Guest Post & #Giveaway: The Midas Touch by Gary Grossman, Oren Aviv, & Charles Segars
- Archaeolibrarian
- 7 hours ago
- 6 min read
Book Details:
Genre: Suspense, Mystery, History Fiction, Globe-Hopping Intrigue
Published by: Fayetteville Mafia Press
Publication Date: June 2, 2026
Number of Pages: 334
ISBN: 9781949024999 (ISBN10: 1949024997)
@AuthorGaryGrossman @partnersincrimevbt
@garygrossman1 @partnersincrimevbt
THE MIDAS TOUCH A new novel by GARY GROSSMAN, CHARLES SEGARS, OREN AVIV
National Treasure meets Jack Ryan in this heart-pounding thriller. A maverick puzzle-solving CIA officer. An ancient secret that could obliterate the world order and redraw the balance of power. A worldwide treasure hunt with no rules.
Brady Donovan keeps America alive. His day job? CIA Cryptographer―connecting the dots to top-secret international plots before they happen. But when he discovers the savage murder of his mentor . . . everything changes. Donovan is thrust from the safety of his protected CIA office into the real world for the first time, overmatched and unprepared. He has no survival skills―except one: His razor-sharp ability to piece together deadly puzzles from clues that seem to have no connections. Forging a desperate alliance with British hieroglyphics expert Teppy Flynn, they plunge into a mystery that has claimed lives for thousands of years: the relentless quest for the legendary Alchemist Gold Formula― the promise to transform ordinary metal into pure gold. Now, closing in on the ultimate prize, they're trapped in a race against rival governments, deadly mercenaries, private armies and unscrupulous billionaires who will stop at nothing to get it. Only Donovan and Flynn stand between humanity and economic oblivion, unless they can solve the puzzle of the ages first.
THE MIDAS TOUCH hurls readers through a gauntlet of relentless danger and spine-tingling suspense across all four corners of the globe. Missing portions of the Rosetta Stone in Egypt. Pirate Jean Lafitte's buried treasures in Texas and the Caribbean. The London Museum’s hidden passageways and antiquities. New Orleans' murder-haunted French Quarter. Napoleon's final island prison where madness still festers. Mountain-sized caves beneath the Louisiana Bayou. And ancient secrets buried with the bones of the dead - leading to the CIA’s most impenetrable classified vaults deep inside Langley.
From Oren Aviv & Charles Segars, the creators of the popular NATIONAL TREASURE film series, and award-winning, best-selling international thriller author Gary Grossman.
Bookshop.org | StoryGraph | Goodreads | Smashbomb | BookBub
Be Careful What You Leave on your Desk!
I’ll start this post by noting what you’re about to read is the absolute truth. There’s a lesson in it for other novelists and a terrific story that I love sharing about when I was writing my first thriller, EXECUTIVE ACTIONS, and the care that I learned about researching.
Considering the deep that went into researching THE MIDAS TOUCH with my co-authors Charles Segars and Oren Aviv, creators and executive producers of the National Treasure movies, it was a lesson well-learned.
Here’s how the story goes. I began writing my first novel without anyone in my family knowing. It wasn’t difficult. Everyone was used to me sitting down at the computer at the end of the evening. The kids were in bed or getting ready for bed, and my wife didn’t give it a second thought.
That went well for a few months until Helene cornered me at the front door when I came from my TV production office. She had a stack of papers in her hands.
“Gary . . . ” (Gary, not Honey) “. . . do we have a problem?”
I didn’t know what she was talking about, but the papers looked like they had something to do with the we problem.
“Problem? What problem?” I asked.
We had barely made it through the entrance when she put the papers onto a table.
“These!”
Maybe put isn’t the right word. Put doesn’t make the noise that slam does.
I leafed through a few pages and simply smiled. “Oh those.”
Under the circumstances, the smile didn’t immediately work.
“Yes, thoseI” I replied.
Helene had found research for the still unnamed book that I’d inadvertently left on the desk. While I’d gotten away without telling anyone about the novel, I hadn’t covered my tracks.
“Those.”
“Yes, those,” she repeated deadly seriously.
I guess if things were reversed, I might have had a similar reaction.
“Right, those.”
I looked at her. I’m taller, but she held the high ground.
“Gary, what are all these printouts about? Poisons that can be masked as other substances and go pretty much undetected. Sniper rifles good for hundreds of yards.” She paused. “Are you planning on—“
“No, no, no,” I interrupted. “No. Definitely, no. I’m . . . I’m writing a novel. A thriller.”
With an expression that only said to me, Sure you are, I held up my index finger.
“Wait.” I walked us into my office room off the entrance, quickly sat, turned to the computer screen, and opened my manuscript.
I typed “poisons” in the find box and the document flew to the scene page. The word was there in context with an assassin and a fisherman. Definitely not me. Not her.
Then I raced to find the sniper rifle and after that other means a skilled assign would . . .
Well, I’m happy to report that the Times New Roman 12-pt font quickly exonerated me and completely relieved her.
“So, you’re not trying to kill me?”
“No, Honey.” This time I went for Honey.
“No poisons? No guns?”
“No poisons. No guns. No drownings. No explosions. No shootings.” (Some of the other deadly scenes in the novel.)
In a matter of seconds, we went from – my wife thought I was trying to off her – to, “When can I read it?”
“Later. I promise. Later.”
I can only imagine if she’d skipped the conversation and called 911! Now that would make a great scene in a thriller!
Helene’s reading THE MIDAS TOUCH now, so far, without worry. But if anything comes up, I suppose I can hide behind my two excellent collaborators. It was their idea!
Gary Grossman is also the author of the Executive aCTIONS series, OLD EARTH, his collaboration with Ed Fuller on the RED HOTEL series, and two non-fiction books on television history, SUPERMAN SERIAL TO CERAL and SATURDAY MORNING TV.
He can be reached through www.GaryGrossmanBooks.com
THE MIDAS TOUCH is written by international award-winning thriller writer Gary Grossman (OLD EARTH, the EXECUTIVE ACTIONS and RED HOTEL series) with Charles Segars and Oren Aviv, the creators and executive producers of the exciting and popular Nicholas Cage NATIONAL TREASURE movie franchise.
Catch Up With Gary Grossman:
CHARLES SEGARS has served as a senior executive at Viacom, CBS, The Walt Disney Company, DreamWorks Pictures, and DreamWorks Animation. Segars is also known as Creator and Executive Producer of the Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures hit movie franchise, National Treasure and National Treasure: Book of Secrets.
Currently, Segars enjoys a dual role as CEO of Ovation TV, the only multi-platform program service dedicated to the Arts and as President of Segars Media.
Segars is a respected global safety and security analyst. He advises a number of national security-related technology startups and is actively involved in governmental affairs.He has served as a White House Associate as an Advance Team leader for the Office of the President and Vice President of the United States of America, leading a number of secretive domestic and international trips.
OREN AVIV ran Disney Studios from 2006-2010, after heading Disney Marketing for eight years. He became Disney’s first Chief Content Officer, and after leaving Disney he became CMO for 20th Century Fox Studios. In addition to executive producing a dozen films, he also co-created and was Executive Producer of Disney’s National Treasure film franchise.
Aviv was named “Marketer of the Year” three separate times by Advertising Age Magazine. He created breakthrough campaigns for the studio’s NARNIA, STEP UP, Pirates of the Caribbean, and the National Treasure franchises, and launched memorable campaigns for many of Pixar’s animated hits, including Finding Nemo, Monsters, Inc., The Incredibles and Cars. He also launched blockbusters such as The Sixth Sense; Pearl Harbor; Ransom; The Rock; Signs; The Waterboy; Armageddon; Unbreakable; 101 Dalmatians; Con Air; Crimson Tide; Freaky Friday; and Father of the Bride, as well as hundreds of other films under the Disney, Touchstone and Hollywood Pictures banners. As CMO at 20th Century Fox, Aviv created the campaigns for Rise of the Planet of the Apes; X-Men: First Class; Ridley Scott’s Prometheus; The Wolverine starring Hugh Jackman; and Ang Lee’s Oscar-winning Life of Pi.
As head of production at Disney, Aviv was responsible for greenlighting such hits as THE PROPOSAL starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds; Tim Burton’s billion-dollar-grossing Alice in Wonderland; Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End; National Treasure: Book of Secrets; and the Amy Adams musical-comedy Enchanted.
Tour hosted by: Partners in Crime Tours
Ha! This was a great guest post! Whew, I'm glad you switched to "Honey" LOL.
I'm sure she will love the book.