The 4th of July 1826. As Thomas Jefferson lies dying, he gives his part of his Jefferson Cipher to Edgar Allen Poe, with instructions to take the disks to West Point. In Massachusetts, John Adams entrusts his part of the Cipher to Colonel Thayer, the superintendent of the Military Academy. As Thayer rides away, Adams utters his final words: “Thomas Jefferson survives.” In the present, Green Beret Paul Ducharme has been recalled from Afghanistan after the ‘accidental’ death of his best friend, the son of one of the Philosophers. While Ducharme is visiting his friend’s gravesite in Arlington, an old man is executed by a member from the Society of Cincinnati know as the Surgeon, who is seeking to gather all the pieces of the cipher. In a nearby restaurant, former CIA and now Curator at Monticello, Evie Tolliver, waits anxiously for her mentor to arrive, but he’s killed by the same assassin at the Zero Milestone. His heart and the Philosopher’s head are displayed as a grisly message on top of the stone, echoing Jefferson’s famous head-heart letter. Ducharme and Tolliver, the unknowing heirs to become the next generation of caretakers of the Jefferson Allegiance, team up and must battle the Surgeon to assemble the Cipher and find the Jefferson Allegiance, a document that has kept the balance of power in the United States for over two centuries. The story is a race back through history and the founding of the country. This is the first book in a new series: The Presidential Thrillers, each novel based on a historical puzzle left behind by a President. The Kennedy Endeavor will be released in summer 2012.

Book II in The Nationally Bestselling Presidential Series by West Point Graduate, former Green Beret and NY Times Bestselling Author Bob Mayer. Reference Mayer’s Thrillers “Mayer had me hooked from the very first page.” Stephen Coonts “Exciting and authentic. Don’t miss this one!” W.E.B. Griffen What is the Sword of Damocles that President Kennedy and Premier Khrushchev developed in secret during the dark days of the Cuban Missile Crisis? For 13 days in October 1963 the world came the closest to nuclear Armageddon. On 22 November 1963, President Kennedy was assassinated. On the 25th of November, as Kennedy’s body lay in state at the Rotunda in Washington, Anastas Mikyoan, Khrushchev’s top adviser, presented the Premier’s condolences to Jacqueline Kennedy. She took Mikoyan’s hand in both hers and told him: “I am sure that Chairman Khrushchev and my husband could have been successful in the search for peace, and they were really striving for that. Now the Chairman must continue the agreed upon endeavor and bring it to completion.” On 12 October 1964, a Washington socialite named Mary Meyer was shot in the back of the head and through the heart at point-blank range. She had been married to a high-ranking CIA agent. More importantly, she had been carrying on an affair with President John F. Kennedy and was one of his most trusted friends, at his side through the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Mary Meyer kept a secret diary. On 13 October 1964, the day after Mary Meyer’s murder, the Soviet Politburo forced Nikita Khrushchev to resign from power and put him under house arrest. What was in Mary Meyer’s diary that caused her murder and Khrushchev’s resignation? Why is it even more important today to find and decrypt it? Today, in the foothills of Mount Ararat an operative makes a chilling discovery: six Jupiter Missiles dating back to the Cuban Missile Crisis. But only three of the nuclear warheads are present. Where are the other three? Paul Ducharme and Evie Tolliver unveil a Fail Safe type scenario brokered by President Kennedy and Premier Khrushchev and race against time before the archaic Sword of Damocles initiates World War III.