Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 10, 1991 TAG: 9103120010
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: D-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Reviewed by ROBERT P. HILLDRUP
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
When a Boston Congresswoman is found in her Washington bed, dead as a tree stump, all sorts of complications ensue.
How'd she die? (Cyanide in her glass of wine.) Did she kill herself? (Looks like it. She'd laid herself out neat as could be in her frilly gown.)
Of course, she didn't kill herself, or else the seemingly endless investigation of D.C. homicide detective Fiona Fitzgerald wouldn't really have much point.
Author Warren Adler, best known for his "War of the Roses," and the movie of that name, gives Fiona Fitzgerald her third outing in his series of mystery novels.
The complications all seem valid. The racial politics of the District's government intrude on every move the cops make. There are all kinds of nastily believeable politicians swirling about in the wings.
If the book has a fault, it's that it may be too realistic. Homicides that aren't solved immediately tend to plod along, day by day, interview by interview, re-hash by re-hash. It's boring work, and Adler comes close to boring the reader with just that approach.
Finally, in an age when more and more people feel that anything bad that happens to a politician probably isn't bad enough, it's hard to work up much sympathy for any of the many victims in "Immaculate Deception," and that includes the one who's dead.
by CNB