4.99
what does that mean?
Synopsis
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.
Story Elements
Setting
| Geography: | Nebraska |
|---|---|
| Realism: | Consistent with real world, no magic, no unachieved science |
| Setting Type: | Pastoral (rural & small towns) |
| Time Period: | 2010 - 2019 |
Main Character
| Age: | Adult |
|---|---|
| Gender: | Female |
| Race: | Caucasian European |
| Religion: | Irrelevant |
| Sexual Preference: | Heterosexual |
Styles & Themes
| Humor: | Moments of levity |
|---|---|
| Inspires Reader to Feel: | Romantic |
| Mysteries & Puzzles: | Significant mystery(ies) are core to driving the story |
| Pacing: | Time to savor, deliberate |
| Physical Action: | Minor and occasional action |
| Political/Social Commentary: | Geopolitical factors major theme at an international level |
| Romance: | Major romance, essential to story |
| Genre | Mystery |
|---|---|
| Mysteries & Puzzles: |
|
Reviews
- 1 star
- 2 stars
- 3 stars
- 4 stars
- 5 stars
I've read this excellent novel and am very pleased that an audio version is now available. The voice of Terence Brown gives an exciting new dimension to the story. Well done!
- 1 star
- 2 stars
- 3 stars
- 4 stars
- 5 stars
I now have Google Chrome and Chromecast so I can cast my desktop to my family room TV and watch and listen to anything I play on my computer. With a surround sound audio system on my TV I can crank up the volume so the sound can be heard in any room in the house. I decided that when doing mundane jobs like simple cooking, cleaning, etc. it would be nice to listen to audio-books. I downloaded the audio-book Counting on Trust by M. Ferguson Powers from the Scribl website at www.scribl.com and cast the first chapter (i.e., Part 1) to the TV speaker system. WOW. Talk about a US-China relations plot; Counting on Trust makes the present US-China Trade Wars come alive with excitement. Although Part 1 gives you the feeling you are hearing a story about trust, by Part 3 you realized it is a much more complicated story. The author never lets you rest as she gives you ever-increasing intrigue as the story progresses. Likewise, the narrator does a good job of changing inflection and tone at various times to keep the listener’s ears in tune to the story. One suggestion I would make is that after listening to Part 1 the listener should jump to Part 68 (the book ends with Part 67) and listen to the narrator describe the author’s 1978 trip to China as this will give the listener a greater appreciation of the knowledge the author has about US-China relations and how she fit this knowledge into the story.
- 1 star
- 2 stars
- 3 stars
- 4 stars
- 5 stars
I read Counting on Trust a while ago and enjoyed the book very much. It is certainly relevant today with the challenges we face with China on theft of American technologies, human rights and corruption. The trust factor encompasses governments, lovers, business partners and is complex. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book. I have not had much experience with books on audio, but I decided to try to see the difference between reading and listening to the book; it brought me back to my childhood and the days of radio. The reader did an excellent job of bringing the words off the page and bringing them to life. I was surprised how much I enjoyed the interpretation of the reader and again enjoyed this book in a different format. Kudos to the author and to the reader!!!
- 1 star
- 2 stars
- 3 stars
- 4 stars
- 5 stars
This audiobook offers an extraordinary window into this author’s beautifully plotted storyline with its flawless depiction of intriguing human connections where trust and privacy are profoundly impacted by social media . The author artfully combines intrigue infused with Chinese culture and scientific precision based on her personal expertise in these areas. The book is delightfully narrated to keep the listener thirsting for more. Definitely highly recommended!
About the author
Mary Ferguson Powers
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; and developments in business and university administration and management. Her long novels include suspense stories to help them present moral points of view and masquerade as genre fiction. 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 husband David R. Powers and their two shelties.
