From Amazon.com
One wonders what will happen if and when Margaret Truman runs out of "appropriate" Washington, D.C., landmarks in and around which to stage her murders.
Murder at the Watergate fits nicely into the mold with which Truman's fans have long been familiar: that elegant couple, Mac Smith and Annabel Reed, newly ensconced in their Watergate apartment, become enmeshed in a political imbroglio that leads--as it must--to murder. Their good friend, the vice president, finds that U.S. policy on Mexico can be one hot potato. Or tamale. The dueling factions of the Mexican-American Trade Alliance and the Mexico initiative--the former an "unoffical" but deeply menacing lobbying presence with a stake in maintaining the status quo, the latter a think tank bent on exposing corruption deep within Mexico's ruling party--weave a ragged tapestry of blackmail, bribery, assault, and murder that threatens to envelop both Mac and Annabel--and the administration itself. Truman hopscotches rather frantically around the globe and throws in a few over-the-top minor characters to keep the loyal reader hot on her trail. A less devoted reader may be tempted to abandon the chase somewhere in London.
One doesn't read Truman for her dialogue, her characters, or her gripping cliffhangers. But her cogent meditations and snide asides on politicking and politicos are absolutely on target and a pleasure to read. --Kelly Flynn
From Publishers Weekly
Truman's capital crime wave reaches 15 volumes (Murder in the House, 1997, etc.) as the locale in which one presidency died becomes the focus for a murder that may doom the aspirations of a would-be president. Vice President Joseph Aprile, whose code name "Straight Arrow" will make readers think of Al Gore, is determined to stake out a position on Mexico different from his president's as he prepares to seek the Oval Office in the next election. Mackensie Smith, law professor at George Washington University and a friend of Aprile's, is in an ideal position to help, since he is already scheduled to be in Mexico as a U.N. election observer. When Mackensie accepts a clandestine assignment to meet with a Mexican rebel leader on Aprile's behalf, he is launched into a dangerous and deadly game involving diplomats and assassins, politicians and traitors, aristocrats and rebels. Truman's characterizations?from hard-driven deputy chief of staff Chris Hedras to wealthy party hostess Elfie Dorrance?remain fairly shallow. But her plot is well grounded in the realities of Mexico-U.S. relations, and she manages a couple of nasty surprises that enliven the all too predictable finish.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
