Collateral Damage
A Richard Michaelson Mystery
-
- $12.99
-
- $12.99
Publisher Description
A dead body is discovered in a locked room in a country house in the affluent Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. Nine people were present in the house at the time, nine people who saw nothing they'd like to report and did nothing they're willing to confess to.
A document that might relate to a CIA scandal in the recent past--or to a presidential election in the near future--is missing, and much sought after. No one will know exactly what it means until it's found. But would someone be willing to kill for it?
The key to this complicated puzzle lies with two sisters, two young women who don't quite fit into Washington's high-stakes political arena. Retired Foreign Service agent Richard Michaelson and his friend Marjorie Randolph find themselves at the middle of this whirlwind of political and personal intrigue, and must do more than sort clues. For the most challenging locked room you're likely to encounter in Washington, D.C., is your own mind.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Cindy and Catherine Shepherd are the dysfunctional daughters of a wealthy CIA agent who died in disgrace. Now their family home of Calvert Manor is up for sale, and the bidding is high. Though it's clear from this novel's start that the mansion harbors valuable secrets, the details of the Shepherd p re's demise are hazy, and the action doesn't get rolling until Catherine's fianc , Preston Demarest, dies suddenly in an upstairs bedroom. Soon retired spy Richard Michaelson (returning from Worst Case Scenario) and his bookstore-owning lady friend, Marjorie Randolph, are overseeing the auction of the house and solving a murder. Other notable characters include Avery Phillips, a villainous bidder who used to be Michaelson's colleague, and C-Sharp, a rock guitarist who's Cindy's lover. The plot is elaborate but awkwardly constructed, and the novel's slick solution depends on an improbable motive. Given the choice between fine-tuning his plot and having his characters opine smugly, Bowen goes for verbal shenanigans nearly every time, to his detriment--and the reader's.
