Murder on the Potomac

May 2, 1994
Mining crimes of the past and politics, Truman ( Murder at the Pentagon ) scants the basic plotting requirements of her 11th Capital Crimes case, which is marred by superfluous unsolved murders and an unconvincing conclusion. When the body of Pauline Juris, personal secretary of wealthy developer Wendell Tierney, is found in the Potomac River, Tierney calls former attorney, now law professor, Mackenzie Smith for advice. Mac, whose beloved wife Annabel wants him to stop dabbling in detection, agrees to see Wendell, but he refuses to ferret out the police line on the case, even though a former student of his heads the investigation team. Tierney, becoming chief suspect when love letters, purportedly from him, are found in the dead woman's apartment, again begs for Mac's help. Both Mac and Annabel are drawn into the case, which takes on another twist when the suspect's adopted son, Sun Ben Cheong, is arrested for money laundering. Truman plumps up Mac's low-key sleuthing with the goings on of the fictitious Scarlet Sin Society, a fundraising group that sponsors reenactments of local historical crimes.