Murder in Foggy Bottom

Rating:
Summary: Chilling!
Review: The "bad guy" in this "Capital Crimes" outing is a rather generic white supremacist. We find out about him in a strained set of coincidences that will at best disappoint serious readers, if not infuriate them. Finally, the episodic nature of the book, while it gives the story a sense of immediacy, fails to develop any of the story lines with enough depth. Instead of one good story, we have three mediocre ones.

Rating:
Summary: Not one of Margaret Truman's better efforts
Review: The "bad guy" in this "Capital Crimes" outing is a rather generic white supremacist. We find out about him in a strained set of coincidences that will at best disappoint serious readers, if not infuriate them. Finally, the episodic nature of the book, while it gives the story a sense of immediacy, fails to develop any of the story lines with enough depth. Instead of one good story, we have three mediocre ones.

Rating:
Summary: Not Much Better Than Her Earlier Books
Review: The umpteenth in Truman's detective series set in Washington DC isn't much better than those that went before. On the one hand, Truman seems to be overcoming her irritating limitation in the earlier books to do little real research about Washington's institutions, but to spend too much time writing about restaurants and cocktail bars. On the other, she shows no signs of overcoming her other, more serious, limitations. Namely, her inability to develop credible male characters -a debilitating handicap in a detective novelist- and thin plotting.

Truman clearly has done some homework about the State Department. "Murder in Foggy Bottom" begins with the death of a Canadian diplomat in Foggy Bottom, the Washington neighborhood where the State Department is headquartered. However, it could have used an editorial review by someone with more familiarity with the federal government. The State Department does not have "divisions" as Truman writes, but rather bureaus. Likewise, overseas embassies don't have divisions either, but sections. Nobody except dime-store novelists call CIA "the Company", there are no Trade Representatives at embassies, but Commercial Officers who are employees not of the State Department, but the Commerce Department. On and on. Truman just doesn't get the details of the federal bureaucracy right. The denouement, where contradictions between information provided by an FBI agent and by a Russian criminal, fails miserably. No president would stake his administration on whether an FBI agent provides better information than any other source. No, a real president would respond with caution, not hot-headed vanity to start another Waco.

Truman is weak at "guy stuff". She just doesn't draw credible male characters. This was less of a problem in the earlier books where the lead characters were women, but now the male leads are just cardboard cutouts. Truman Capote or Tom Clancy would know Amstel Light isn't a light beer, but a light-colored beer. This sort of failure of detail causes periodic clunks in the narrative as the men do and say things that no man would ever do. Similarly, plot construction is thin and based on unbelievable coincidences and lucky breaks. Max gets the info he wants in a quick couple of days in Russia. How? Some guy hands it to him written out on a sheet of paper. Jessica takes some bird-watching photos in upstate New York and just happens to film her ex-husband in a hate-group. Sure. Max carries his handgun onto the Secretary of State's plane and into the State Department building. Truman explains this by having Max recall that while traveling with the Secretary, one doesn't get searched. Did she forget that a few pages earlier, Max walked out of the building alone, sat on a bench and reentered the State Department. Impossible to do with a handgun.

If you've liked others in the Truman series, you'll probably like this one. If you've read a few and hoped she'd improve with experience, you'll be disappointed to find that she has improved, but not very much.

Rating:
Summary: Not Much Better Than Her Earlier Books
Review: The umpteenth in Truman's detective series set in Washington DC isn't much better than those that went before. On the one hand, Truman seems to be overcoming her irritating limitation in the earlier books to do little real research about Washington's institutions, but to spend too much time writing about restaurants and cocktail bars. On the other, she shows no signs of overcoming her other, more serious, limitations. Namely, her inability to develop credible male characters -a debilitating handicap in a detective novelist- and thin plotting.

Truman clearly has done some homework about the State Department. "Murder in Foggy Bottom" begins with the death of a Canadian diplomat in Foggy Bottom, the Washington neighborhood where the State Department is headquartered. However, it could have used an editorial review by someone with more familiarity with the federal government. The State Department does not have "divisions" as Truman writes, but rather bureaus. Likewise, overseas embassies don't have divisions either, but sections. Nobody except dime-store novelists call CIA "the Company", there are no Trade Representatives at embassies, but Commercial Officers who are employees not of the State Department, but the Commerce Department. On and on. Truman just doesn't get the details of the federal bureaucracy right. The denouement, where contradictions between information provided by an FBI agent and by a Russian criminal, fails miserably. No president would stake his administration on whether an FBI agent provides better information than any other source. No, a real president would respond with caution, not hot-headed vanity to start another Waco.

Truman is weak at "guy stuff". She just doesn't draw credible male characters. This was less of a problem in the earlier books where the lead characters were women, but now the male leads are just cardboard cutouts. Truman Capote or Tom Clancy would know Amstel Light isn't a light beer, but a light-colored beer. This sort of failure of detail causes periodic clunks in the narrative as the men do and say things that no man would ever do. Similarly, plot construction is thin and based on unbelievable coincidences and lucky breaks. Max gets the info he wants in a quick couple of days in Russia. How? Some guy hands it to him written out on a sheet of paper. Jessica takes some bird-watching photos in upstate New York and just happens to film her ex-husband in a hate-group. Sure. Max carries his handgun onto the Secretary of State's plane and into the State Department building. Truman explains this by having Max recall that while traveling with the Secretary, one doesn't get searched. Did she forget that a few pages earlier, Max walked out of the building alone, sat on a bench and reentered the State Department. Impossible to do with a handgun.

If you've liked others in the Truman series, you'll probably like this one. If you've read a few and hoped she'd improve with experience, you'll be disappointed to find that she has improved, but not very much.

Rating:
Summary: Well Below Her Standards
Review: This book is so poorly written and organized, I question if Margaret Truman even authored it. I have read all of the books in the Capital Crimes series and have come to expect much more. One of the more troubling aspects of this disappointing offering is the way Mac and Annabelle are randomly inserted into the plot. There isn't even an attempt to relate their appearances to the story. I have to believe Ms. Truman owed the publisher a book and allowed this one to be written by an overmatched editor. For anyone new to the series, give them another shot. They are all superior to Murder in Foggy Bottom.

Rating:
Summary: Well Below Her Standards
Review: This book is so poorly written and organized, I question if Margaret Truman even authored it. I have read all of the books in the Capital Crimes series and have come to expect much more. One of the more troubling aspects of this disappointing offering is the way Mac and Annabelle are randomly inserted into the plot. There isn't even an attempt to relate their appearances to the story. I have to believe Ms. Truman owed the publisher a book and allowed this one to be written by an overmatched editor. For anyone new to the series, give them another shot. They are all superior to Murder in Foggy Bottom.

Rating:
Summary: Best Yet
Review: This is her finest effort to date in the Washington series.

Rating:
Summary: Way too much information
Review: This was the first book that I read of the Capital Crimes series. It is a very slow read and I had to make myself finish it. I would have liked for this book to either have a dozen less characters, or 200 more pages so that more time could be spent explaining relationships between characters and more details of scenes such as the FBI standoff.

Rating:
Summary: Murder in Foggy Bottom
Review: WOW!!!!! This has got to be Margaret Truman's best in the Capital Crime series. A little different from her previous books but certainly not a disappointment. If you like a book with great characters, a lot of action and an exceptional storyline then this is the book for you. Once you finish reading, "Murder in Foggy Bottom" you'll understand why I'm recommending it to all my friends.