William Bernhardt Capital Murder

Capital Murder

William Bernhardt

Ballantine, Feb 2005, $25.95, 384 pp.

ISBN: 034545149X

In Washington, D.C. Oklahoma senior US Senator Todd K. Glancy is in trouble with his Sooner Red state constituents due to a video surfacing on TV news in which he having sexual pleasure with an intern Colleen working for him. However, his woes turn even worse when the young woman is found murdered in a tunnel passageway that leads to the senate offices.

Not trusting the DC crowd to defend him, Todd turns to his law school friend Oklahoma attorney Ben Kincaid to represent him in court. Ben questions his client, but immediately believes that Todd is lying to him most likely because of the "legal" opinion of his public relations guru. Soon Ben wants off the case as he begins to feel Todd is not only holding out on him, but he might have done the homicide. However, he knows if he does quit his legal career would be shattered and besides the large fee might shut up his criticizing mom. Ben mounts his usual all out defense, but still fails to obtain the truth from Todd.

The legal aspects of the thriller is well handled, but feels trite perhaps because of the headlines from a few years ago with nothing new coming from the courtroom. On the other hand, Ben and his fellow Sooners tours of the seats of power are terrific, satirical and often humorous as they bushwhack everyone with barbs, asides, and colloquies even while security constantly keeps these rubes from the Beltway elite. In his fourteenth tale, Ben's fans will appreciate his observations as an outside the Beltway "tourist" looking at the shenanigans of the high and mighty inside the Beltway.

Harriet Klausner