Detective Fiona Fitzgerald’s privileged upbringing in the nation’s capital and her intimate knowledge of its inner workings come in handy when Fran Miller, a top lobbyist and legal expert, turns up dead on Independence Day. It looks like suicide, but when the clues lead back to Mark Chancellor, the husband of Fiona’s best friend, things get complicated. Chancellor runs a complex, global conglomerate, and along with his Russian partner, is involved in the pharmaceutical and defense industries. Chancellor is at the top of his game, well-connected in Washington and known to believe that money is the planet’s most powerful weapon. But uncovered secrets reveal that terrorist affiliates may have something more powerful: biological weapons. While the high-stakes players behind the scenes are trying to avoid a potential worldwide catastrophe, the race to find an antidote is complicated by deception and corruption, and now maybe by death. Rumors swirl about the dead lobbyist: a mysterious lover, millions of dollars hidden in small-town Virginia, and what looks like a recent vaccination on her upper right arm. But did someone target Fran? After all, she knew more about biological and chemical weapons than almost anyone. Was she caught up in the convoluted web of international biological warfare? Coincidence, luck, and a little passion give Fiona a labyrinth of leads to follow. But sometimes the simple truth is harder to see.

A high-caliber police procedural mystery from the acclaimed author Warren Adler, well-known for his iconic novel turned international box-office hit The War of the Roses . Adam Burns, Washington Post columnist and controversial presidential critic, is dead. With no clear circumstances, speculation, gossip, and rumor flood the media-was it an accident, suicide, or murder? Conspiracy theories run amok, accusing none other than the President of the United States. Was Adam Burns the target of a government hit squad? Did someone decide to silence his diatribes once and for all? Fiona Fitzgerald, an unlikely hero in Washington D.C.'s blue-collar, predominantly male police force, is entrusted with unraveling Burns' death. Born into the elite social circles of the nation's capital and with privileged access to what lurks behind the pristine façade of the political establishment, Fiona is determined to expose the chicanery buried under primrose bushes and concealed within the ceaseless Washington Masquerade. Days roar by-pressure mounts-clues mislead-intuition betrays. Can Fiona clear the President's name? Is one woman enough to stop a nation out for blood? Washington Masquerade is the 8th book in the Fiona Fitzgerald Mystery series.