In the early 80's, McLeod left a long career in banking that started in Western Canada, traveled through Montreal, and landed in New York City in 1970. He began writing novels in 2001. The Bratva Maneuver is his tenth. He lives with his wife on Manhattan's Upper West Side, ten blocks north of the famed Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and The Julliard School. He was born in a small village in the province of Alberta. His mother, the daughter of Norwegian immigrant farmers, was born in South Dakota; his father, the son of a Scottish immigrant fur trader, in Athabasca, AB.