Margaret Truman’s Murder at the CDC: A Capitol Crimes Thriller

At the start of Land’s strong second contribution to the Truman franchise (after 2021’s Murder on the Metro), a shooting on the Capitol steps leaves 18 dead and many others critically wounded. Capitol police officer Kelly Loftus, lawyer Mackensie Smith, and Mackensie’s best friend, PI Robert Brixton, join the effort to investigate the horrific crime. Kelly finds what she believes may be a lead, one too tenuous to turn over to the authorities without further investigation. Meanwhile, Robert’s 14-year-old grandson is among the youngsters who survived the shooting. Mackensie, too, is directly touched by tragedy when his beautiful and whip-smart daughter, Alexandra, who works for the Washington office of the Centers for Disease Control, is hospitalized, and her colleague dies from an unknown poison. In the end, Kelly, Mackensie, and Robert get involved in a dangerous mission to stop a cataclysmic event that could reshape democracy in America. The complicated, traumatic backstories Land constructs for each of his leads never slow the plot, which addresses a host of hot topics such as bullying and school shootings, as it races to a cinematic conclusion. Political thriller fans will be pleased. Agent: Robert G. Diforio, D4EO Literary. (Feb.)