Cleared Hot

by Doug Emery

Trevor McCowen lives a complicated life. Juggling multiple commanders and job requirements – a successful investment planner by day, training with law enforcement and working private investigations on nights and weekends. Nothing too dangerous, just some wild fun and a couple cool guy stories to tell.

While the federal agency FinCEN and Mr. Phillip Daniels are pushing and commanding him for results on local money laundering and Ponzi schemes, Trevor needs the help of Face, his commander at Atlas International Security Corp. Their impending mission will lead their well-trained security team on a dangerous pursuit to capture an old nemesis.

Searching for those responsible for the attempt on his life, Trevor discovers international traffickers using drug profits to support local terrorism designed to destroy the very fabric and image of freedom and local government.

The team will need all of their combative skills to survive this highspeed mission into unknown territory.

281 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 27, 2023

About the author

Age-old storytelling wisdom tells us, “Write what you know.” Douglas Emery has run a successful investment planning company for thirty-plus years, as well as working security through Belltower International, holding a Class A license in investigation and security. Emery is also the founder and president of the North Coast Peace Officer Training Foundation, a not-for-profit law enforcement training company providing training at no cost to the officer or their agency.
Emery’s backgrounds come together in the fact meets fiction world of Close Follow, featuring reluctant hero Trevor McCowen. McCowen, a successful financial planner by day, trains with law enforcement and works armed security nights and weekends. Nothing too dangerous—the occasional “close follow,” investigation into vandalism, VIP escort, and some wild stories to tell. That is, until the son of a longtime client unwittingly launders money for an international drug dealer, pulling Trevor into a complex web of post-9/11 federal bureaucracy and high-stakes operations that culminate in a life and death situation involving a family member that makes Trevor question everything he thought he believed.

From the death of small towns in America’s Rust Belt, to the international drug trade, to the complexities of Trevor’s home life, to the bureaucracies of federal, state, and local law enforcement, Close Follow takes you on a fast-paced journey into the world of high-tech weaponry and training reminiscent of Tom Clancy and Paul Christopher, with one important difference. Trevor McCowen is no slick John Ryan or John “Doc” Holliday. More akin to F. Paul Wilson’s Repairman Jack, he is an atypical hero just ordinary enough to be dangerous.

Based on extensive research, interviews, and real-life experiences with law enforcement and military veterans, and taking place on the streets and in the towns in northeast Ohio the author knows so well, Close Follow is a reality ride into a world that most of us wish was a fantasy.

A portion of the proceeds from Douglas Emery’s debut novel will go to support the North Coast Peace Officer Training Foundation (https://www.ncpotf.org/).