Firebird

by Mark Powell

In this stunning new literary thriller, a U.S. arms deal gone south takes you into the underground world of political operatives, Ivy League criminals, and a hedge fund billionaire with eyes on the presidency.The plan was foment a small-scale conflict in Eastern Ukraine that will prevent the vast Ukrainian shale gas field from being tapped. Should the project succeed, Leviathan Global's billionaire founder stands to profit mightily from the sale of gas reserves in Slovakia. But when a disillusioned staffer named Hugh Eckhart uncovers a dossier containing bank accounts laying out the conspiracy, things begin to unravel.Spanning the U.S. and Eastern Europe, from New Haven and D.C. to Kiev and Bratislava, Mark Powell takes you into the 2014 Ukraine-Russia conflict and reveals the corrupt relationship between war, money, and political power.

312 pages, Paperback

Published January 7, 2020

About the author

Mark Powell is the author of six novels. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Bread Loaf and Sewanee Writers’ Conferences, and in 2014 was a Fulbright Fellow to Slovakia. In 2009, he received the Chaffin Award for contributions to Appalachian literature. He holds degrees from Yale Divinity School, the University of South Carolina, and The Citadel. He lives in the mountains of North Carolina, where he teaches at Appalachian State University.

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Firebird is a literary thriller full of suspense and intelligence, and a sharply written meditation on the brutal cost of greed on humanity.

[Salem L · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm still not entirely sure what happened here. But also I appreciated the meditations on faith, on what people dedicate their everything to, because they have nothing. And maybe it's fitting that everything happened disordered and confusing and going round in circles. Thats how war is after all.

[Sam Slaughter · Rating 5 out of 5]

A literary thriller, Firebird is pretty damn gripping from beginning to end, though it really picks up about halfway through when the stakes are all finally known. A mix of espionage, intrigue, all-too-close-to-home megalomaniacal politicians, and religious philosophy, the book offers a little something for everyone.

[Whittnee · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 rounded up

[S.W. Gordon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think Professor Powell just might be the Whistleblower. Not THAT whistleblower! I mean a literary one like the mythical Firebird itself foretelling doom and desolation but also offering hope. The novel brings into focus the vast geopolitical implications of the Ukraine conflict, and exposes a conspiracy orchestrated by globalist elites to bring about yet another endless war. Many of the novels idealistic characters “think” they are doing the right thing only to discover they’ve been used by the untouchable powers at the top of the economic food chain. But in the end, salvation may be as simple as helping a migrant step off a boat after a perilous journey. And Eckart’s Angel/Firebird grants him a reward.

[Charles White · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spies, God, and Bitcoin.