This book contains nine stories intended for adults, and set in the recent past depicting the life and times of a typical American diplomat confronting difficult circumstances overseas. The Wheels of Justice is set in El Salvador spanning the period of political turmoil and civil war in the 1980s up through the recent past. Career Conundrum is the story about how a young American Vice Consul serving in Melbourne, Australia during the early 1980s uncovers the truth about the cruel fate in a remote Papua New Guinea village of a promising Australian diplomat. Set in Washington, DC, A Woman of Principle describes the challenges facing American diplomats returning home, and the dramatic impact a chance encounter can have on the lives of their interlocutors. Saving Tommy Hacker is an account of life in the remote Sinai Desert during the late 1980s as experienced by members of the Multinational Force & Observers, the international organization created to implement the Camp David Treaty between Egypt and Israel. The setting switches to the Caribbean for Dominican Dilemma, the story of the trials and tribulations facing a newlywed Consular Officer working the visa line at the Embassy in Santo Domingo. Lost in the Caucasus is a love story, which takes place in Azerbaijan, formerly part of the Soviet Union, but an independent country since 1990. The life and times of American Embassy staff in Iraq’s Green Zone is described in Baghdad Goodbye. Saudi Arabia is the setting for The Magic Spell, a story touching on the Special Relationship between British and American diplomats, and the gulf between expatriates and the local population. Purloined Paper in the Land of Lenin takes place in Eastern Ukraine in 2014 in the context of the ongoing conflict between Russian Separatists and the Ukrainian military, as seen form the vantage point of an American working for the Organization For Security and Cooperation in Europe. These stories are intended to entertain the reader, while imparting an accurate sense of expatriate life overseas in an occasionally hostile world, on the edge of American influence.