Although the novel highlights the life of a former black ops officer turned terrorist, this is not the story of a renegade NCS commando gone bonkers. Rather it tells of a young man, Brent Cossack, accepted into Georgetown University, who decides to forgo college and join the military. As a CIA operative in Iraq, he discovers an ugly truth about US involvement there, and he decides to resign. He returns home and falls in love with a beautiful political activist. Everything seems just swell, until a terrible event in his life pushes him over the edge.
FBI agent Rick Clark, the other principal character in the novel, finds himself in the middle of an investigation that forces him to relive the saddest time in his life--the tragic death of his daughter in a terrorist bombing. Since his divorce, he has lived alone, avoiding relationships, except those established at work out of necessity. That is, until he meets Marty Robin.
Robins, a psychologist involved in the investigation, gradually helps resuscitate life into Rick, while more hope comes later in the form of an unexpected hero that restores meaning to his fragmented life.
EMMA is the kind of novel that appeals to readers who enjoy thoughtful, action-packed crime thrillers. It is a novel with political undertones, social commentary, and loveable as well as odious characters. It’s also a novel about love and loss and an indictment of a democratic society that seems to become less so each day.
Michael is an award winning Indie author who has lived overseas most of his adult life (Peru, Morocco, Israel, and Taiwan) teaching literature and technology. Apart from writing more than a half a dozen novels, including thrillers, young adult, and science fiction, he has published numerous academic articles about literature and writing, and in 1985, Gwendolyn Brooks, poet laureate of Illinois, presented him with Virginia English Bulletin's first place writing award.
Novels to date:
Hampton Road, a psychological thriller
In Deep, a political thriller
Cupiditas, a political thriller
Evil's Root, a compilation of In Deep and Cupiditas
EMMA: Emergent Movement of Militant Anarchists, a terrorist thriller
Our Darker Angel, a crime thriller
The Bed Sheet Serial Killer, crime thriller
A Lethal Partnership,political thriller
Sanctimonious Serial Killers, a compilation The Bed Sheet Serial Killer and A Lethal Partnership
Why Blame the Stars? young adult
Apart from writing novels, Michael has published three non-fiction works:
A Critical Look at John Gardner's Grendel
Teaching Literature and Writing in the Secondary Classroom
Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson with Introduction, Notes, and Lessons by Michael Segedy
He's also published numerous academic articles about literature and writing in various scholarly journals.
Gwendolyn Brooks, former poet laureate of Illinois, presented him with Virginia English Bulletin's first place writing award.