In Margaret Truman's latest mystery, the scene opens with an obscure death in Washington's Foggy Bottom, home of the State Department, shifts to massmurder in the downing of aircraft, and then moves on to mayhem in thestreets of the new Moscow. Leaving an airport near New York, a D.C.-bound commuter plane falls to earth. At almost the same time, another crash occurs. And then...

Firmly ruling out coincidence, investigators seek means and motive. Themeans are soon apparent: small-scale weaponry with large-scale impact. Their country of origin? A place where nearly everything - hardware, information, love - can be found for a price. Max Pauling, a State Department investigator, seasoned, good-looking, and hard to fool, quickly takes off on a trail still as warm as the smoking wreckage.

A host of vivid characters people the narrative, including a lovely StateDepartment analyst who finds herself attracted to undercover types; amilitia leader in Idaho who leads his people into gunfire; a reporter atodds with his boss but not with a good story; and a secretary of state wholoves baseball slightly more than her job. Fast-paced and informative about flying, food, statecraft, and the violent"wetwork" under the dryly elegant exterior of diplomacy, Margaret Truman'sMurder in Foggy Bottom is another winner in the Capital Crimes series.

Praise for Margaret Truman:

• "A first-rate mystery writer, said Charles Champlin in the Los Angeles Times Book Review, "drawing on an I-was-there expertise that makes the Washington scene clang with credibility."
• "She can write suspense with the best of them," says Larry King.
• Her work is "the most satisfying sort of popular fiction, a thoughtful thriller," adds The Atlanta Journal - Constitution.