In Priceless, author and lead counsel Lloyd Constantine relates the dramatic account of backroom strategizing and courtroom conniving during the high-stakes litigation. Constantine, who led the team representing the plaintiffs, vividly describes how the case pitted retailers against credit card companies, and pries the lid off dodgy debit card practices. The plaintiffs, including Wal-Mart, Sears Roebuck, The Limited, Safeway, and a class of five million stores, pitted their financial futures against Visa and Mastercard in this war between giants.

In November 2006, Eliot Spitzer was on top of the political world, having won the New York Governorship by the greatest margin ever—far outdistancing his predecessors Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt. Sixteen months later, in March 2008, Spitzer resigned from the governorship during a brief public appearance, and “Client No. 9” entered our vernacular. It was a story imbued with exquisite irony, and it made news around the world. Journal of the Plague Year is an intimate account of 61 hours, from the moment on March 9, 2008, when Lloyd Constantine, senior advisor to Spitzer, received a phone call from Spitzer revealing facts the entire world would learn the next morning, until Spitzer’s March 12 news conference. It is also an inside account of the 16 tumultuous months of Spitzer’s administration that preceded the resignation.