Professor Dia Fenner is on a sabbatical leave at Duke University studying the best way for retirees to invest their money. There's a personal reason for her work - her mother Ava was fleeced of her retirement savings by an unscrupulous financial adviser. But someone wants to stop Dia - first by stealing her data and then by threatening her life. But who's the culprit - the New York bank CEO, the politically ambitious State Treasurer, the leader of the state's financial advisers, or maybe her new boyfriend? With the help of two bright and loyal Duke students, Dia vows to trap the crook and finish her research. But is too much at stake for her to succeed? Readers will find the answers at the same time they learn about the ins and outs of the investment world.

Dr. Lydia "Dia" Fenner is a newly minted PhD in economics who takes her first job with the U.S. Treasury Department. Her assignment is to design policies to get the economy out of its slump before the next election. But when the policies Dia recommends are implemented, they don't work. Something underhanded is going on that wasn't covered in her Ivy League education.

Dia enters a race against time as she tries to determine who, or what, is trying to sabotage the economy. Along the way she must contend with a vengeful ex-boyfriend, an arrogant boss, an ambitious senator, and a mysterious, yet attractive, colleague. The action spans the halls of power in Washington, D.C., to the rolling hills of rural Virginia as Dia attempts to unravel the plot against the troubled economy.

Will she succeed, or will she too become a target-and a victim?

"Macro Mayhem" supplies the double punch of an entertaining story with insight into how the macroeconomy works. Economics, also known as the "dismal science," has never been as much fun-or as dangerous-as in this fast-paced thriller of financial intrigue.

Wouldn't it be nice to end our dependence on foreign oil, and fuel automobiles with a cheap and abundant energy source? Corith College scientist George Hollaway thinks he's found the answer to this dilemma when he finally succeeds in squeezing fuel from the tenacious kudzu plant.

But when George seeks financial advice for his discovery from newly hired economics professor Dia Fenner, he receives some bad news. He's overlooked some key costs in producing kudzu fuel that make the alternative unprofitable in today's marketplace. Yet powerful forces see kudzu fuel as the ticket to their dreams, including the interim college president and two influential businessmen.

When Dia persists in presenting her economic arguments questioning the fuel, she first finds her job-then her life-in jeopardy. Her house is vandalized, she's attacked, and shadowy figures stalk her. Someone is trying to silence Dia. Will they succeed?