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Questionable Choices
The Cuckoo Asset follows a bruised, gifted electronics student from Belfast whose intelligence and skills make him a highly sought-after asset, making him a pawn in a game he doesn’t understand. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
Early in my career, back in 1988, as a popular young teacher, I was mistakenly identified as a former CIA technical officer by a bright student who had seen my name on a document released by the Iranian Government.
I immediately thought that a young man duped into becoming involved in a Cold War CIA operation, then living a secret life after fleeing a war zone, could make a great story. I chipped away at the story for many years after that.
What aspects of Kenny’s personality do you think readers connect with most strongly?
Readers connect most strongly with McKenna’s determination to reinvent himself. He grew up in a difficult environment, and now he longs for acceptance, opportunity, and a life beyond the limits of his childhood on the notorious Shankill Road in Belfast. His desire to please others and be valued makes him vulnerable to manipulation, and while his intelligence and optimism encourage readers to root for him, McKenna makes increasingly questionable choices, but his continued self-reflection and discomfort with those decisions remind readers that he has not abandoned his conscience. Rather than watching a hero become a villain, readers witness an ordinary, gifted young man struggling to reconcile who he wants to be with the instincts or traits that he inherited from his violent father. This is the same trait that makes the cuckoo chick kill its step-siblings.
That, to me, is the emotional core of Kenny’s appeal. The reader doesn’t connect with him because he is a covert asset. They connect with him because he is trying to be a good man and gradually discovers how difficult that can be.
What kind of research did you undertake to portray Angola and its geopolitical significance?
A lifetime of reading obscure government and United Nations publications, declassified intelligence documents, and interviewing Angolan people who lived during the 70s and 80s. The occasional conversation with an individual who cannot be identified!
What emotional journey did you most want readers to experience alongside Kenny?
I was determined that The Cuckoo Asset was never going to be a conventional “heroic spy” story. The novel is designed as a progressive emotional unravelling of an ordinary young man as a promising opportunity leads him from the relative safety of Coventry into the chaos of war-torn Angola.
At the beginning of the novel, readers are invited to feel curious about David ‘Kenny’ McKenna and sympathetic towards the challenges he faced growing up amid the violence of Belfast. There is a sense of “this is a smart young man entering a complex world”. The protagonist McKenna is grounded in logic and systems, not ideology or violence. He seems to be a nice guy.
The reader then begins to feel unease and tension as a life-changing opportunity for our protagonist goes so very wrong. The reader senses that McKenna is “lucky” or “talented enough to be chosen,” but the reader also has the benefit of being able to interpret the antagonists’ intentions much faster than McKenna does. Once he is in Angola, confusion and frustration kicks in for both the reader and McKenna himself in Angola. The familiar questions of espionage fiction emerge: who can be trusted, who is manipulating whom, and where does the real danger lie?
Unease turns into moral discomfort as McKenna becomes involved in violent rebel activity, international smuggling, and CIA covert activity. Moral erosion, “Every choice costs something,” is one of my central emotional intentions. The reader experiences anxiety and ethical discomfort because McKenna doesn’t become “evil”; he just fits in better. For readers, this can be more unsettling than a simple moral fall because they understand why each compromise is made, even as they recognise its consequences.
Finally, as McKenna returns to Angola in 1999, the anxiety and tension become fear and horror as McKenna, out of a misguided loyalty to an old friend who had exploited him earlier, is caught and tortured by the police in Angola. Hope seems lost. This emotional peak has shock, suspense, heartbreak, joy, and anger. The main conflict almost reaches its turning point here, but the uncertainty of the outcome for McKenna keeps them emotionally invested.
By the end of the book, readers may feel both relief and satisfaction as the conflict is resolved. The later themes of resilience, loyalty, family, and friendship also encourage reflection long after the final two chapters. My hope is that readers close the book not only entertained by the thriller elements but also consider the personal cost of survival, the complexity of human relationships, and the choices that shape a life.
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A gifted Irish student is drawn into a brutal Civil War in Angola and slowly becomes part of the very world he once feared.
He believes he’s there for a routine technical internship. He’s never been so wrong.
Unwittingly drawn into a shadow world of intelligence operatives, cut-outs, and deniable missions, McKenna soon discovers that everyone around him is hiding something, including the people who sent him there.
Twenty years later he uncovers the truth, and now rival intelligence services want him silenced.
From Las Vegas poker tables to the scorched streets of Luanda, The Cuckoo Asset is a tense, atmospheric espionage thriller steeped in realism, betrayal, and survival.
Perfect for readers of John le Carré and Frederick Forsyth.
Storytelling and Healing
Scarlet Birthright follows a young DJ in Trinidad who falls in love with a dancer who becomes pregnant and flees to America, leaving his daughter with a lifetime of questions and longing. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
Scarlet Birthright is deeply personal—it’s autobiographical fiction born from my own experience. I was the love child of teenage parents, and my father left Trinidad when I was just a few months old. I grew up with my loving grandparents in Trinidad and Tobago while my father lived in America with his other family. This novella became my way of weaving together fact and fiction to explore that story, and ultimately, it helped me process and resolve the trauma of growing up with an absentee father. Writing this title was both an act of storytelling and a form of healing.
Were you able to achieve everything you wanted with the characters in the novel?
Mostly, yes. Since Scarlet Birthright unfolds through multiple perspectives, I felt I gave proper depth to the father, daughter, grandparents, and mother—each voice felt authentic and complete. However, I do wish I’d spent more time developing the stepmother’s character. Her story felt unfinished to me, which is why I ended up writing a separate short story dedicated entirely to her perspective. Sometimes characters demand more space than we initially give them.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
The central theme became letting go of anger—a gift I didn’t realize I needed when I began writing. Through the process, I also explored the idea that perhaps we all do the best we can in any given moment. We’re imperfect humans making imperfect choices, often with limited information or emotional resources. There’s something both humbling and liberating about accepting that complexity in ourselves and others.
What is the next book that you’re working on, and when can your fans expect it out?
I’m working on “The Other Side of Love and Desire,” which will be the fullest exploration of themes that first emerged in my short story collection, Scarlet Yearnings: Stories of Love and Desire. It’s my way of diving deeper into those emotional territories that readers responded to most strongly. The book is scheduled for publication at the end of 2025 and will be available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and from all major book retailers.
Author Links: GoodReads | Website
🔥 A Life-Altering Spark: Witness the impulsive choice that sets Joromi on a collision course with family, identity, and legacy—its aftershocks echoing across decades.
🌴 Vivid Caribbean Setting: Immerse yourself in the lush beauty and folklore of Trinidad, where family legacies run deep as the island’s roots.
💔 Generations of Heartache: Follow Trisha’s poignant struggle to find her place—and finally confront the father she never knew.
✨ Ancestral Magic: Spirits, legends, and cultural traditions weave through every page, reminding us how the past guides our future.
💪 A Story of Hope & Redemption: Watch as one family’s destiny unfolds across decades and oceans, revealing the power of forgiveness and second chances.
Buy now to immerse yourself in a novel where passion transcends distance, heartbreak challenges fate, and one family’s destiny unfolds across oceans and decades.
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Scarlet Birthright: What They Left Behind
Scarlet Birthright is a raw, emotional novella about love, abandonment, regret, and redemption. Set between Trinidad and New York from the late 1960s to the early 1990s, it tells the story of Joromi, a young DJ whose summer romance leads to heartbreak, a hidden daughter, and lifelong consequences. Across shifting seasons and continents, James stitches together the lives of Joromi, Margaret, Trisha, and their families, weaving a tale about choices that echo through generations. It’s messy, real, and haunting in the best way.
One thing that hit me right off the bat was how vivid and alive the writing is. The first chapter, where Joromi meets her at the party, practically sizzled off the page. James doesn’t just tell you that he’s struck dumb; you feel the sweat, the frangipani scent, the pounding heart when the mystery girl with the Afro walks in. That attention to atmosphere is a real strength. It dragged me into the heat of Trinidad’s dry season without mercy. At times, the language was almost overwhelmingly rich, dense, and luxuriant, like indulging in a second slice of chocolate cake despite already being full, but ultimately, it remained deeply satisfying.
Emotionally, this book gutted me. Joromi’s slow-motion car crash of choices, breaking things off, lying to himself, chasing an American dream while abandoning his roots, felt so human it was painful. The scene where he learns about the death of Trisha’s mother broke me. He crumples onto the kitchen floor, and even though he deserves the gut punch, you can’t help but ache for him. James captures grief and guilt in a way that’s too real. It’s messy and selfish and confused, just like real people. That said, there were moments when I wanted to shake Joromi until his teeth rattled. I mean, come on, man, your daughter’s right there!
What stood out even more was the women. Margaret, in particular, was complicated and, frankly, sometimes pretty hard to like. But that’s what made her fascinating. When she tells Joromi, “Just don’t bring her into this house,” after learning about Trisha, my stomach twisted. I hated her. I understood her. James doesn’t try to make any woman a saint or a villain. They’re just…human, battered by life and culture and their own fears. It’s messy in a way that polished, sanitized novels rarely dare to be.
Scarlet Birthright is a story for anyone who knows that love isn’t always enough, that choices leave scars, and that healing takes more than just time; it takes courage. I’d especially recommend it to readers who like intergenerational family dramas, emotionally complex characters, and writing so lush it feels like stepping into another world. Bring tissues, and maybe a little grace for the characters you’ll love and hate all at once.
Pages: 179 | ASIN : B0DYYXKV5F
Shelter in a Hostile World: A Love and Peace Novella
Mack Little’s Shelter in a Hostile World is a poignant narrative that chronicles the life of Badu, a young African child from the Igbo community whose trajectory is dramatically altered due to a capital offense. The novel is structured around two distinct periods in Badu’s life: initially in 1628, as the diligent son of an Igbo farmer yearning to marry Ekemma, and later in 1651, as a father in America endeavoring to rescue his daughter from a slaveowner known as The Admiral. This dual timeline effectively portrays Badu’s transformation and the lengths one might go to protect a loved one from suffering.
Little’s novel sheds light on the myriad challenges faced by slaves in the 1650s, particularly those uprooted from Africa to America. Through Badu’s experiences, the narrative delves into themes of social isolation, chronic anxiety, and psychological trauma. The author skillfully portrays the varying responses of slaves to their circumstances: from Dinny’s rebellious desire for independence, Hermes’s pragmatic collaboration with white masters, to Badu’s initially neutral stance that shifts as personal stakes rise. The narrative is marked by its clarity and well-paced scenes, avoiding any sense of rush or superfluity. Time transitions are handled with finesse, contributing to the story’s coherence. A commendable aspect of Little’s writing is the authentic depiction of Igbo culture, presented in a manner that allows readers the freedom to interpret and form their own judgments.
Shelter in a Hostile World is a historical fiction novella that resonates with emotional depth, weaving together moments of sorrow and joy. While the book addresses mature themes and may not be suitable for younger audiences, it is recommended for those who appreciate thought-provoking storytelling.
Pages: 121 | ASIN : B0CDYKJ4NS
