In this plodding mystery set in the spring of 1973 against the backdrop of the unfolding Watergate scandal, Hoopes's second after Our Man in Washington
(2000), freelance journalist Ray Hartley gets a call from Tom Cranston, a friend working for a Senate Select Committee, who's excited about a discovery he's made. Tom "may or may not" be mailing a package to Ray for possible delivery to Bob Woodward at the Washington Post. When Tom is found "with a 32.-calibre bullet in his head" on a Delaware beach the next morning, Ray is hired to write an article on his friend's odd death. This involves interviewing the man's estranged widow and various neighbors, officials and officials' wives who knew Tom. Ray's research sometimes parallels, sometimes intersects, with the police investigation. While Hoopes nicely portrays the frightening governmental crisis and the courage of those seeking to expose the Nixon administration's cover-ups, he is less successful in bringing to life his own characters. He did a better job in his first novel, largely because H.L. Mencken and James M. Cain were at center stage as sleuths looking into the Harding administration scandals of 1923. As our hero routinely and easily gains access to D.C. insiders and witnesses with plenty to hide, it becomes irksome that no one simply tells him to beat it. The real Watergate actors are mere shadow figures here, but their story and personalities are far more intriguing than the ones Hoopes offers. A pity Mencken wasn't alive and well in 1973. (May 27)
FYI:Hoopes won an Edgar Award for his biography of James M. Cain.
