Unaware

UNAWARE

A Brill Wingfield Espionage Thriller

He was declared dead. Someone has been keeping his appointment for seven years. Now the people who want him are lining up at his door.

Brill Wingfield has spent a lifetime operating in the shadows. He's survived covert missions, outmaneuvered dangerous men, and learned that the most important rule in espionage is simple: never trust what you can't verify.

But some secrets refuse to stay buried.

It begins with an envelope hidden behind a plastic fish clock in a quiet Florida fishing village. Inside are a key, a dead man's identity, and instructions from a woman who has suddenly disappeared.

The name on the identification belongs to Alvin Prewitt, a man who died decades ago. Yet someone has been depositing thousands of dollars into his account every month, maintaining a hotel reservation in his name, and waiting for him to arrive.

For Brill, the trail leads to New Orleans, where the French Quarter is preparing for Mardi Gras and a very different kind of masquerade is about to begin.

At the Hotel Sauvage, Brill discovers that he's not the only person waiting for answers. A corporate security executive wants a mysterious document. A woman with a dangerous past has been sent to retrieve an unknown package. And an investigator from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is determined to uncover the truth behind a shadowy organization known as the Retired Officers' Mutual Aid Society.

Everyone has a different story. Everyone has something to hide.

And nobody seems to know who is really in charge.

At the center of the mystery lies a document known as the Charter-or the Book, the Instruction, or the File. Whatever its name, it holds the key to a secret structure built on intelligence operations, enormous sums of money, and decisions made far beyond the reach of ordinary law.

As Brill follows the trail through a labyrinth of concealed identities, old betrayals, powerful families, and covert financial arrangements, the investigation becomes a battle over more than classified information. The lives and livelihoods of hundreds of retired intelligence operatives hang in the balance.

But exposing the truth may be just as dangerous as concealing it.

Because in the world of espionage, money can keep wars from starting, secrets can protect the innocent, and the people who appear to hold the power may be answering to someone they've never even met.

With Mardi Gras approaching and competing interests converging on one extraordinary night, Brill must discover who holds the real authority, what the missing Charter means, and why a woman from his past has spent seven years preparing for his arrival.

The dead man has a reservation. The conspirators have a plan. And Brill Wingfield has no intention of playing by someone else's rules.

From the Brill Wingfield thriller series, UNAWARE is an intricate espionage and conspiracy thriller featuring covert intelligence networks, secret documents, political investigations, financial intrigue, dangerous operatives, and a mystery that reaches deep into the hidden world of international intelligence.