High Crimes And Low Stakes

About the Book

The professors at the American University of the Southern Balkans, AUSB, have become lazy, complacent and resistant to change, so when a new reforming departmental chair is appointed with a brief to shake them up, they mount a witch hunt to have him fired. At the same time the US president is trying to push forward a plan to replace all NATO airbases with stations of unmanned ‘drones’ capable of carrying nuclear weapons. He decides to sell the plan secretly and the first country to be approached is the small country in Southeast Europe where AUSB is located. An election is due and the pro-western prime minister must win if the plan is to succeed. The CIA agent who fixes the election is also the provost of the American university. Two political threads - the high crimes of government and the low stakes bitter politics of the university common room - are interwoven in this satire of intrigue, double-dealing and political corruption.

About the Author

Chris Payne spent his working life as a university professor of computing. At the age of 70 he decided to leave cold, grey England to start a new life with his Filipina wife in her country, The Philippines. He believes that it is never to late to change one’s life and set out on a new adventure. In his new home, Lipa City, he has also started a new career as a writer of novels. He believes that life is a very often a comedy and his writing style is intended to amuse and entertain.