Books in the Priscilla Trilogy series

This prequel portrays a bright, carefree, and enterprising African American young woman who is almost always getting into a spot of trouble. Priscilla is her name. Called "PJ," "Missy," and "Miss Prissy" by family and close friends, she is self-centered, spoiled, and sheltered; and she hardly ever sees herself the way that others see her. She is also strongly bound to her father-a Methodist minister and consummate politician. And although Priscilla has four other sisters and one brother, her father has raised her differently than the others, especially from the other girls. Less admirable traits are her tendency to push the envelope to the edge and her unpredictability. The story opens when, on a flight to Tallahassee, Florida, Priscilla reminisces about how she ended up in the Ohio Senate. It had been early in August of 1970, and Reverend Austin took Priscilla on her first plane ride. They flew from nearby Buffalo, New York to Charlotte, North Carolina, rented a car, and then drove en route to Salisbury to enroll Priscilla in college. Although Priscilla's mother had wanted her to major in business, and her father had preferred "the noble profession of teaching," Priscilla's interest is in politics! She completed her undergraduate studies, and, early in the winter of 1974, she'd headed off to The Ohio State University. While in graduate school, she acquired an internship with a state senator. They had an affair. And although Priscilla completed the program for a doctorate in political science, she did not write her dissertation. Quite to the surprise of everyone who knew her, she instead joined the faculty at Florida A&M University. Even more surprisingly, after a mere two years on the job, her father asked a huge favor of her, to "relocate closer to home" (Prendergast, New York). But her father did not reveal the reason behind his request. In honoring her father's request, Priscilla contacts the Ohio state senator with whom she'd had an affair. The senator offers her a job as his legislative aide. She accepts. Throughout, the series' prequel takes a deep look at the forces which made Priscilla what she is: her family roots in highly-segregated Mississippi, her upbringing in upstate New York where subtle racism leaves its scars despite her loving father's protection, a campus date rape that leaves her with unhealed wounds and, a scintillating season as a high-powered legislative aide in a life-altering political scandal.

In this, the middle story in the trilogy, Priscilla has resigned her post as the legislative aide in the Ohio Senate and set up a public relations firm. She prefers projects of substance, "earthy," as she calls them, such as the national premiere of the documentary Mandela. She also meets and agrees to marry a minister, something she'd vowed she would never do. Meantime, she continues her relationship with the senator, professionally, such that he is now considered a member of her extended family. Therefore it'd been due to the death of her loving father, Nelson, that Priscilla's family had agreed that the senator might serve as Liza's escort at the wedding. On Priscilla's wedding day, as the senator and Liza reach the foot of the aisle, he seats her. He then turns and, for some unknown reason, extends his hand to the groom. Then something even more unexpected happens, and, too, so fast. At the top of the aisle, someone grabs hold of the stunned bride from behind and covers her face with a cloth containing a substance that renders her unconscious. Then, stealth-like, her abductors hurry away with her to Port Columbus International Airport and, from there, to a villa in the South of France; there, they alter her appearance to resemble a Middle Eastern young man. Then, unbeknown to the heavily-sedated Priscilla, they head off to Harare, Zimbabwe. Armed with the knowledge about her precarious predicament, Priscilla and the men of the clandestine CF unit of the CIA-her protectors-then, also unbeknown to her, head off into enemy territory. For, the CF's mission is to take down the terrorists who killed an American civilian, Priscilla's fiancé, and who attempted to assassinate an American state lawmaker. But there is more to their rationale; one of the members of the CF unit and Priscilla are intimately close. Notwithstanding, Priscilla has little choice but to learn how to fend for herself in places and ways that she never before imagined. For sure, she never envisioned herself in early post-apartheid Zimbabwe and South Africa.

In this the third installment in the Priscilla trilogy, it is time for Priscilla to become the woman she was meant to be.  It is fall, 1987, one year after Priscilla''s time in Africa. She has resumed her PR business in Columbus, Ohio, where she waits and waits for something of substance to come across her desk. Then, one day, she receives a handwritten note that reads: "Interested in spearheading the marketing campaign for the next president?" She does not even recognize the signature. So, she researches the presidential-hopeful.  Priscilla learns that the candidate is a fifth-generation Barbadian American and that his great-great-grandfather had operated a sugar export business in Barbados and eventually came to America, married a former slave, and raised several children. Over time, he''d diversified his import-export business to include banking and printing, thus began his quest for his family''s legacy-the American presidency!  At this point, Priscilla also had resumed her secret affair with her one-time lover, Carlton Elliott Bernhardt. While the couple is away on a visit back to southern Africa-where Priscilla now serves as the CEO of the Bernhardt Foundation for Boarding Schools for Zimbabwean and South African Girls-the subject of the presidential election campaign comes up. However, Priscilla is unaware that CarltonΓÇòa member of the special ops unit that rescued her during her first time in southern AfricaΓÇòhas confided her decision to work on the Hollingsworth Campaign with his CIA colleagues at Langley. Although her work on the campaign is hardly anything to write home about, it is unrelenting and sometimes troublesome. Priscilla is an outsider again, so her mettle is put to the test from the beginning to the end. But at each interval, she shows forth her political acumen, which annoys the campaign manager. Mostly though, like many others who know Priscilla, "There''s just something about her," said the campaign manager, but Priscilla hardly ever sees herself the way that others do. In the climax, an old personal secret comes to light, and Priscilla conducts the PR performance of her life.