Overwatch

by Marc Guggenheim

Overview

In this gripping thriller, a young CIA lawyer uncovers a dangerous worldwide conspiracy, masterminded by forces within the US intelligence community.

Alex Garnett has spent his life in the shadow of his father, a former Chief of Staff and Solicitor General to two presidents who's been responsible for getting Alex every job he ever had, including his latest: attorney for the CIA. However, a seemingly routine litigation leads to a series of unexpected events, including poison, kidnapping, torture and murder. As casualties pile up, it becomes clear Alex is the final target in someone's blood-soaked attempts to cover their tracks.

With the help of a neurotic hacker, Alex unravels a conspiracy older than the CIA itself. The trail of clues reveals the presence of unseen forces that are bringing this nation to the brink of war -- and Alex's life is only one of many in danger.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316212458
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	04/15/2014
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	395,608
File size:	584 KB

About the Author

Marc Guggenheim practiced law at one of Boston's most prestigious firms before leaving to pursue his dream of writing for television. In the past eleven years, he's worked on such highly regarded shows as The Practice, Law & Order, Jack & Bobby, Brothers & Sisters , and Flash Forward.

In addition to television, he also writes comic books (Spider Man, Wolverine, The Flash), videogames (Call of Duty 3) and feature films (The Green Lantern). He is currently a writer for the hit CW show Arrow and lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two daughters.

Editorial Reviews

02/03/2014
Guggenheim’s high-energy debut thriller stars Alex Garnett as a low-level CIA attorney with a solid Washington pedigree (his dad is a presidential adviser). In the course of investigating an apparently innocuous case involving an agency operative’s divorce, Garnett stumbles onto a sinister plan to destabilize Iran and draw the country into a nuclear shootout with Israel. Before Garnett realizes what he’s blundered into, three people connected to the divorce die under mysterious circumstances, and he finds himself being tailed, then shot at. Garnett has gotten himself caught in the churning wake of the Overwatch, an organization cloaked in such darkness that not even the American president knows about it. Guggenheim, a former lawyer turned TV writer, succumbs to predictable dialogue and several formulaic devices down the stretch, but Garnett—prickly, wily, fighting to get out of his father’s shadow—will appeal to readers who appreciate an underdog. Agent: Erin Malone, WME. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

"Politically savvy . . . This is a spy thriller for people who don't ordinarily like spy thrillers. . . . The book is a paranoid's delight."—Mystery Scene

"Overwatch doesn't just bring together the legal and espionage genres. It merges family problems with professional ones, swirls in a major helping of murder and mayhem, and with a deft touch, reminds us why politics is—always—personal."—Brad Meltzer, author of The Fifth Assassin

"The best thriller writers are always storytellers first and Guggenheim is, quite simply, a terrific storyteller. Part legal thriller, part espionage page-turner... If you ever wanted to know what the marriage of Clancy and Grisham would look like, devour Overwatch."—Derek Haas, author of The Right Hand

"Over the years I've used many hyphenated adjectives to describe lawyers (i.e., "soul-sucking," "bottom-feeding"). Now, thanks to Marc Guggenheim's debut novel, I can add a new one to the list: "bad-ass." Overwatch is a brilliantly-paced novel with the brains of a legal thriller, the testosterone of an action movie, and white-hot paranoia of a 70s conspiracy flick. Not only is Alex Garnett one of my favorite new heroes, but Guggenheim has also created a seriously warped villain - frightening not only because of what he does, but because you get the sinking feeling he might be alive and working in D.C. right now."—Duane Swierczynski, author of Point & Shoot

"Alex Garnett is the perfect contemporary 'stranger in a stranger land'—a good man trying to maintain a dignified perspective within the moralistic marshes of Washington DC. And now he's also stumbled upon what he believes to be a substrata of lawlessness that makes the Old West look like an afternoon tea party. With a magnificent interweaving of law, history, and good ol' knife's-edge suspense, Guggenheim spins out a gem with Overwatch." —Wil Mara, author of Frame 232 and The Gemini Virus

"It's spy-vs.-lawyer in the tightly drawn thriller Overwatch. Marc Guggenheim knows exactly which laws are broken by the nation's most secretive agencies: all of them. Insider detail, accelerating tension and the highest stakes possible make this novel impossible to put down."—Mike Cooper, author of Full Ratchet and Clawback

"Marc Guggenheim is a monster talent, able to go from TV to film to novels with an ease I envy, and the skill of a master storyteller."—Ed Brubaker, author of Fatale, Criminal, Captain America, and Sleeper

From the Publisher

"Overwatch doesn't just bring together the legal and espionage genres. It merges family problems with professional ones, swirls in a major helping of murder and mayhem, and with a deft touch, reminds us why politics is-always-personal."

Brad Meltzer

Narrator Will Collyer accelerates the pace of this unique blend of legal and espionage thriller. As CIA lawyer Alex Garnett follows the trail of a suspicious financial transaction, he uncovers evidence of a secret internal operation that is manipulating geopolitical events. He then has to race to expose the clandestine group before war erupts in the Middle East. Listeners are propelled through the story by an engaging narration that supports the action and suspense. Collyer provides shadings of accents for international characters and villains but leaves depictions of minor characters indistinguishable at times. His subtle interpretation of the emotional tensions between Garnett and his fiancée and Garnett and his father adds depth to the subplots. K.C.R. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

JULY 2014 - AudioFile

Narrator Will Collyer accelerates the pace of this unique blend of legal and espionage thriller. As CIA lawyer Alex Garnett follows the trail of a suspicious financial transaction, he uncovers evidence of a secret internal operation that is manipulating geopolitical events. He then has to race to expose the clandestine group before war erupts in the Middle East. Listeners are propelled through the story by an engaging narration that supports the action and suspense. Collyer provides shadings of accents for international characters and villains but leaves depictions of minor characters indistinguishable at times. His subtle interpretation of the emotional tensions between Garnett and his fiancée and Garnett and his father adds depth to the subplots. K.C.R. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

JULY 2014 - AudioFile

2014-02-19
In TV writer Guggenheim's debut novel, a young, newly hired CIA litigator stumbles across evidence that a ruthless shadow agency, without the knowledge of the president, is orchestrating a war between Iran and Israel. No one in Washington is terribly upset when Iran's supreme leader dies from a bad case of swine flu, Iran having taken over the role of the world's No. 1 threat in its march toward nuclear readiness. But when Alex Garnett discovers that an organization inside the CIA was responsible for the death via a weaponized virus, his dream job at Langley quickly turns into an odd-man-out nightmare. People with loose connections to the conspiracy start dropping dead, but Alex can't find anyone who will believe they were killed. The only person he can trust is a geeky hacker whose life he puts at almost as much risk as his own. There are implausible plot twists and miracle escapes, but the biggest problem with this formulaic thriller is its use of a potential Middle East meltdown as a backdrop to Alex's attempts to prove his manhood and climb out from under the influence of his father, a powerful former aide to two presidents. Perhaps if Alex were less callow and had more dimensions, he would draw more of a rooting interest. As it is, readers spend much of their time trying to fight off the feeling that he's getting what he deserves. After an opening of nasty promise, Guggenheim's debut becomes a predictable slog, with a protagonist we have no desire to see again.

Kirkus Reviews