Marco Luchesi is a decorated Navy SEAL veteran and CIA agent working for Global Network News, who has covered or participated in tumultuous struggles in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya. His world view is shaken dramatically when he encounters a mysterious fellow journalist, John Chandler, who confides in him a powerful tale of a secret group known as the Bilderbergers. Just when he is disillusioned and about to return to private life, he meets and falls in love with a beautiful MI6 agent, Madeline Cochran, who has dark secrets of her own. In the end, Marco realizes the truth of the events and people in his world he has been covering but is too late to avoid Chandler’s brilliant trap.
Excerpt from US Review of Books
“Parts of Syria remained in chaos, but the Syrian Arab Army had regained control of the major cities and most of the countryside, which stymied Western efforts to further squeeze the Iranian regime.”
Most people in the West take it for granted that what they see and hear reported on the news is basically factual. Some may be astute enough to recognize a particular bias in the way the story is presented, but the general consensus is still that the media is in the business of telling its audience the truth. But what if there was a global organization that was controlling public opinion by screening what was being reported, manipulating the way people saw things as part of some vast plot for world domination? What if the CIA and MI6 were not really just working for their own countries but were in fact spokes in a much larger wheel of power? These are some of the ideas explored in the author’s thought-provoking, conspiracy thriller.
Marco Luchesi works hard to become a Navy SEAL but swiftly becomes disillusioned with the role he and his team has to play in Afghanistan. Back in the States and at a crossroads in regard to his future path in life, he takes the advice of a friend and applies to work for the CIA. Renamed Mark Luck, he begins to travel for the agency to various parts of the world under his cover as a reporter for Global News. But the deeper he gets involved in the world of lies and spies the more he begins to uncover about who may really be controlling global events.
Unlike most traditional novels, Serpent includes a plethora of footnotes referencing primarily Internet articles that support the author’s storyline. While this technique may at first appear odd, it adds a lot to the plot’s credibility. Well-written, entertaining, and fast-paced, De Berg’s book should please fans of the thriller genre.
