Book Review: Critique: The Publisher's Dilemma: A Big City Tale of Privilege, Power & Murder lives up to its title as a sensational crime thriller. The mystery begins with a murderous attack on the executives of a prestigious media company....Unraveling the tangled threads of motives, sordid secrets, greed and corruption is a deadly undertaking, in this edge-of-seat saga of violence and conspiracy. The Publisher's Dilemma is enthusiastically recommended for connoisseurs of the genre! Midwest Book Reviews Harris Simmons, led by the CEO and President team of Gill Harris and his heir apparent Don Alexander, is a world-class company in the midst of an unparalleled period of performance. But behind the scenes there are long simmering tensions that have heated up to a roiling boil. As he begins a transformative change in the company, Alexander hires star executive Kwame Mills. When gunshots ring out, it is Mills who is summoned to the scene of the crime and becomes a central figure in the murder mystery that a contingent of hungry gossip reporters turn into the talk of the city. The police investigation that follows reveals Harris Simmons to be a place with dark secrets, predatory actors and master abusers of power and privilege. Just weeks before the shooting, several burgeoning relationships. One for Kwame with the exotic, Michelle Nubani. Another for Donald, with the beautiful Carrie Sinclair. Kwame's past includes a marriage and divorce with Carrie that has not had the proper closure. Suddenly, with Donald Alexander in a coma fighting for his life, they are forced to think beyond themselves. If Alexander doesn't survive, the next leader of Harris Simmons may be a tyrannical, privileged narcissist. It leads to an overdue reconciliation between Kwame and Carrie, a prayer vigil and a scrupulous plan conceived by chief of Detectives Teddy Walker aided by the ever-present Celebrity Hack Patrol. Walker knows they need to buy time and focus on saving the life of the talented Alexander. He is an eyewitness and critical to finding the shooter and the only executive with the skill and respect of the business world, to save the most powerful media company from falling into the wrong hands. Midwest Book Reviews. "The Publisher's Dilemma: A Big City Tale of Privilege, Power & Murder" lives up to its title as a sensational crime thriller. The mystery begins with a murderous attack on the executives of a prestigious media company, immediately after the company had taken steps toward more racial diversity. Unraveling the tangled threads of motives, sordid secrets, greed and corruption is a deadly undertaking, in this edge-of-seat saga of violence and conspiracy. The Publisher's Dilemma is enthusiastically recommended for connoisseurs of the genre! The story of Harris Simmons is one of power, betrayal, and the fragile nature of a legacy. I wanted to write a thriller that captures the electrical charge of a world-class media company at its peak, only to tear the curtain back and reveal the "dark secrets and long-simmering tensions" that lurk in the boardroom. Having spent my career in the executive suites of Time Warner, CBS, and Gannett , I've seen firsthand how "power and privilege" can be both a tool and a weapon. In this opening chapter: Donald Alexander , the wunderkind president, finds himself silenced in a coma just as he was about to spark a transformative change. - Kwame Mills is thrust into the eye of the storm—not just as an executive, but as a central witness in a murder mystery that the New York gossip rags are desperate to exploit. - The Harris Simmons Empire faces a reckoning as a police investigation unearths predatory actors and "master abusers" who thought they were untouchable. This isn't just a corporate whodunit; it's an exploration of what happens when the "heir apparent" challenges a status quo that is willing to kill to stay in place. When the truth finally comes out, it won't be a whisper—it will be a transformation that changes the landscape of this world forever. If you were in Kwame's shoes, would you protect the company's secrets or burn it all down to find the truth? The fallout from this night echoes through every book that follows, from Black Camelot's Dawn all the way to our 2026 conclusion, Choices . A shooting at the media company of Harris Simmons has left its legendary CEO dead and the company President, theAfrican American wunderkind, Donald Alexander in a coma. Harris Simmons, led by the CEO and President team of Gill Harris and his heir apparent Don Alexander, is a world class company in the midst of an unparalleled period of performance. But behind the scenes there are long simmering tensions that have heated up to a roiling boil. As he begins a transformative change in the company, Alexander hires star executive Kwame Mills. When the gunshots ring out, it is Mills who is summoned to the scene of the crime and as a result becomes a central figure in the mur