Misdating Norma Zeal: Book 2 of the Echelon 6 series

by Kevin Hunter Orr

John Clark’s got a problem -- rather, several problems: the wild success of his first novel doesn’t exactly dovetail with his role as an American intel agent. His Mother’s not happy with the way he’s handling his “fifteen minutes of fame.” And an unexpected one-night-stand has implications far beyond just the one night. In an outrageous case of mistaken identity, Misdating Norma Zeal reveals John to be a top-notch Man in Black -- but a detective? Not so much.


In Book One of the Echelon 6 series, bachelor John Clark revealed himself as a good-natured and easy-going Southern sportswriter suddenly faced with the unlikely task of raising three children. In Book Two, John’s left the newspaper business in Savannah to become a governmental Man in Black. During a ten-day medical leave on his family’s farm in the Florida Panhandle, John offers to help a beautiful woman who’s having car trouble. But her big canvas hat and dark sunglasses obscure the fact that this woman is in fact Norma Zeal Norman, a conservative candidate for President of the United States. With little interest in politics and with no time spent in front of a television, John still doesn’t know the woman’s true identity even weeks after their one-night-stand.


Besides, John’s quite busy dealing with other issues: for one, his literary agent insists on trying to get him to do more publicity gigs in support of his bestselling book, Swimmin’ In It. For another, the college-campus book readings he’s already agreed to participate in have become out-of-control student riots. While his buddy and roommate, Pat, has a field day teasing him about all the public uproar, his Mother repeatedly upbraids John about how unseemly and low it all is.


For her part, candidate Norma Zeal finds herself surrounded by hillbilly conservative supporters; staffers who never seem to be as competent as she demands; and liberal activist bastards who have begun to turn her campaign rallies into unmitigated disasters. It is during a short break from the campaign trail that Norma Zeal will meet John. Later, when word is leaked about their affair by a disgruntled staffer, Norma Zeal will have to swallow her extreme pride and join forces with a hated political rival if she wants to retain her shot at a top job inside the Beltway. As for the backstabbing staffer... well, she’s got plans for him.


When he returns to work in DC, John is ironically assigned to handle a solo assignment near his hometown of Savannah. A reclusive geneticist has taken up residence in a remote cottage on stilts over the South Carolina marshes, and the work he’s doing there will shock John to the core. Stopping the aging scientist isn’t a problem -- the problem is the tantalizing and extraordinary hints the man gives to John about a very dangerous Army general who has been playing a horrible and vicious game for decades.


Later, when their boss asks John and his old friend Mike Charles to babysit FBI agents on a Bureau mission in Baltimore, John discovers a terrible truth about Norma Zeal Norman; a truth that John has in fact brought on both of them.


Misdating Norma Zeal is a story about hypocrisy, mistaken identity, and the very real danger of denying facts that are often right in front of us; the ones we ignore strictly at our peril.

ebook

First published March 12, 2011

About the author

Kevin Hunter Orr is a fiction writer from Richmond, Virginia. To date he has written eighteen novels (four in the editing phase), including several works of comedy and historical fiction, and the eight-book espionage series "Echelon 6." He holds an English degree from Wofford College. He currently lives and writes in Pennsylvania.