Banjo Lessons (Paperback)

Sam Stone, an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Birmingham, Alabama, gives banjo lessons to a promising Gates scholar as Sam undergoes a bitter divorce with his second wife and boss, Linda Lott. Meanwhile, Sam’s ex-wife, Regina Jones Oliveira, a direct descendant of the former Confederate families from Americana, Brazil, wants Sam back and launches an international plan of action to get what she wants. The story carries the reader on a legal expedition to the former Panama Canal Zone, modern Panama, the Cayman Islands, and Switzerland. Against this background, Sam and his talented Labrador retriever, Holmes, take on some very clever Vietnam era veterans with foreign accounts and rich real estate holdings. These crooks hold a huge advantage. They have a federal judge on their side.

Jack B. Hood was born in Clarkesville, Habersham County, Georgia, in 1948. He graduated from Jordan Vocational High School in Columbus, Georgia, in 1966. From the University of Georgia, he received an A.B. degree in 1969 and a J.D. degree in 1971. He received a Diploma in International Law in 1972 from the University of Cambridge (Darwin College). He has been a JAG Captain in the USAF, a law professor, and a private practitioner. He worked as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Middle District of Georgia and presently works as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Northern District of Alabama. He is a member of the Alabama, District of Columbia, Georgia, and former Canal Zone bars. He is also a former member of the Tennessee bar. He is the author and co-author of several books, primarily legal texts, with five books currently published by Thomson Reuters/West and West Academic. They are: Workers' Compensation and Employee Protection Laws in a Nutshell, 6th Edition, (West Academic Publishing 2016); Alabama Criminal Trial Practice Forms, 4th Edition (Thomson Reuters 2016) (part of the Alabama Practice Series); Alabama Pleading, Practice, and Legal Forms, 3rd Edition (Thomson Reuters 2003) (also yearly supplements through 2016) (part of the Alabama Practice Series); Alabama Workers' Compensation, With Forms, 5th Edition, (Thomson Reuters 2010) (also yearly supplements through 2016) (part of the Alabama Practice Series); and Georgia Workers' Compensation Claims, With Forms, 2016-2017 Edition (Thomson Reuters 2010). These books are also on Westlaw with their own database identifiers. His first novel, Banjo Lessons, published in 2004, introduced Sam Stone. Sam's adventures continued in Banjo Playing (2008), Banjo Method (2010), Banjo Songs (2012), Banjo Jihad-A Contest of Wills (2013), and Banjo Gung-Ho-Harmony Workings (2014). Look on YouTube for Jack's selected banjo performances demonstrating some of the tunes referenced in the Sam Stone novels.