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Nowhere Man
A provocative thriller about the limits -- and the extremes -- of patriotism.
Tom Fargo thought he had it beat.
The anxiety, the guilt, the uncertainty that had gripped him since 9/11, when his estranged father died in the attack on the Pentagon – they’d all vanished. A former antiwar protester, Tom has become the “new face of American patriotism” and has risen to the top job in the office of U.S. Senator and likely presidential nominee Penn Mallory.
Then a Saudi plane falls out of the sky, killing the administration’s all-but-announced choice for Secretary of Defense. Tom is assigned to investigate. And everything changes.
In a search for answers that will take him from the halls of power in Congress to terrorist strongholds in Europe and South America to the wealthy Gulf Coast of Florida, Tom will struggle to unravel a mystery whose clues don’t add up:
A blogger who is murdered in a Washington coffee shop. The CEO of a Blackwater-type security firm who is in the final stages of confirmation to head the CIA. A Mossad agent turned mercenary for hire. A fashion-plate senator from California with an agenda of her own. A bungled assassination attempt that mutates into an instrument of revenge against the government’s most ambitious players. A sinister dreadlocked man who turns Tom into a pawn in a treacherous global game.
As he peels back layer after layer of deceit, Tom will threaten to expose the conspiracy behind a new form of international terror, one in which the thirst for power trumps the needs of the nation. And as the revelations stack up, and Tom Fargo goes from patriot to prey, he is forced to confront the dilemma that has gripped America since the Twin Towers fell:
In a world where true security is an illusion, how far should one man go to protect the interests of his country?
Tom Fargo thought he had it beat.
The anxiety, the guilt, the uncertainty that had gripped him since 9/11, when his estranged father died in the attack on the Pentagon – they’d all vanished. A former antiwar protester, Tom has become the “new face of American patriotism” and has risen to the top job in the office of U.S. Senator and likely presidential nominee Penn Mallory.
Then a Saudi plane falls out of the sky, killing the administration’s all-but-announced choice for Secretary of Defense. Tom is assigned to investigate. And everything changes.
In a search for answers that will take him from the halls of power in Congress to terrorist strongholds in Europe and South America to the wealthy Gulf Coast of Florida, Tom will struggle to unravel a mystery whose clues don’t add up:
A blogger who is murdered in a Washington coffee shop. The CEO of a Blackwater-type security firm who is in the final stages of confirmation to head the CIA. A Mossad agent turned mercenary for hire. A fashion-plate senator from California with an agenda of her own. A bungled assassination attempt that mutates into an instrument of revenge against the government’s most ambitious players. A sinister dreadlocked man who turns Tom into a pawn in a treacherous global game.
As he peels back layer after layer of deceit, Tom will threaten to expose the conspiracy behind a new form of international terror, one in which the thirst for power trumps the needs of the nation. And as the revelations stack up, and Tom Fargo goes from patriot to prey, he is forced to confront the dilemma that has gripped America since the Twin Towers fell:
In a world where true security is an illusion, how far should one man go to protect the interests of his country?
386 pages, Hardcover
First published June 6, 2014
3 people are currently reading
13 people want to read
About the author
Doug Williams
4 books5 followersDoug Williams is a playwright, author, and award-winning screenwriter and filmmaker. He is a former journalist; served as press secretary in the US Senate; and has overseen communications in both the public and private sectors. He’s somehow managed to make a career as a freelancer for over 25 ears.
His script Back Star Rising, based on the life of iconic Texas congresswoman Barbara Jordan, has been honored in over 45 competitions worldwide—winning 12 best screenplay awards—and is in development for a feature film. A film he wrote and produced, A Bullet For Your Thoughts, has been recognized in 12 festivals and has won six awards for best short film as well as individual honors for best director, best actor, best supporting actor, and best supporting actress. He and his wife Donna McKenzie are currently working on a screenplay whose working title is Kitty’s Back, about a cat the CIA trains to be a spy and save the world. (Seriously.)
Critics compared his previous novel, Nowhere Man, to Homeland and House of Cards, saying “it delivers excitement, suspense and cheers in all the right places” and calling it a “labyrinthine conspiracy thriller with both verve and heart.” He cowrote A Sacred Duty, the true account of a federal whistleblower who exposed a scandal that took the lives of hundreds of U.S. veterans that is also in development for a film. Additionally, he collaborated with noted restauranteur Johnny Carrabba on two books, With Gratitude and A Gift from the Heart.
He is also a playwright with four New York City productions, and his most recent work, The Boundary, written with Donna McKenzie, was produced by Dirt Dogs Theatre Company in Houston. They are currently at work on a new play, Swimback, which explores the dissolution of a military family during the Cuban missile crisis.
His script Back Star Rising, based on the life of iconic Texas congresswoman Barbara Jordan, has been honored in over 45 competitions worldwide—winning 12 best screenplay awards—and is in development for a feature film. A film he wrote and produced, A Bullet For Your Thoughts, has been recognized in 12 festivals and has won six awards for best short film as well as individual honors for best director, best actor, best supporting actor, and best supporting actress. He and his wife Donna McKenzie are currently working on a screenplay whose working title is Kitty’s Back, about a cat the CIA trains to be a spy and save the world. (Seriously.)
Critics compared his previous novel, Nowhere Man, to Homeland and House of Cards, saying “it delivers excitement, suspense and cheers in all the right places” and calling it a “labyrinthine conspiracy thriller with both verve and heart.” He cowrote A Sacred Duty, the true account of a federal whistleblower who exposed a scandal that took the lives of hundreds of U.S. veterans that is also in development for a film. Additionally, he collaborated with noted restauranteur Johnny Carrabba on two books, With Gratitude and A Gift from the Heart.
He is also a playwright with four New York City productions, and his most recent work, The Boundary, written with Donna McKenzie, was produced by Dirt Dogs Theatre Company in Houston. They are currently at work on a new play, Swimback, which explores the dissolution of a military family during the Cuban missile crisis.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 18, 2014
Nowhere Man by Doug Williams is an intriguing tale and good storytelling. The authors writing is crisp, clear, and engaging. Drawing you into the story and making you wonder where all the character development and source material came from that serves as a background. His characters are complex and conflicted, as is the post 9/11 world we live in now.
There were times when I thought I knew what was on the verge of happening next, and then surprise, a new twist in the plot comes into play. Underlying the story are subtle but tough questions and observations on American society and our national institutions since September 11, 2001. The author clearly taps into the social and political polarity we see so prolifically at play today, and how this has been and is changing America internally, and our influence within the world.
Archibald MacLeish, the 20th Century American poet and Librarian of Congress once wrote; "We have learned all the answers, all the answers. It is the questions we do not know." These questions flow all through the book, making you wonder how it all took place and takes place today. Certainly it is a work of fiction, but fiction can open up anyone's mind to consider new possibilities about how we interact today as a nation, and as a people.
The book is an entertaining story, but one that is also a cautionary tale that may leave you wondering and asking. And from there seeking answers, the right answers perhaps. The book brings to mind other well known political thillers, like Seven Days in May, written by Flecter Knebel in 1962. Although, American society today and the world are quite different times and places. Political intrigue and supposition are part of human history. It crosses all generations; think of Julius Ceasar, the Borgias, Niccolò Machiavelli, or Benjamin Disraeli. In the affairs of humankind, at this moment in history, today is not that much different from yesterday.
There were times when I thought I knew what was on the verge of happening next, and then surprise, a new twist in the plot comes into play. Underlying the story are subtle but tough questions and observations on American society and our national institutions since September 11, 2001. The author clearly taps into the social and political polarity we see so prolifically at play today, and how this has been and is changing America internally, and our influence within the world.
Archibald MacLeish, the 20th Century American poet and Librarian of Congress once wrote; "We have learned all the answers, all the answers. It is the questions we do not know." These questions flow all through the book, making you wonder how it all took place and takes place today. Certainly it is a work of fiction, but fiction can open up anyone's mind to consider new possibilities about how we interact today as a nation, and as a people.
The book is an entertaining story, but one that is also a cautionary tale that may leave you wondering and asking. And from there seeking answers, the right answers perhaps. The book brings to mind other well known political thillers, like Seven Days in May, written by Flecter Knebel in 1962. Although, American society today and the world are quite different times and places. Political intrigue and supposition are part of human history. It crosses all generations; think of Julius Ceasar, the Borgias, Niccolò Machiavelli, or Benjamin Disraeli. In the affairs of humankind, at this moment in history, today is not that much different from yesterday.
August 24, 2014
Nowhere Man by Doug Williams is an intriguing tale and good storytelling. The authors writing is crisp, clear, and engaging. Drawing you into the story and making you wonder where all the character development and source material came from that serves as a background. His characters are complex and conflicted, as is the post 9/11 world we live in now.
There were times when I thought I knew what was on the verge of happening next, and then surprise, a new twist in the plot comes into play. Underlying the story are subtle but tough questions and observations on American society and our national institutions since September 11, 2001. The author clearly taps into the social and political polarity we see so prolifically at play today, and how this has been and is changing America internally, and our influence within the world.
Archibald MacLeish, the 20th Century American poet and Librarian of Congress once wrote; "We have learned all the answers, all the answers. It is the questions we do not know." These questions flow all through the book, making you wonder how it all took place and takes place today. Certainly it is a work of fiction, but fiction can open up anyone's mind to consider new possibilities about how we interact today as a nation, and as a people.
The book is an entertaining story, but one that is also a cautionary tale that may leave you wondering and asking. And from there seeking answers, the right answers perhaps. The book brings to mind other well known political thillers, like Seven Days in May, written by Flecter Knebel in 1962. Although, American society today and the world are quite different times and places. Political intrigue and supposition are part of human history. It crosses all generations; think of Julius Ceasar, the Borgias, Niccolò Machiavelli, or Benjamin Disraeli. In the affairs of humankind, at this moment in history, today is not that much different from yesterday.
There were times when I thought I knew what was on the verge of happening next, and then surprise, a new twist in the plot comes into play. Underlying the story are subtle but tough questions and observations on American society and our national institutions since September 11, 2001. The author clearly taps into the social and political polarity we see so prolifically at play today, and how this has been and is changing America internally, and our influence within the world.
Archibald MacLeish, the 20th Century American poet and Librarian of Congress once wrote; "We have learned all the answers, all the answers. It is the questions we do not know." These questions flow all through the book, making you wonder how it all took place and takes place today. Certainly it is a work of fiction, but fiction can open up anyone's mind to consider new possibilities about how we interact today as a nation, and as a people.
The book is an entertaining story, but one that is also a cautionary tale that may leave you wondering and asking. And from there seeking answers, the right answers perhaps. The book brings to mind other well known political thillers, like Seven Days in May, written by Flecter Knebel in 1962. Although, American society today and the world are quite different times and places. Political intrigue and supposition are part of human history. It crosses all generations; think of Julius Ceasar, the Borgias, Niccolò Machiavelli, or Benjamin Disraeli. In the affairs of humankind, at this moment in history, today is not that much different from yesterday.
April 2, 2015
3.5 stars. It was a bit of a slow start but the last half of the book is a page turner. Couldn't put it down once the action started. If you like a political thriller, this is definitely a book for you.
August 6, 2014
Excellent book! Fast read.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews