BACKSTORY: In the second book in my spy novel series, “The Secret Lives of Jessie Monroe,” the title, “Who Is Juno Wolfe?”, is a take-off from “Who Is John Galt?”, the opening line of the dystopian Ayn Rand novel from the ’50s, “Atlas Shrugged.” In Ayn Rand’s book, the United States encounters constant business failures and severely decreased productivity. The government has gradually extended its control over businesses by passing ever more stringent regulations that increasingly favor established and stagnant corporations, especially those that have good connections in Washington. Frustrated by the government changes, the experienced, moral business leaders throughout the country had been abandoning their positions. The frantic heroine, Dagny Taggart, is left to try to keep America from failing.

“Who is Juno Wolfe?” was written in 2017, shortly after President Trump was elected. When Trump displayed over-friendliness with Russia and appointed family members and donors to high level positions, I thought, “What could go wrong?” It was from that basis I created the character of “President Randolph White” and created a dystopian view of today’s America.

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THE STORY: In “Who is Juno Wolfe?”, President Randolph White has extended his control over government agencies and services by assigning his relatives and cronies to the highest-level positions, including high-level positions at the Central Intelligence Agency. The new agency heads are inept, without the experience and morals of the leaders they have replaced.

At the beginning of the book, our heroine has left her undercover persona behind and is once again Jessie Monroe, working her regular job as an Intelligence Analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency.

In her satellite data review, she notices strange network attacks apparently being sent against the United States systems from some foreign entity. As she works to identify the source, she encounters ineptitude and sloth has infiltrated the Agency … from the failing computer center and the laziness of employees, to the general lack of leadership. When she tries to raise the alarm about the network attacks from a foreign adversary, her concerns go unheeded, falling on deaf ears. It is clear that the Agency has fallen into disarray.

Jessie must go undercover again as Juno Wolfe, but this time, without Agency sanction. In a hidden government facility in Arizona, she solicits two genius engineers to join her and establishes a remote satellite tracking capability. While she works to track down the foreign network attack, she meets the old Navajo chief and spiritual leader. Juno is introduced to Native American beliefs and discovers an inner strength she didn’t know she had.

During her investigation into the network attacks, Juno finds even more than she bargained for. It is up to Juno Wolfe and her small loyal team, aided by an unlikely band of Freedom Fighters, to bring sanity back to the world.