By: Gary D. McGugan
Publication Date: December 23, 2025
ISBN: 978-1069280817
Reviewed by: Ephantus Muriuki
Review Date: February 27, 2026
Furtive Retribution by Gary D. McGugan opens in Stonehurst Place Bed and Breakfast where without warning, Suzanne Simpson, the CEO of Multima Corporation and Serge Boisvert, her security chief and partner, are thrown into a rapidly expanding crisis involving murder, crime and corporate conspiracy.
While Suzanne and Serge try to settle into the refined calm of their surroundings, they begin receiving a series of anonymous calls in the night where no one is speaking on the other end. Here, as a reader you begin to feel a tightening in your chest as well as a quiet instinct that something is terribly wrong even before the characters fully accept it. The unease the two feel quickly escalates into a targeted bombing and a desperate flight to safety that shatters any illusion of control they thought they still possessed. In those early pages, as a reader, you don't simply witness danger unfold, rather, you feel the sudden vulnerability of two powerful individuals stripped of certainty in a chilling moment from which the novel begs for an urgent hunt for answers, as well as a careful check of the fragile architecture of the power that holds a global corporation together.
It is with the final mysterious call that the tone of the novel darkens. Both Suzanne and Serge are warned to leave immediately or be finished, in a threat that materializes with shocking speed. They narrowly escape a bomb blast, before heading directly to Montreal for a high-stakes directors' meeting where Suzanne outlines a chain of troubling events including the brutal murder of Gordon Goodfellow, president of her Supermarkets division at Multima Corporation. As she pieces together connections between organized crime and internal vulnerabilities, we see her move from explanation to action by announcing her intention to seek authorization of fifty million dollars to create a special fund for a private investigation into what happened to Gordon. That bold request shifts the narrative beyond reactive survival into what feels like calculated counterattack, to root out what she believes are genuine threats to Multima Corporation’s very survival. Yet from that bold resolve emerges an unsettling truth that she does not fully see. As the investigation widens and loyalties get tested, the question of whether the most dangerous threat advances from the shadows outside or patiently positions itself from inside, gradually arises.
This novel stands out in the way the author weaves high-level corporate maneuvering into moments of genuine danger. He lets every decision ripple outward into the physical world, in a fusion that becomes especially vivid in the characters’ dialogue, which he writes with the same urgency and intensity as the novel’s most explosive scene. The characters emerge as real professionals who have largely been shaped by expertise and experience rather than convenience, especially Suzanne, a compelling female lead whose intellect and resolve anchors the corporation, even when events threaten to spiral beyond control. She does not command attention through force, but rather through clarity and restraint. Serge’s steadiness, largely shaped by his law enforcement past, reinforces the fragile equilibrium between them. But as you interact with him you feel that that balance is not entirely secure, in that it sometimes shifts subtly into tension, particularly in moments when his personal affection for Suzanne begins to blur the sharp lines of professional duty.
Throughout the novel, the author blurs the lines between external predators and internal actors, and as a result, makes the reader constantly re-think who can be trusted and who might be working with hidden motives. This uncertainty reflects the reality of large corporations where authority is sometimes only visible on the surface, yet true control often rests elsewhere. Through that growing sense of suspicion, McGugan invites us to consider whether any institution, no matter how fortified it appears, can truly protect itself from enemies who might already have learned the art of blending in.
Quill says: Furtive Retribution by Gary McGugan is a must-read thriller that keeps the language precise instead of ornamental. It is that restraint that strengthens the credibility of the financial and technological intricacies that are deeply webbed in the narrative. That credibility in turn deepens the impact of every escalation, allowing the danger to feel not only dramatic but convincingly real as though the corporate towers and covert networks that it portrays could exist just within the reader's reach. By carefully binding strategic complexity to emotional consequence, McGugan has crafted a layered narrative in which ambition demands a deeply personal cost. It is precisely this layering that naturally positions the novel as a must-read for those who appreciate intelligent thrillers where international intrigue and corporate drama unfold with equal force.
For more information about Furtive Retribution, please visit the author's website at: garydmcguganbooks.com/
