government’s interest in such a desolate spot. Rising from the sea like a mountain, the Great Blasket is a place of legends, its people mysterious and strange. Steering his uncle’s fishing boat towards it, Tom thinks he’s prepared for whatever it has to offer, but nothing could prepare him for Brigid O’Sullivan.

Dark-eyed and raven-haired, Brigid is the only young woman left among the aging inhabitants of her tiny Blasket village. With most of its population lost to emigration or the unforgiving sea, the island has grown more isolated and its way of life ever more dangerous. The Irish government plans to evacuate everyone to the mainland, but Brigid refuses to give up on her home. For her, the Blasket is a place of magic and power. She thinks its wild isolation fits with her own strange spirit and that she is better off where she is, but from the minute he lays eyes on her, Tom is determined to convince her otherwise.

Irresistibly drawn to him, Brigid soon finds herself torn between the solitary life she thought she wanted and the one offered by the man she loves. Both choices come with loss and grief attached, but when tragedy strikes, changing everything in an instant, she discovers the greatest heartbreak could be never getting to choose at all.

Where a Wave Meets the Shore

The story of Dr. Julius Dewey and his illustrious son George.

Star of the East Excerpt

Kathryn Guare

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