Middle Ground

Set in New York and Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Middle Ground combines a fast-paced narrative with powerful insights into human nature

Janice McWright, the first African-American ambassador to Belgium and a champion of open markets for American goods and services, dies mysteriously in a car crash in Brussels, Belgium. At the funeral, Shayna, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, discovers that she is McWright’s adopted daughter.

Shayna heads to war-torn Congo to find her birth mother. She gets help from her friend Amina, and they become entangled in a series of spine-tingling discoveries. In Kinshasa, Shayna learns from the local CIA operative that Janice’s death was no accident. Then Amina falls in love with the wealthy Congolese industrialist, Crispin. He’s intent on overturning the global economic status quo. But an unexpected tie exists between him and Shayna’s natural mother.

As Shayna draws closer to the identity of her mother, the CIA whisks her out of the Congo with Amina, fearing they both may be targets of the man suspected of murdering Janice McWright. The lightning-paced thriller ends with the surprising discovery by the CIA of who killed her.