Wednesday, May 18, 2022

The Interesting Life of a Retired FBI Agent

The rising prices of gasoline, a pellet that transforms water into gasoline, and an ominous plot to keep the knowledge of and use of the pellets to a select few are the challenges that retired FBI agent Haywood Runyan and his beautiful wife, Lilly, must navigate in Carl Kagerreis’ stunning work of fiction, I Wish I Had Those Gasoline Pellets. Viewed against the backdrop of runaway fuel prices in the US and most places of the globe, the novel is almost too prophetic to be ignored. At the same time, the down-to-earth characterizations of Haywood and Lilly resonate with readers who, at one time or another, spent their lives as ordinary working men and women.

Life After a Stint at the FBI

Haywood Runyan is not the typical FBI retiree. Instead of calmly enjoying the bliss of being put out to pasture, he goes out of his way to look for exciting things to do-the more exotic the concept, the better. He is encouraged to do so by Lilly, his charming wife, who supports him through thick and thin. It leads them to Captain Oley Washington, Jr., a war hero who possesses a mind-blowing and long-held secret that can change the world. For Haywood and Lilly, their involvement with Oley unwittingly turns retirement into endless excitement.

Dealing with Conspiracies and Demagogues

The green pellets that Oley keeps with him turn out to be a revolutionary wonder, a literal philosopher’s stone that converts ordinary water into gasoline in the blink of an eye. For the common man, it is the answer to a prayer. He would not become a slave, anymore, to prohibitive gasoline prices. The discovery, however, attracts the unwarranted attention of demagogues, like King Hassmen Tavio of the Saudi Oil Cartel, who would go to any length to preserve their control of the world’s energy sources. Life has suddenly become more complicated for Oley, Haywood, and Lilly.  

by Carl Kegerreis

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