cover image Monument to Murder: A Capital Crimes Novel

Monument to Murder: A Capital Crimes Novel

Margaret Truman. Forge, $24.99 (384p) ISBN 978-0-7653-2609-6

Only hardcore fans will find much to like in this tepid entry in Truman's long-running Capital Crimes series (Murder Inside the Beltway, etc.). In 1994, 18-year-old African-American Louise Watkins, a resident of Savannah, Ga., pleaded guilty to stabbing a man to death who tried to rape her, was sentenced to four years, served her time, and then was gunned down on the street shortly after her release. Louise told her mother, Eunice, that she was paid to confess to the crime, and now, years later, Eunice wants her daughter's name cleared. Evidence of a police coverup and the involvement of two white girls from prominent Savannah families, Mitzi Cardell and Jeanine Jamison, now Washington, D.C., social fixtures, leads Savannah PI Bob Brixton to D.C. and a connection with longtime series regulars Mackenzie Smith and his wife, Annabel Lee Smith. A formulaic plot and routine prose suggest that it may be time for Truman (1924%E2%80%932008) to lay down her pen. (July)