Worst Case Scenario: A Washington, D.C. Mystery

The cloak-and-dagger world of national politics is put under a microscope in this fourth investigation featuring retired foreign service officer Richard Michaelson (Corruptly Procured) and his lady love, Marjorie. When Sharon Bedford dies in her locked hotel room at the end of the Contemporary Policy Dynamics Conference, Richard, like nearly everyone else, thinks she committed suicide. In fact, he only remembers her as someone who had a secret she wanted to share and with whom he tenuously planned to meet later. But after he and Marjorie talk to Sharon's former fiance and are shown a coded list the woman had mailed to him before her death, they agree to find out more about why she died. Although she seems to have poisoned herself, they are puzzled about a photocopy, found in her hotel room, of an insensitive birthday card sent to women a year after their abortions. Why is Sharon mixed up in the birthday-card campaign ploy? What secret was she going to tell Michaelson? How does the coded note point to her killer? The volatile mixture of politics and government secrets, all of which are deadly, explodes in a tale of innuendo run amok that would make Joe Klein proud. (Nov.)