Poisoned Politics

Sefton's middling second mystery featuring Molly Malone (after 2012's Deadly Politics) follows the Washington, D.C., consultant's personal and professional ups and downs while the shadowy Epsilon Group, a global financial policy concern, continues to advance their unknown aims by any means. Molly has already lost her congressman husband, David Grayson, to an inexplicable "suicide" and her congressional researcher niece, Karen Grayson, to murder the previous spring. Now Samantha Calhoun, her best friend, is in trouble. Explicit photos of Samantha and her latest lover, married Ohio congressman Quentin Wilson, have been sent to her and to him. Wilson's subsequent murder disguised as suicide roils the waters, and Molly's decision to try to continue the research Karen was doing attracts the attention of Wilson's killers. Sefton throws in plenty of insider parties and gossip as well as a developing love affair between Molly and a retired Marine colonel. Readers may find the lack of any resolution unsatisfying. (Aug.)