THE MCKENNA CONNECTION

Full Name:	Mitch and Polly McKenna
Nationality:	American
Organization:	CIA
Occupation	Agent

Creator:	J. Kinkade
Time Span:	2003 - 2021

ABOUT THE SERIES

Mitch and Polly McKenna are part-time agents with the CIA.

Well, Polly is a former agent with that organization though when we meet this married couple, Mitch has not idea of her previous employment. I did not see what she might have told him she did back when they first met but since Mitch never asks any more about the matter, it must have been both prosaic and reasonable.

Mitch McKenna, we learn right off, was a Marine pilot and loved it up to the time when a flight went wrong and his best friend died and Mitch quit the Marines in grief. As we are introduced to them, they are quietly and not too successfully dealing with the issue and slowly pulling apart. Mitch's current line of work as an airline pilot and the frequent time away from home is definitely not helping in that matter.

That will change once both are given something intriguing to get their minds off their trouble and slowly repair their relationship - all while trying to solve a murder mystery and, as it turns out, not getting themselves killed in the process. Oh, and then there is the little matter of the CIA coming back into the picture.

Mitch will, as the series progresses, decide to take the same training that his wife did years before they met and learn the ropes at Camp Peary same as she. This will bring them back close again and make them a pretty impressive team, one the Agency will find a good deal of use for.

Good Lines:
- Mitch opines regarding the symbiosis of reminiscing and Scotch, "Indulgence in one usually leads to indulgence in the other."

BOOKS

Number of Books:	5
First Appearance:	2003
Last Appearance:	2021


1			The Zero Line Written by J. Kinkade Copyright: 2003 "Deep within the walls of America's oldest inn, a secret document hidden away during the Cold War is about to be unearthed. Mitch and Polly McKenna don't know it yet, but they will soon be embroiled in a decades old drama of espionage and betrayal. After purchasing a historic grandfather clock for their fifth wedding anniversary, Polly becomes obsessed with startling discoveries about their new purchase: a hidden compartment with a peculiar key inside, and an inscription that reads strangely like a murder confession, pointing to a secret crime and a named victim."

2			The Red Bridge Written by J. Kinkade Copyright: 2015 "When CIA counterintelligence analyst Julie St. John unexpectedly quits and heads for Asia, some at the Agency suspect the worst: espionage and betrayal at the highest level. But Julie's godfather, Fulton Graves, doesn't buy the notion and enlists Mitch and Polly McKenna to find Julie and prove her innocence. The McKennas land in Vietnam to get familiar with Julie's origins, since she was adopted during the Vietnam War. But soon after their arrival, mysterious tip-offs indicate Julie is planning to meet with a shadowy Chinese intelligence officer in Hanoi, and the McKennas have the unfortunate task of stopping her before she has the chance."

3			Braving the Straits Written by J. Kinkade Copyright: 2015 "Intelligence agent Marlin Beck knows something so significant, so critical that he simply has to pass it on to the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency for action. There's only one problem: Beck is in no condition to pass anything on to anybody. Waking up in a hospital with a bandage wrapped around his head, the only detail he can recall is that he met with a Cuban defector before everything went blank. And that critical piece of information he so urgently had to give to the Director? It is gone--completely wiped from his memory. But the CIA has a pair of analysts who are more than capbable of figuring out what Beck had uncovered: Mitch and Polly McKenna."

4			The Fifth Bridge Written by J. Kinkade Copyright: 2015 "Join Mitch and Polly McKenna as they travel to Istanbul, Turkey, to help the CIA follow the trail of an international arms dealer who has been making contacts all over Europe and the Middle East and Asia to expand his empire. What makes this mission particularly dangerous for the McKennas is that the arms dealer in question might very well be Milan Vasiljevic, Mitch's old adversary."

5			Kestrel Ascending Written by J. Kinkade Copyright: 2021 "Deep State operatives are determined to create havoc between Christianity and Islam to trigger one final clash they hope will hasten ‘Armageddon’. And with Elliott Brenner and Milan Vasiljevic leading the charge, they’ve never been closer to attaining their sinister ambitions. In their attempt to stop them, the McKennas will face fear, crushing heartache, and shocking revelations. The sole weapons they have to see things through to the bitter end, come what may, are faith and determination."

MY COMMENTS

Wanting to know more about the author and anything else she might have penned, I did an internet search and ended up on her Facebook page where she posted a pithy comment she apparently found somewhere and liked well enough to add it: 'On a positive note, you are now too old to have a midlife crisis'. I sat and pondered that for quite a while.

Then I read another one a bit further down: "Your chances of being killed by a chicken are low ... but never zero".

Why do I mention these two thoughts in the My Comments section of the McKenna Connection page? Well, I think it says a whole lot about the author and what she brings to this series. She may or may not have come up with these herself but having read the McKenna books and these posts, well, I see no jarring differences.

Final words - I really enjoyed the McKennas and hope she will write more.

GRADE

My Grade: A-

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