Ian O'Connor
ALLi Author Member
Location: United States of America (the)
Genres: Thriller, Fantasy/SciFi/Speculative, Mystery, Espionage, Historical Fiction, Memoir
Skills: Speaking Engagement/Lecture, Press/Media Interview
Ian A. O’Connor is the author of Point Option – A Military Thriller, the 2022 Silver Falchion Award winner for the year’s Best Thriller.
Ian is a retired USAF colonel. He is a recognized expert in the field of national security management, a qualification which serves him well as the foundation for his novels. He is the author of The Seventh Seal and The Barbarossa Covenant, both Justin Scott Thrillers. Kirkus Reviews wrote in high praise of Ian’s work: “The end result fits nicely into the Tom Clancy-meets-Dan Brown canon.” His co-authored book SCRAPPY: A Memoir of a Fighter Pilot in Korea and Vietnam, published by McFarland Publishing Company, remains a favorite of the international military aviation community. It recounts the amazing career of Colonel Howard “Scrappy” Johnson, the 1958 Collier Trophy winner for the year’s most meritorious flight.
His thriller, The Twilight of The Day, a harrowing tale of Vietnam pilot-POWs, was awarded a bronze medal by the Military Writers Society of America in 2018. Copies of both books are found in the USNA and USAFA libraries. Ian is a member of Mystery Writers of America. He lives on Florida’s Treasure Coast with his wife, Candice.
Ian O'Connor's books
POINT OPTION - A Time-Travel Military Thriller
POINT OPTION
A Time-Travel Military Thriller
United States Air Force Major Dave Fleming has a job men would kill for. As one of three exchange fighter pilots chosen to fly with the premier US Navy attack squadron aboard America’s newest aircraft carrier, little does he know that his life is about to be changed forever!
Point Option is a time-travel thriller that unfolds over a tense, six-day period aboard the aircraft carrier Lyndon Baines Johnson on patrol with its Strike Group in the Mediterranean Sea. Suddenly, and without warning, Fleming’s hyper-dangerous world of flying off a pitching deck turns into a pilot’s worst nightmare.
Point Option is jam-packed with more twists and turns than an out-of-control fighter jet; a world where Major Fleming finds himself an unwitting passenger on a supersonic ride into the deepest unknown destination – a place where even angels fear to tread. The odds for his survival are bleak, and any hope for escape will challenge all the finely honed skills he can muster. It’s now become a matter of time; and time is his one commodity that is fast running out!
The Twilight of the Day
The Twilight of the Day is a powerful story of human triumph in the face of impossible odds. It is a story of hope; a story of one man's resolute faith in God and country when lesser men would have succumbed.
Navy Captain James Vincent Trader endured years of relentless torment as a prisoner of the North Vietnamese. His true descent into hell began when he and nine others were sold in 1973 to a rogue country for 70 million dollars. Who was the buyer, and what was expected of these men? The answer is found in a closely guarded secret held by this extraordinary fraternity of pilots.
The Seventh Seal
What dread secret is The Vatican protecting at all costs? Which lives will be sacrificed to keep an awful truth buried behind a code of silence?
“My name is Monsignor Capelletti,” the voice replied. “I’m the chief of staff for the papal nuncio to the United States, Francis Cardinal Kettering. Your name was given to me as someone to be trusted, someone who can help. And I very much need your help.”
“Why, has your cardinal murdered somebody?” Justin asked with a deliberate lightheartedness meant to convey to Capelletti that his use of dramatics was not necessary.
“That’s exactly what’s happened, Mr. Scott,” the priest said, his words barely audible.
After hearing that utterance from a terrified priest, ex-FBI agent Justin Scott soon finds himself in the fight of his life. Hired by the Vatican to ferret out the truth – or so it says, Justin uncovers a hair-raising conspiracy involving powerful Vatican prelates and Italian and Russian crime syndicates, all racing against the clock and each other to take possession of the richest prize in Christendom. With time fast running out, Justin’s high-stakes quest leads him to the very steps of the Throne of Peter, then back to Washington DC where he confronts a psychopathic murderer in a cat-and-mouse stalking that plays out to its deadly finish on the mean streets of the nation’s capital.
The Barbarossa Covenant
Past and present collide in the opening pages of The Barbarossa Covenant when retired FBI agent Justin Scott becomes a target for assassination while en route to Rome at the behest of the Vatican’s secretary of state. Before learning why, the reader is whisked back to 1940 wartime London where British intelligence is working feverishly on an audacious plan to thwart the imminent cross channel Nazi invasion. With England’s fate hanging in the balance, a papal emissary hand-delivers a sealed letter to Adolf Hitler from a source no mortal would dare ignore or disobey. The instructions are simple. Turn your armies eastward and destroy Communist Russia, or disobey, and face the Day of Wrath. England is indeed spared and the letter lost to history—only to surface without warning in the Vatican seven decades later. Penned by an unimpeachable source, it states with a God-given certitude that the time of the Dies Irae is now. A very troubled pope wants Justin to authenticate or disprove both message and messenger—an admitted all but impossible task.
In an uphill race against the ticking Doomsday Clock, Justin’s quest takes him to Lisbon, Helsinki and Edinburgh, then into London for a midnight meeting at 10 Downing Street where he uncovers an electrifying secret—and an earth-shaking truth buried between the lines of the apocalyptical letter. Fending off multiple fresh attempts on his life, Justin races back to Rome only to fall headlong into a trap sprung by men consumed with a blood-chilling agenda.
The Wrong Road Home
The Wrong Road Home is the larger-than-life story of a surgeon who successfully practiced his craft for 20 years—first in Ireland and then the United States—girded with nothing more than several counterfeit medical diplomas. Impossible, would undoubtedly be any reader’s initial reaction—and understandably so—but the tale is based on a Miami Herald Sunday Edition front page exposé that was the talk of South Florida two decades ago. Oprah’s producer pursued the imposter to appear on her show, as did Bill O’Reilly, then the host of Inside Edition.
The Wrong Road Home combines two cautionary tales. The first warns how a Faustian bargain once struck, allows for no turning back. Desmond Donahue's impossible dream of becoming a ‘doctor’ was indeed realized over time, and a ‘doctor’ he remained despite several close calls in the ensuing years. The second cautionary message details the terrible cost in human terms of a life lived alone: of having to forgo marriage and children, of never having a close friend, of having to keep everyone ever met at arm’s length so the day would never arrive where he would inadvertently expose the awful truth about himself.