A Ransom Conspiracy (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781945772931)

David Beckwith is a three-generation native of Greenville, Mississippi, with a BBA and an MBA from Ole Miss. His parents owned an independent cash commodity trading firm which also cleared securities trades through Goodbody & Co. David spent 40 years in the securities business, the first half of his career with Bache & Co. and its successors, the second half with Morgan Stanley. He retired as a Senior Vice President with approximately $500 million in responsibilities. For 25 years he has served as an adjunct professor at five different universities. His first book was a narrative nonfiction work published by the University of Alabama Press in 2009 entitled A New Day In The Delta. The Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters chose it as the runner-up for nonfiction book of the year. The book is often compared to Pat Conroy's The Water Is Wide. David's wife Nancy earned a doctorate in finance and was the largest commercial lender and underwriter for Florida National Bank/1st Union/Wachovia, a member of their President's Club, and a board member. Also she served as the provost of the Brookley Campus for the University of South Alabama. David and Nancy started writing the Will and Betsy Black Adventure Series in 2010. The protagonists of this series are a married couple somewhat reminiscent of Nick and Nora Charles of The Thin Man Series or Jonathan and Jennifer Hart of Hart To Hart. Their unique hook was that like the books' protagonists the authors were also a happily married couple. Moving to Key West, the Beckwiths were tapped to write a book review column for the Key West Citizen which David continues to produce on a weekly basis.