Press Corpse

The Washington-based husband-and-wife team of Nessen and Neuman bring Jerry Knight and Jane Day back (after Knight and Day) into the often malicious world of politics and scandal. A prime example of the attraction of opposites, Knight is a king of conservative talk radio while Day is a liberal reporter who works the White House beat for the Washington Post. Both are present at a White House press dinner when well-known CNN reporter Dan McLean keels over dead at the head table, not far from President Dale Hammond, a staunch conservative. Exploring, Day unearths information which exposes McLean's infidelities, as well as his probing of a secret memo from the end of the Vietnam War. For Knight, Day and rumpled D.C. homicide detective, A.L. Jones, the question is who was the intended victim and how is the Vietnamese community involved? Knight and Day are cheerfully outspoken adversaries who outwardly spar while trying to untangle their ambiguous relationship, and Jones is great as the melancholy cop, with his love of architecture and his dejection at failing efforts to curtail street crime. Fast-paced and crisply styled, the icing on the cake is the clever conclusion at the Vietnam Wall. (May)