Capitol Offense

Diana Speed, six feet tall and blonde with a hyperactive metabolism and prodigious appetites, is asked by her boss, leonine billionaire Roger Channing, to handle a woman who has become a threat to him. Roger won't tell Diana who the woman is or what she's going to do, just that the threat involves the publishing company that he owns and Diana manages. With the help of Eric Szabo, a security agent and recovering alcoholic, Diana sets out to find some answers. Meanwhile, Congressman Philemon Fielding has been found murdered in front of a porn theater in Times Square. After the murderess, Magdalen Tyrrell, a producer of pornographic films, turns out to be Diana and Eric's quarry, they discover that she has another, even more heinous crime in store. Diana and Eric are a tough yet vulnerable duo, but the overly complex plot, which features myriad twists, tends to overwhelm them, leaving their promise, ultimately, as unfulfilled as an election year pledge. (Jan.)