Margaret Truman’s Experiment in Murder: A Capital Crimes Novel

Bain (Trouble at High Tide and 36 other Murder She Wrote mysteries) channels the late Margaret Truman in the 26th Capital Crimes novel (after 2011’s Monument to Murder). The hit-and-run death in Washington, D.C., of psychiatrist Mark Sedgwick is the opening salvo in an operation led by a rogue CIA agent and a San Francisco psychiatrist, who aim to use a psychologically programmed assassin to kill liberal presidential candidate Sen. George Mortinson. Dr. Nicolas Tatum, who teaches a seminar on evaluating human behavior at George Washington Law School, fingers one of Sedgwick’s patients as the programmed assassin, to his peril. Series regulars Mackenzie Smith and his wife, Annabel Lee-Smith, serve as mere observers and advisers. Bain gets mileage from the many government-funded mind control experiments, conspiracy theories, and big money politics. Political junkies of all stripes should find something to feed their appetites, though cynics will probably be most rewarded. Agent: Bob Diforio, D4EO Literary. (Nov.)