cover image Discretion

Discretion

Allison Leotta. S&S/Touchstone, $25 (336p) ISBN 978-1-4516-4484-5

Leotta’s second legal thriller featuring D.C. sex crimes prosecutor Anna Curtis (after 2010’s Law of Attraction) adds nothing new to the murder and sex among the Washington elite subgenre popularized by writers like David Baldacci. When escort Caroline McBride plunges to her death from the third-floor balcony of longtime District representative Emmett Lionel’s Capitol office, Anna investigates. By creating a covert account on TrickAdviser.com, an escort resource Web site, Anna learns that the victim was “the most expensive call girl in D.C.” The high-profile case threatens to expose Anna’s discreet relationship with her office’s head of homicide, widower Jack Bailey. To complicate matters, Lionel invokes the obscure Speech and Debate Clause to limit searching of his office, while his legal and political advisers throw up further obstacles. Anna’s efforts to win over Jack’s hostile six-year-old daughter lend human interest. Those who can’t get enough of Washington scandal in their fiction will be most rewarded. Agent: Amy Berkower, Writers House. (July)