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Georgia attorney and University of Georgia alumnus David Ballard has published The Order of Virtue, a gripping historical thriller that explores the University of Georgia’s influential Gridiron Secret Society — rumored to include governors, judges, corporate titans, and university leaders — along with the mystery of a lost Confederate treasure stolen by Judah P. Benjamin, the brilliant yet controversial Confederate Secretary of State whose legacy has long been buried in the sands of time.
Set mainly in Athens, the novel takes readers on a journey through Georgia and beyond, with stops in Fayetteville, Blue Ridge, Helen, Lawrenceville, Lumpkin, Atlanta, Savannah, Thomasville, Sea Island, and St. Simons, as well as London, Paris, Moscow, Auschwitz, and Brazil. Its cast includes characters with roots in Marietta, Milledgeville, Elberton, Griffin, Albany, and Eufaula, Alabama—a tapestry of communities that ground this ambitious story in the heart of the South.
Georgia readers will enjoy the book’s rich references to Bulldog football lore, including nods to Larry Munson’s iconic broadcasts. The story also incorporates Biblical themes, which Ballard says were inspired by his readings of Job, Ecclesiastes, and other Scripture.
At its core, I wanted this book to focus on failure and redemption—rising from the ashes,” Ballard said.
Ballard also mentions that the story showcases both historical and modern tensions.
“I did receive some inspiration from current events,” Ballard added. “Some of the plot twists will remind readers of recent scandals that have rocked Metro Atlanta. And the book’s discussion of the New South and political divisions in the 1860s echoes conversations we continue to have today.”
The Order of Virtue is now available on Amazon in various formats. To celebrate the launch, Ballard is offering a limited-time Kindle deal for $0.99.
About the Book
A brutal murder, a vanished fortune, and a secret born in the ashes of the Civil War—
The Order of Virtue weaves history, ambition, and betrayal into a gripping modern thriller.
In the final months of the Civil War, Judah P. Benjamin—a brilliant attorney, diplomat, spymaster, and Jewish statesman shadowed by prejudice—convinces Confederate President Jefferson Davis to safeguard the South’s future by moving a cache of gold and Mexican silver, code-named Aurelian. When the treasure falls into the wrong hands, Benjamin forms The Order of Virtue, a clandestine brotherhood bound by intricate ciphers dismissed by historians for over a century—until now.
More than 160 years later, University of Georgia freshman Alex Stark is struggling—denied a tennis scholarship, broke, and bitter. When he’s offered a chance to infiltrate UGA’s elite Gridiron Secret Society, he seizes it, unaware it will pull him into a web of danger, deceit, and ambition.
His missteps set his sharp-witted girlfriend, Sarah Keim, on a parallel quest that spans continents—from Athens to Brazil, Auschwitz to Moscow—as both race to uncover Aurelian before it’s lost to corruption once more.
Together, their journeys reveal more than buried gold—they uncover the cost of ambition, the weight of legacy, and the redemptive power of confronting one’s failures.
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