The Professor
Tertia Optio - Belfast
By James O’Dea
Release Date Coming Soon
Meet Colin Reid
To his students, he is a mild-mannered history professor.
To his family, he is a loving husband and father.
To the United States government, he is the Third Option!
For ten years, Colin Reid has lived a perfect lie. Beneath the tweed jacket and the tenure track lies “Tanto” - a deep asset for the Omega program, deployed only when diplomacy fails and military action is politically impossible.
When a terror financier surfaces in Belfast, Colin is given an order he cannot refuse: a termination notice with a lethal deadline. To protect his cover, he must take his wife and children into the kill zone, disguising an assassination as a family holiday.
On the rain slick streets of Northern Ireland, the mission works exactly as designed. A single, ruthless act of sabotage eliminates the target with surgical precision. The world sees an accident. The government calls it a success.
But success comes at a cost more devastating than anyone expected. In the wake of the operation, a man untouched by the blast but gutted by its aftermath begins to see the pattern in the chaos. He does not want justice. He wants annihilation.
James O’Dea delivers a heart-pounding debut thriller where the deadliest weapons is the man you never noticed!
What Readers Are Saying
O’Dea knows his stuff. He has used his background and training to write one of the most authentic spy novels of recent years. He blends academics, spycraft, history, military intelligence and religion to create a multi-layered main character far from the brutal rogue womanizer of the Bond era. His Colin Reid is a complicated man who has compartmentalized his life, hiding the killer inside from those he loves the most. The beast is only unleashed under strict conditions. This time he succeeded in keeping it under control, but what about the next time? What if the family he adores finds out he is the Tertia Optio, the Third Option, the weapon the government saves as a last resort? Worse, what if they are endangered because of him? Stay tuned…..
N. Cline — Dallas, TXA gripping adventure that drew me in from the first page and became more compelling with every chapter. As an Irish American with a personal connection to O’Dea Castle, the Ireland setting made The Professor especially meaningful.
— John O'Day IIIThe Professor: Tertia Optio: Belfast is a genuine thriller—timely, suspenseful, and hard to put down. We live in a dangerous time, and freedom requires vigilance; at times, that vigilance demands government action to protect national security. Tertia Optio places the reader in the role of an observer, watching events unfold in real time from Texas to Washington, D.C., and Northern Ireland. Follow Professor Colin Reid as he moves through ordinary life while sustaining a double identity in plain view of his family and those around him—all in service of America’s security interests. A must-read for anyone seeking greater insight and appreciation for what it takes to keep America safe.
— J. JoergerThe Professor pulled me in quickly and kept me there. The story is intelligent without being difficult to follow, the settings feel remarkably real, and Colin Reid is a refreshing change from the typical larger-than-life action hero.
His strength lies in what he notices, what he knows, and how easily he can disappear into an ordinary setting. More than once, I found myself thinking, ‘Could that actually work?’—and believing that it could.
I would have happily read it straight through in a day if life had not gotten in the way. I’m already excited for Book Two!
MK — Tioga, TX