Original Intent

In Drew Nelson’s debut novel, Original Intent, North Carolina history meets a page-turning thriller. The novel reimagines the Revolutionary-era death of James Wilson, one of the principal authors of the Constitution, and weaves the fictional account of his death into a political plot based in present-day Washington, DC.

Description of the Novel

Judge William Iredell had political enemies. But it was an ally that poisoned him – on the same evening Iredell secured a seat on the United States Supreme Court.

Reluctantly pulled to DC to represent an old friend accused of the Iredell poisoning, attorney Mark Ellis finds himself at the center of an expanding circle of seemingly unrelated crimes. As he’s drawn deeper into the mystery, Ellis follows the trail of Iredell’s murderer into the cold rooms of federal prison, through the shadows of Revolutionary history, and down the marbled halls of Congress, until he is ultimately brought face-to-face with an unsolved murder from his own past.

At the same time, Judge Iredell’s hastily executed poisoning sets the lives of John Baker, a Southern prosecutor, and Noah Augusteel, a uniquely trained clandestine operative, on an unavoidable collision course. Although each man has a compelling reason to distrust the other two, Baker, Augusteel, and Mark Ellis are forced into an uneasy alliance as they pursue William Iredell’s killer.

Drew Nelson is an attorney and author from North Carolina. He was born and raised in Wilmington, along the Carolina coast. Nelson attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as both an undergraduate and a law student. While in law school, he earned a Master of Public Policy degree from Duke University and served as an Executive Editor of the North Carolina Law Review. Original Intent, Drew Nelson's debut novel, combines Revolutionary history with a modern-day, political plot. In addition to writing, he practices law and spends time with his daughter, Laine Nelson, and his wife, Dr. Jennifer Nelson.