Robert Bailey Comes Home
The author’s new legal thriller The Mediator serves as a homecoming to Huntsville, Alabama.
Known for his riveting courtroom dramas and legal thrillers, bestselling author Robert Bailey is back with a new perspective in the realm of the law—mediation. The Mediator follows Max Ringo, a lawyer stripped of her former life after an accident catapults her into addiction. In an attempt to rebuild herself, Max returns to the legal field as a mediator and is thrown into a divorce case of one of the most powerful families in Huntsville, Alabama. Through a cutthroat three days, Max must negotiate the case that quickly turns personal when her son is kidnapped by one of the parties.
Robert Bailey is the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Boomerang, the “Jason Rich” series, the McMurtrie and Drake legal thrillers, the “Bocephus Haynes” series and The Golfer’s Carol. He is also a mediator and former civil defense trial lawyer in Huntsville, where he resides with his wife, kids and beloved menagerie of pets. Haley Roberts spoke with Bailey about the debut of the “Max Ringo” series and his exploration of a different side of the legal field.
Haley Roberts: This is your first book set in your hometown of Huntsville, Alabama. Why did you decide to bring this book to your home?
Robert Bailey: I wanted to set the book around a mediation that would involve some high stakes, and I felt like Huntsville’s setting with its missile defense background, Redstone Arsenal, and the government contracting world is one of big numbers and big business. I think Huntsville national flies under the radar a little bit in terms of just how important it is to that world.
The best part of fiction is making stuff up, so I was able to think of this situation that would involve the divorce of two big power players in the city—one being a government contracting CEO and the other being the matriarch of one of the big families of Huntsville. Max Ringo is in the middle of that as the mediator trying to settle the case, and the husband has to settle the case on his terms so that he doesn’t lose a billion-dollar merger.
I felt like the setup of Max having to settle the case under ridiculously impossible stakes really set up well for Huntsville since the city is such a neat combination of so many fun factors that are great for fiction. You have all of the technology and the space program and the missile defense part of it, but you can drive 10 miles away and be in New Market or Hazel Green in rural Alabama. I’ve covered places like these before in my books, but I just thought having a book set in Huntsville, particularly within this three-day timeframe, would be perfect. I’ve always wanted to come home in my books, so writing a story that’s personal to a place I know really well amped up the juices for me.
HR: Your past legal thrillers focus on other legal and political positions, namely attorneys. Why did you decide to focus this book on a mediator?
RB: Mediation has become a really big part of civil litigation both in any type of contract or personal injury case and in divorce cases, because it’s an opportunity for the parties to settle the case with a neutral mediator. I would say the majority of cases now end in mediation as opposed to trial—it’s become kind of the big event in a case. I just had not seen it covered in commercial fiction before. There’s that funny scene in the beginning of “Wedding Crashers” [the movie] where the two divorce mediators are trying to help the parties settle a case, but that was for humor. In my world of writing legal thrillers, I just hadn’t seen it examined and thought it would be interesting to do it.
It’s something I do now. I don’t practice law anymore, but I do mediate cases. It was definitely a case of art imitating life a little bit, which made it fun. I feel like I do that every day, so some of the things that Max does with the parties in different rooms are things I’ve done and that I’ve seen other mediators do. It was natural, and I just felt like it was time to do something in a little different setting. I love courtroom thrillers. There is no better theater than the courtroom, but I did feel like the tight timeline and blackmail aspect of this went really well with a mediation.
HR: Your last book, The Boomerang, centered around the president of the United States, the chief of staff and a cure for cancer. What was it like to take the jump from such a large national setting to one that is more contained?
RB: It was hard. The Boomerang is one of those books I had thought about writing for a long time, and it was definitely inspired by personal events. So returning to the Southern theater of stories—I feel like if I’m known for something, that’s it. It was hard in some respects, but it was in some ways like revisiting familiar ground and getting to know it in a little different place. I really love settings that are authentic and genuine, and I think we have so many wonderful ones here in the South that aren’t really given much attention in the grand scheme of things. I think that’s what Taylor Sheridan is doing with some of his shows that take place in Midland, Texas, and Tulsa and Pennsylvania. I’m certainly not trying to compare myself to him, but I think that there are some similarities in the sense that the settings are local enough and genuine and small so that they can become the character in the story.
HR: We see the return of a familiar face in this book: Jason Rich. What inspired you to insert him into this story?
RB: I’m a reader, too, and I thought it would be a pop moment in the story for fans. Given Max’s background and struggles with painkillers, I felt like it would be an organic role for Jason to be a sort of mentor for her in that respect. Also, a lot of times, you have things that happen outside the law where people are breaking the law, and Max doesn’t have the skillset to do that. Of course, Jason knows someone who does, and he had to learn that in his books. It was fun to see Jason and the colonel in similar but different roles as they assist Max and help her find herself again. I love Jason Rich. He’s one of my favorites, and when I get to go back into his little world, it’s a jolt for me. I like seeing an old friend.
HR: The book’s cover page hints that this is only the first book in Max Ringo’s story. Can we expect to see more of her in the future? What’s next?
RB: Max has a lot of conflict in her life. This book has hopefully started a really exciting twist for readers that sets up the series a bit. The next book will play off that where Max will go from being a mediator to returning to the courtroom after four years away. She used to be really good as a trial lawyer, and she’ll have to find her way in the courtroom again. I’m excited to do that and get back into familiar terrain with a different character and a different set of circumstances.
The second book will also be set in Huntsville, and it will be more of a traditional courtroom thriller with an aspect of mystery and “who-dun-it.” It will put Max in a situation where she has to work with somebody who used to be her friend but is now kind of an enemy. I’m really excited for it.
The Mediator by Robert Bailey is out now and is one of our 2026 Summer Reads.
