Honey Trap
Honey Trap is an action-packed thriller. Readers will speed through to see inside sinister Hollywood intrigue and down into the depths of gutter journalism.
Foreign correspondent Mike Delano barely escapes from jihadists in Iraq after his savage killing of a sadistic prison guard who beheads his victims. Safely returned to England, he writes a book that captures the attention of Maxwell Rothenberg, the wealthy owner of the most powerful media organization in the world.
Delano's gruesome bestseller leads Lord Rothenberg to hire him as editor of his flagship tabloid newspaper. But the two men become mortal enemies when Rothenberg's daughter Rachel, who should be off-limits to Delano, falls in love with the journalist. Delano falls hard for her, too. The conflict that erupts between the two men will end only when one of them is dead.
Rothenberg separates the lovers by kidnapping his own daughter and firing a disgraced Delano. Driven by revenge, Delano departs for Hollywood. There he lures Rothenberg's movie studio's biggest superstar, Morgan Masterson, into a honey trap, exploiting the actor's depravity in order to destroy Lord Rothenberg.
Delano's sordid revelations wreck Masterson's wanton movie star life, at the same time turning the formerly ethical journalist into a sleazy tabloid writer disgusted by the stench of yellow journalism clinging to his once unblemished career.
Media baron Rothenberg's need to dominate the global audience – and destroy Rachel's love for Delano – leads to his shameful demise. It also triggers death and destruction on the set of a blockbuster movie, the brutal murder of a glamorous top studio executive, and a massacre of Tinseltown glitterati at an Oscars night party.
The players in this violent saga of lust and greed provoke enemies from all sides as Delano struggles to rescue Rachel from her tyrannical father -- after extorting the criminal mogul for millions.
Murderous mayhem plays out on land and sea in the Caribbean, Europe, the Middle East, and South America involving attacks by assassins, terrorists, and drug cartels.
Delano sells his soul to triumph professionally and wed Rachel, but his success brings unexpected heartbreak. Author Tony Brenna brings three decades of international journalistic experience to this superbly-crafted debut novel.
Tony Brenna is a widely experienced journalist who has covered diplomacy, politics, media, crime, and entertainment. He interviewed world leaders at the United Nations, and TV and film stars during a decade in Hollywood. His stories have been broadcast by the BBC and appeared in major British dailies, tabloid newspapers and magazines around the world. Tony's tabloid career was featured in CNN's Emmy-nominated documentary "Scandalous: The Untold Story of the National Enquirer." After living in London, New York, Miami and Los Angeles, he now lives near Seattle with his wife, writer Elena M. Rodriguez.
In his early career, he worked as editor and reporter for local weeklies in Surrey (England) and on London's Fleet Street where he worked as a reporter on national daily and Sunday papers. He rose through the ranks from reporter to executive editor during his time at "World's Press News," the trade journal of the British press. As Deputy Editor of "Creel," the UK's first full color monthly angling magazine, he commissioned and edited articles, as well as handling layout. In New York, he covered the United Nations and US national news for "The Daily Telegraph," the "Daily Mail," and the BBC World Service as an on-air correspondent. His time there included reporting for the "Herald Tribune" and becoming Associate Editor at "Editor & Publisher," the trade journal of the American press, interviewing senior editorial management about the newspaper business. Recruited by the "National Enquirer," he was based at the paper's Florida headquarters where he became a senior reporter, roving editor, and Hollywood correspondent. He moved to Los Angeles where he continued to work for the Enquirer. Later, he was West Coast correspondent for the "Daily Mail." He's contributed news and features to newspapers and magazines in Germany (Gong, Bild), Brazil (O Estado de Sao Paulo), Australia (Woman's Day), the UK (Sun, News of the World, Mail on Sunday, Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror), and the US (Star, Globe, Life & Style). As a weekly columnist, he wrote about Madison Avenue for Britain's Advertiser's Weekly and celebrity news for New Zealand Woman's Weekly, where he also contributed features. With a Canadian psychic, Tony created the world's first "psychic gossip" column that appeared for ten years in the Sunday sections of the Toronto Sun, London Free Press, Ottawa Sun, and others in the Sun group. Tony previously published a biography of Victoria Principal, star of the TV series "Dallas" ("Victoria Principal," St. Martin's Press, 1989). Tony had his own brush with TV fame, appearing on shows such as Hard Copy and Inside Edition when he lived in LA. Recently, he was prominently featured in the Emmy-nominated CNN documentary "Scandalous: The Untold Story of the National Enquirer" (2019).
