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Murder in Washington happens every day, but never a murder this big.
After ten years in the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Los Angeles field office, Inspector Richard Thatcher reluctantly reports to Washington D.C. He arrives the day after a mysterious assailant murders the Chief of Staff to the President. To Thatcher's dismay, he is assigned to command the investigation.
An attack on the Mayor of the District of Columbia initially seems unrelated, but eventually it complicates matters. The media sensationally alleges that a high-ranking conspiracy is underway, but Thatcher can find no evidence to substantiate this allegation. The immediate trail takes him to the White House where his aggressive approach antagonizes the suspicious President. An investigative reporter intrudes. Against his best judgment, Thatcher becomes entangled in a personal relationship with the younger woman.
The leads take him across the country to the victim's widow, where a suspect divorce leads Thatcher to the possibility of a crime of passion. This effort directs him to the charming Mimi Wilson, the White House Spokesperson who had an affair with the murdered Chief of Staff, among others. Thatcher finds the mature Mimi more compatible than the aggressive nineties-generation reporter.
Things get worse when he pursues leads suggested by Mimi. A conniving Senator entraps Thatcher in a provocation that threatens to involve the Bureau in a highly critical congressional investigation. This brings Thatcher into direct conflict with the new White House Chief of Staff.
As Thatcher threads his way through his convoluted investigation, he consults with the detectives from the Metropolitan Police who have no leads to the mayor's assailant. Neither Thatcher nor the city detectives can isolate a motive for either the White House murder or the attack on the Mayor.
Gradually the evidence accumulates and enables Thatcher to identify the killer, the one person Thatcher least suspected.
| Price | Condition | Delivery | Seller | Action |
| $99.99 | Digital |
| WonderClub |
Nancy Moate
reviewed The City of Lost Dreams on October 19, 2019
The City of Lost Dreams
Spoiler Alert! There is NO murder in The Perfect Murder. Sorry about that. But for all of you who might pick this up thinking that this is one of those impossible crimes or that your murder mystery actually has a murder in it, I thought you ought to know. I also think you ought to know that this is (in my opinion) far from the perfect anything--story, crime novel, etc. This is my second outing with Keating writing under his own name* and I have to say that I am beginning to think that he just isn't for me.
But...back to the story. Why, you might ask, is it called "The Perfect Murder" if there's no murder and what we do have going on isn't perfect? Glad you asked. It seems that the secretary of Lala Varde, a prosperous businessman, has been bashed over the head with a candlestick. Lala Varde reported it to the police as a murder--because by his logic someone was trying to murder his secretary, so by golly it's murder. Even if it didn't succeed. The name caught on with the newspapers and such and nobody seems to care that the man really didn't die. The ever-conscientious Inspector Ghote is assigned to the case and is immediately faced with lies, disdain, and corruption.
So...I'll just fess up now and tell you that I did not read every word of this. Not even as much as every other word. Only enough that I decided that I could legitimately count it for a few challenges and I'm shoving this thing off my Mount TBR and sending it back to the library's used book shop where it came from. I skimmed to the end just so I could know what really happened. Kate over at crossexamingingcrime says that Keating is "good at establishing an interesting setting in a culture which readers can identify with but also find difference in." I'm afraid I didn't find this to be the case. I never did settle into the setting that Keating gave us and I certainly didn't warm to the methods of Ghote and the culture surrounding him as represented. And don't even get me started on Lala Varde and his never-ending need to make silly rhymes about everything when talking. No rating because I didn't really read closely enough to hand one out. Others have handed out four and five stars...so your mileage may vary.
*I have also read a couple of his historical mysteries written under the name Evelyn Hervey. I enjoyed those more--handing out three stars.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.
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Add The City of Lost Dreams, Murder in Washington happens every day, but never a murder this big. After ten years in the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Los Angeles field office, Inspector Richard Thatcher reluctantly reports to Washington D.C. He arrives the day after a mysteri, The City of Lost Dreams to the inventory that you are selling on WonderClubX
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Add The City of Lost Dreams, Murder in Washington happens every day, but never a murder this big. After ten years in the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Los Angeles field office, Inspector Richard Thatcher reluctantly reports to Washington D.C. He arrives the day after a mysteri, The City of Lost Dreams to your collection on WonderClub |
