When Washington, D.C., reporter Jeff Carmichael's predecessor and an ex-DEA agent who had a grudge against Jeff are both found dead, rogue CIA agents and Mafia thugs get involved, and suddenly Jeff's... This description may be from another edition of this product.
That elusive "X-factor" known as "entertainment value" goes completely off the charts, into the stratosphere, and out to the heavens beyond in this stupendously well-crafted mystery-thriller that fans of the late Ross Thomas, the still-alive Michael Connelly, and (for that matter) Woodward & Bernstein will truly dig.Reporter Jeff Carmichael is really good at what he does ... but he's a bit headstrong, somewhat self-centered, and doesn't suffer fools gladly. The problem is (as the droll title of Lerner's novel suggests), Jeff has situated himself within the environs of Washington D.C. -- a place that's nothing if not a hotbed of fools and their (occasionally-fatal) foolishness. The challenges that the city (in general) and its ruthlessly-ambitious peoples (in particular) present our hero -- and their distinction from those events and peoples operating outside the Beltway -- serve to catapult Jeff on a whirlwind, labyrinthine path that he desperately, continually attempts to guide toward the truth ... despite a kaleidoscope of forces urging him to conclude otherwise.Lerner writes with a sly economy and "been there" vermisilitude (sic?) that bespeaks a background in both journalistic skill and D.C. folklore, and his novel should -- if there's any justice at all in this world -- prompt a Supreme Court declaration that it become required reading for all Mafia malefactors, Senatorial sycophants, Presidential peccadillo-ers, and everybody else forevermore.
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