Season of Fear

In the prologue of this fast-paced first in a new crime series from Edgar-finalist Freeman (The Cold Nowhere), an assassin fatally shoots Birch Fairmont, a congressional candidate from the newly formed Common Way Party, and two others at a political fund-raiser in Lake Wales, Fla. Ten years later, Birch’s widow, Diane Fairmont, is running for governor of Florida as a member of the same third party. When evidence surfaces that Diane might be a killer’s target, Candice Dean, the executive director of a foundation affiliated with the Common Way Party, hires detective Cab Bolton to look into the earlier unsolved murders, but she balks when his investigation doubles back on Diane’s relationship with Birch and her drug-addict son. Meanwhile, campaign staffer Peach Piper, whose boyfriend and coworker was found dead two weeks earlier, is also worried about an assassination attempt, and starts asking uncomfortable questions. Right-wing extremists, drug dealers, and political opponents are all credible potential culprits. Only some overblown dialogue mars a taut thriller that’s at once a whodunit and a who-will-do-it. [em]Agent: Deborah Schneider, Gelfman Schneider Literary Agents. (Mar.) [/em]