Murder in the White House

The murder of the secretary of state in the executive mansion sparks a mystery with "a superb denouement . . . one wonders if all is fiction" (Time).

In a city where the weapon of choice is usually gossip, the strangling of Secretary of State Lansard Blaine in the Lincoln Bedroom is a gruesome first. White House counsel Ron Fairbanks is ordered to investigate. There are persistent rumors that the secretary was an inveterate womanizer with ties to a glamorous call girl. There is also troubling evidence of unofficial connections with international agents.

For Fairbanks, who is in love with the president's daughter, one point is all too clear: only a few highly placed insiders had access to the Lincoln Bedroom that fateful evening, one of whom was the president. Torn between his job, his loyalty, his love, and uncovering the truth, Fairbanks must make gut-wrenching choices that lead to a surprise no one could have foreseen.

Murder in the White House is the first book in Margaret Truman's Capital Crimes series of political thrillers set in and around Washington, DC. Having spent a good part of her childhood in the White House as the daughter of US President Harry S. Truman, she now takes readers beyond the public halls and into the private corridors of power.