Berlin, 2005: Will MacIntosh - the Canadian protagonist of James Macnutt's previous, acclaimed, novel On Five Dollars a Day - is now a seasoned lawyer of almost 40 years who has allowed himself a three-month sabbatical in Europe. He intends to indulge his abiding fascination with European history and culture, and perhaps even connect with his own family history. Will's interests are viewed with bemusement by his travelling companion Isaac Menshive, an old university friend who now practises surgery in New York and who views the trip as a welcome excuse to let rip. However, when they learn that Isaac has become the beneficiary of a staggeringly wealthy trust, the two of them determine to discover its origins, all the while aware that they are being followed across Eastern Europe by shadowy figures whose motives they can only guess at...
Moving across Europe from Berlin to Moscow via Poland and Belarus, The Mendelssohn Connection - the first in a trilogy - combines the structure of a travelogue, centred on the ever-bantering odd couple of Will and Isaac, with an impressively researched thriller, which patiently and methodically reveals a constantly growing, web-like conspiracy that threatens to envelop them completely

James W. Macnutt has been a practising lawyer for longer than he cares to remember and is a Queen's Counsel. He has been an active volunteer in numerous community organizations and initiatives. He is married with two children and four grandchildren.
An inveterate traveller for more than 55 years, the author based his first work of fiction, On Five Dollars a Day - published by Austin Macauley in 2017 - on the diary he kept during his first trip to Europe in 1965. His extensive knowledge of the many European countries he has visited since then forms the background for this book, the first in a trilogy of conspiracy thrillers.
In addition to the other books in the trilogy - The Odessa Connection and The 911 Connection, both forthcoming - Austin Macauley published the author's ghost story The Spectre of Stanhope Lane in 2019.