Murder in Foggy Bottom

Margaret Truman

8/27/2000

Three commuter airplanes crashed upon take off on the same day. It was quickly determined they were the objects of terrorism. Someone shot missiles from the ground that exploded the aircraft. Was it terrorists from outside the United States, or was it a national group inside the country?

Joe Potamos is a beat reporter for the Washington Post. He covers a murder in Foggy Bottom of a man who turns out to have been a minor dignitary from the Canadian Embassy. The murder intrigues Joe. Yet he is assigned to beat stories and led away from this. His dignity is still hurting because he used to be the reporter at the State Department but got himself in trouble and was demoted. He feels something connected with this murder could be the break to put him back at the top of his field.

Max Paulding works for the CIA. He had been undercover in Moscow for many years and is now back in Washington. The missiles that shot down the aircraft came from Russia. He was sent back to Moscow to see if he could discover who bought the missiles

Jessica Mumford works at the State Department and teaches part time at Georgetown University. She is dating Max. Her ex-husband works for the FBI and also worked undercover while they were married. She cannot understand her attraction to these men. She is an avid ornithologist, and belongs to a number of bird watching groups. She feels her own life is dull; perhaps that is why she is attracted to dangerous men.

All these are caught up in the attacks that have devastated the people in the United States. This novel examines Washington D.C. with Truman's normal insight of the workings of the politics and departments there. It also examines terrorism and white supremacy in the United States. The characters are believable. I was involved with them throughout the story. This is a very good mystery. As I reader I knew things would work out with Truman's main characters. Yet I was still on the edge at the end.

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