Mystery / Suspense
Publication date: Print and ebook, May 2017. Audiobook, November 2019
In this suspense-charged, touching novel, Counting on Trust, information is stolen from a U.S. genetic engineering company (Omniprotein) by an employee promised payment by a Chinese general who wants to profit from selling the company’s technologies in the military region of China he commands.
To force quick payment the thief attacks fellow employees and threatens to continue until his money arrives. Will his next targets be: young lovers, computer geek Gabriel and gorgeous biologist Selena, who are discovering loving sex while trying to overcome post-traumatic effects of Selena’s girlhood rape.
Company president, Eleanor, who’s determined to keep some privacy and intimacy although her job’s high profile and her husband, Charley, has just had prostate cancer surgery.
Venture capitalist, John, who plans to duplicate Omniprotein’s facility in China and reunite with his ex-wife, fashion designer Ziyi, who returned to Shanghai after their only child died.
The personal stories of these couples explore how privacy, intimacy and trust are changing in our social-media age. They paint a compelling portrait of our time.
Interview with Mary Ferguson Powers
For those interested
in exploring the subject or theme of your book, where should they start?
I have several videos that I made and posted on my Counting
on Trust Facebook page in which I explore the main themes of the book and also
talk about the main characters. You can view these at:
How did you become
involved with the subject or theme of your book?
My interest in globalization and its impacts, especially
with regard to China and its relations with the U.S. began when I accompanied
my husband on a trip to China in 1978 with a delegation of faculty members from
the University of Pittsburgh. At that time, Chna was just opening up to the
West.
The idea for a story about corporate intrigue came while my
husband and I were living in Nebraska. There was a lot of research on GMO foods
being done at some of the universities there. We lived on a small lake, and I
decided to invent a copany, Omniprotein, that was doing research on GMO fish.
The theft of this company’s intellectual property by a Chinese general kicks
off all the subsequent action.
What were your goals
and intentions in this book, and how well do you feel you achieved
them?
As its title implies, the book is all about trust. My
intention in writing the book was to use the personal stories of the characters
to explore how privacy, intimacy and trust are changing in our technology
driven society. I believe it draws a
good picture of how easily trust can be broken and how difficult it can be to
restore that trust.
What did you enjoy
most about writing this book?
Creating the dynamics of the 3 love stories was the most
interesting and challenging part of writing the book for me. The couples were
of different ages and this meant different perspectives on love and
relationships, as well as different life concerns / problems. Their stories
then had to be told against the background of corporate intrigue.
How long have you
been writing?
I have been writing for over 15 years, since before my
retirement from faculty life. I published my first novel in 2012.
Can you tell us a
little bit about the characters in Counting
on Trust?
I provide insights into all the main characters and their
back stories on the videos on the Counting on Trust Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/pg/countingontrust/videos/?ref=page_internal
.
About the Author
Themes of novels by M. Ferguson Powers reflect the author’s varied interests, including preservation of the natural world and its creatures;
· Challenges of building and maintaining loving relationships in a culture with decreasing respect for personal boundaries and privacy
· Influences of globalization on world events and how the U. S. and other nations relate to one another
· Public policy issues such as controlling the military-industrial-political complex and requiring the health care industry to be more respectful of its clients
· The need for cooperation across governments, cultures, and societies to address global challenges such as climate change
· Developments in business and university administration and management
Powers has taught microbiology, headed a university office of research, served as executive director of two university-business partnership programs, and co-authored two books on university administration. She has a bachelor of science degree in bacteriology from The Pennsylvania State University, a master’s in experimental psychology from George Mason University, and a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul.
She lives on an island near Seattle with her husband David R. Powers and their two shelties. Her first novel, Each Unique and Fascinating, about a bullied young girl whose father has gone to war, was published in 2012. OrcaSpeak, a novel of relationships and suspense, was published in 2013, and its prequel, Counting on Trust, was published in 2017.
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Audible coming soon
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