The author of this novel, Margaret Truman, is the wife of fomer President Harry Truman. Her knowledge of the Washington, D.C. area lends much credibility to the characters and plots in her series of Capital Crimes mysteries. In this book, a young woman has been found murdered at the Washington Tribune. The journalists and Metropolitan Police Department are at odds with each other in solving this horrific crime. When a second, attractive woman involved in the media is murdered, Trib reporter Joe Wilcox reports on a possible "serial killer" connection on a tip from an unknown MPD source. The articles cause much turmoil within the police department, but give Joe a renewed sense of purpose in his career. Joe's daughter, Roberta, is a successful broadcast journalist who turns to her father for more information on the crimes and is stonewalled by him.
One of the characters interviewed by MPD detective and Joe's romantic connection, Edith Vargas-Swayze, is a Trib delivery man by the name of Michael LaRue who had just moved to the Washington area from Illinois following a second divorce. At this point of the novel, it has been revealed that this character is Joe Wilcox's estranged brother, Michael. Joe hasn't been in contact with his brother for forty years and is concerned as to why he has moved to Washington. Does the brother have an agenda against Joe? Why has he moved to Washington with information files containing many of Joe's Washington Tribune articles?
I didn't know that Mrs. Truman was a novelist! Has she written anything else? I love murder mysteries, I may have to read this book! How do you like it so far?
ReplyDeleteMs. Shank,
ReplyDeleteI have read several of her novels, but this wan't my favorite. Many of her novels begin with Murder at.. followed by an important washington,D.C. site,