Marc La Ferrière served for thirty years as an Intelligence Officer where he worked on a variety of counterintelligence and counterterrorism investigations, as well as a myriad of other national security tasks including, training new officers, and internal security matters.

Follow the continuing journey of Zack Power in Dormant Fury. What about the happens when the hunter becomes the hunted? The same elite skills are used, but in a different and more manner rigorous. How does one stay hidden when the best in the world are hunting you down? Can one survive indefinitely? You will find out in this riveting thriller, where psychological challenges and tragedy turn Power once again into a furious man on a mission.

Marc La Ferrière is also author the author of ESCALATING FURY (2025) and the autobiography, D’ICI À LÀ, which was released in 2024.

Review:

Don’t judge a book by its cover!

This age-old saying has relevancy in a lot of spheres ranging from fashion, appearance to literature.  There are variations of this phrase going back into the mid-1800s and it is still as relevant today as it was way back then.

 I first was introduced to Marc La Ferriere’s first book, Escalating Fury, when I was asked to review his second novel, Dormant Fury, which was released in late August 2026.  I chuckled as I saw the preview of the cover  - hence the title of this review.  Not sure I would have picked up the second book based on the cover alone. 

 I proceeded to read Escalating Fury first as Dormant Fury is a continuation of the first book.  I could not put it down and waited impatiently for the launch of the Book 2.  Marc uses his professional experience well by having a plot with twists and turns as real life intelligence work usually unfolds.  Plans are made; ops are outlined but there usually is a twist when one least expects it.  Marc keeps the reader interested by sticking to the story line, with very little “filler”.  A lot of novels are filled with filler content, nice to read, but it adds nothing to the plot line. 

 Zack Power, the main character, is determined to survive, using his skills learned on-the-job as an intelligence operative, first for a British agency, then for a private organization, ZENITH, whose role is not clearly defined.  This adds to the intrigue, who does he really work for, who is responsible for making operational decisions that determine which terrorists, criminals, intelligence agents ZENITH goes after.

  In Dormant Fury, Zack Power has left ZENITH for personal reasons, is living on a remote island, trying to survive.  By suddenly leaving the organization his life is now in danger.  The love of his life, another ZENITH operative, who too has left the organization, finds him and they reconnect, but not for long. 

 Zack’s operational skills, knowledge of the intelligence community and his past contacts all come into play as he goes after those who made the decision to make his personal life a nightmare.  As I was reading my mind was seeing a film evolving.  It just needs book 3,  Resurging Fury to complete the script.

 In the preface to Dormant Fury Marc writes, “This is a story about choice and consequences, about what it means to step out of a system designed to be inescapable, and the cost of staying gone once you do.”  One can equate this to retiring from a world of intelligence work and trying to assimilate into an environment of normalcy, if there is such an entity.

 Dormant Fury is a fast read, an intriguing one as the twists and turns are not predictable.  Just get past the cover!

 Iwona Mooney

CSIS, Retired

Available at: https://librairielouisfrechette.ca/fr/Produit-41263-Dormant-Fury-Neuf-Format-Regulier-Anglais

Author:by Phil Gurski (Author), Lauren A. Anderson (Foreword), Dr. John Gilmour (Preface)

Author: Phil Gurski

Canadians are taught to remember the War of 1812 as the defining moment when our territory was threatened from the south. Far less well known is a second, very real challenge to Canada’s security that unfolded only decades later—after Confederation—when Irish-American militants launched a series of cross-border raids in an attempt to pressure Britain into granting independence to Ireland.

Between 1866 and 1871, members of the Fenian movement—many of them veterans of the American Civil War—believed they could seize Canadian towns, transportation routes, and strategic sites, and use occupied Canadian territory as leverage against the British government. While the raids ultimately failed, the threat they posed was taken seriously by Canada’s newly formed federal government and by communities along the border, particularly in eastern Ontario.

Drawing on local reactions, government responses in Ottawa, and the experiences of small towns and rural settlements suddenly placed on the front line, Phil Gurski explores how the Fenian threat exposed the vulnerabilities of a young country and helped shape Canada’s early approach to defence, security, and sovereignty. By examining how Canadians understood—and responded to—this unconventional and politically motivated campaign, this book reveals a largely forgotten episode that contributed to the development of Canadian nationalism and the foundations of Canada’s modern national security system.

Author: Marc La Ferrière

An espionnage/terrorism/erotism novel, inspired by actual events, and written by a real spy.

HUMINT, Intelligence, National Security - Daniel Stanton 

Author: Dan Stanton

Dan Stanton's upcoming book A Spy’s Perspective on Combating Foreign Interference will be a nonfiction account of Mr. Stanton’s career as an intelligence officer, from his training in the early days of CSIS to his decision to go public with concerns about foreign interference in 2023. Publication is expected for fall 2026.

University of Toronto Press’s Daniel Quinlan has acquired world rights to Dan Stanton’s Seesoid: A Spy’s Perspective on Combating Foreign Interference for the Aevo imprint. The deal was arranged by Jake Babad at Westwood Creative Artists.

Author: Marc La Ferrière

La vie et le parcours d'un agent des services secrets canadiens.

National security expert Dennis Molinaro reveals the shocking details of Beijing’s five-decades-long effort to influence and interfere in Canadian political life. From cultivating future political leaders at the end of the Cultural Revolution to the foreign-interference scandals that have shaken present-day Ottawa, this definitive book addresses one of the most urgent issues of our time.

Amidst heightened tensions between Western nations and China, Canadians have found themselves astonished by hostage crises, cyberattacks, harassment of members of our government, and theft of intellectual property worth untold billions of dollars. Guided by Molinaro’s experience as a historian and China specialist, Under Assault focuses on the actions of the People’s Republic of China’s government and its governing party, the Chinese Communist Party, against Canada during the past fifty years.

From Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s earliest journeys through the “Middle Kingdom” prior to his election to Parliament in the 1960s, the communist government of the PRC has perceived Canada as a staging ground for spying on and pressuring its ultimate target, the United States. When Canada’s first tech giant, Nortel, was plundered of intellectual property by digital spies; while Canada was manipulated into advocating against the independence of Taiwan; and as Chinese Canadians were targeted in the country where they thought they’d escaped Mao’s terrors, Canada’s leaders have too often seen only what they want to see in China: an emerging market of inestimable value and fertile soil for democratic change for a long-tyrannized people. Generations of Communist leadership have gladly allowed Canada’s government to labour under these misapprehensions, even when the evidence of China’s spying, theft and harassment of Canadian citizens has been happening right before its eyes. Canada has rarely allowed itself to believe what the rest of the world has long understood.

Informed by numerous interviews with generations of Canadian politicians, diplomats and bureaucrats; members of diaspora communities targeted by China who have endured this harassment for too long; as well as by new revelations from recently declassified CSIS documents, Under Assault is a timely, eye-opening account of a country compromised by its own illusions in a time of rising global conflict and a burgeoning new world order. 

Author: Phil Gurski

The Threat From Within examines what drives Al Qaeda-inspired radicalization to violence, how to detect it, and how to confront it. The chapters discuss behaviors and ideologies that are observable and tangible in radicalized individuals or those on the path to violent radicalization. These behaviors are drawn from a variety of cases, such as planning acts of terrorism, traveling to join terrorist groups, or participating in violent jihadi conflict outside the country. The main case study is Canada, and each chapter features many examples that range from Ted Kaczynski (the "Unabomber") and Anders Brevik in Norway to Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Damian Clairmont, a Canadian citizen who died fighting in Syria. The text begins by introducing general concepts, such as terrorism, extremism, and radicalization, before presenting contributing factors to those embracing political violence. A comprehensive list of behavioral indicators that someone is becoming a violent extremist is provided, followed by a look at what is being done to confront this threat as well as what could be done.

Author: Donald Mahar

Yevgeni Vladimirovich Brik and James Douglas Finley Morrison were central figures in what was considered one of the most important Cold War operations in the West at the time. Their story, which involves espionage, intelligence tradecraft, intelligence service penetrations, double agent scenarios, and betrayal, is a piece of Cold War intelligence history that has never been fully told. Yevgeni Brik was a KGB deep cover illegal who had been dispatched to Canada in 1951. He settled in Verdun, Quebec. He eventually became the KGB Illegal Resident where he had responsibility for running a number of agents, one of whom was working on the CF-105, Avro Arrow. In 1953, he fell in love with a married Canadian woman to whom he revealed his true identity. She persuaded him to turn himself in, which resulted in his becoming a double agent, working for Canada. He was later betrayed by a Royal Canadian Mounted Police Officer, James Morrison, who sought money from the KGB to pay his debts. Brik was consequently lured back to Moscow in 1955, where he was arrested, and interrogated. Convicted of treason, a traitor's fate awaited him, predictable, grim and final. Incredibly, he reappeared at a British Embassy as an old man in 1992, seeking Canada's help. He was exfiltrated by a joint Canadian / British intelligence team which was headed by Donald Mahar. He was debriefed by Mahar for several months when they returned to Canada.

Russian Spies in Canada : A Tale of Two Traitors - The Fifth Estate - YouTube

Author: Phil Gurski

A number of recent terrorist attacks were committed by young men and women who had radicalized, went to train with IS in the Middle East, then returned to their home country to commit acts of violence. In this text, Phil Gurski examines why some people decide to abandon their homeland to join terrorist groups, and whether they pose a significant threat to their societies if they survive and return. The focus is on Canadians and other Westerners who see violent Jihad as divine obligation, with the intention to challenge the view that foreign fighters are all brainwashed. The book first looks at state motivation for resorting to conflict and the nature of war, including Jihad. It then discusses why Westerners volunteered to join the military in past wars to offer points of comparison before focusing on why some are now going to Iraq and Syria to fight along groups such as Islamic State. This includes a thorough discussion of the increasing participation of women and the debates among extremists on whether they can engage in warfare. Lastly, the threat posed by radicalized fighters when they return home after either training or waging war abroad is examined in detail along with what is done to prevent and counter it. Written in an accessible manner by a reputed expert on terrorism and radicalization, the text will appeal to anyone seeking to understand why people join terrorist groups and the threats they represent to their homeland.