BARGAINED FOR EXCHANGE

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"Edge of your seat", "can't put down" international legal thriller with frighteningly strong parallels to today's terrorist situation - though written long before 9/11. Its multiple plot lines, alternating between a southern U.S. college campus, a Middle Eastern terrorist organization infiltrating the same college campus, and deadly events on the other side of the world, result in a fast-paced story line in the style of Tom Clancy and Stephen Coonts. Central character John Cann's principled disagreement with the President of the United States results in his exile of sorts to a small southern law school expecting nothing more than a year's sabbatical as visiting scholar in a bucolic and thoughtful environment. Not only does he find that academia is not the bastion of tolerance and reason that it works so hard to portray itself as, but his own past and present come into play as events cross the Atlantic and span the world only to come back to roost in a spiral of intrigue, terrorism, mystery, and violence that affect both the very innocent and the very guilty. Macomber's character development is particularly memorable. Cann's calm and stoic exterior in one set of circumstances becomes compassionate and caring in another. His relationship with young student, Janie Reston, can bring the reader to tears. Macomber's intricately woven plot lines, along with his memorable characterizations, leave the reader demanding more. Bargained for Exchange is a must read set apart by its intelligent and articulate hero who is not your average tough guy and characters so real you feel them - for good or ill.

About the Author

Born and raised in New England and now living in Florida with his wife Sandy, James Macomber is a former serviceman, college student, bartender, waiter, salesman, tennis instructor, actor, photographer and practicing attorney. He is the author of international legal thrillers featuring former Special Forces/NSA/CIA operator, now lawyer, John Cann — whom Booklist described as a “strong, multi-layered protagonist with the star power to keep this series going for a very long time”. But Macomber's novels are about more than just Cann. They feature an ensemble cast of memorable characters centering on the 'players' at a Washington DC international law firm with very close ties to the intelligence community. Notable among them is Katherine Price, also a lawyer with a past, hers in counter-terror at the Department of Justice and the State Department.

In novels that reflect and often predict actual events, “Bargained for Exchange” dealt with terrorists in academia, “Art & Part”, assassinations in the Netherlands during the trial of the Pan Am 103 Lockerbie bombers, and “A Grave Breach”, with atrocities, international organized crime and human trafficking against the backdrop of the Bosnian war crimes trials. It was in “A Grave Breach”, that the character of Katherine Price was introduced and she became, in fact, the hero of the novel. By popular demand, she and John got together in the fourth Macomber novel, “Sovereign Order” where they attend the Monaco Grand Prix and risk losing everything to a horrifying WMD attack on the “crown jewel of formula Grand Prix racing”.

And soon to come is “Extraordinary Rendition” which introduces former Air Force para-rescue Jake Priestly who must battle enemies foreign and domestic, human and otherwise to save a judge whose disappearance threatens the balance of the United States Supreme Court.