It’s the height of campaign season, and instead of relishing newlywed bliss with her husband Doug Hollingsworth, Capitol Hill staffer Kit Marshall is busy with a tough reelection fight for her boss, member of Congress Maeve Dixon. Before Maeve and her staff–Kit included–leave Washington, D.C. to campaign full time in North Carolina, they have one last fundraising engagement.

On the iconic rooftop of a restaurant overlooking the Capitol and the Washington monument, Kit and her best pal Meg do their best to woo wealthy lobbyists for sizable campaign donations. Everyone’s enjoying the evening soiree until a powerful K Street tycoon mysteriously tumbles off the rooftop. Even with claims the fall must be suicide, Detective Maggie Glass and Kit aren’t so easily convinced foul play isn’t at work. While balancing Doug’s mid-life career crisis, Kit must spring into action to discover who killed the notorious Van Parker before Dixon’s candidacy sputters, even if it means investigating Meg’s handsome new beau, the victim’s conniving widow, and a bicycle advocate hell-bent on settling a long-standing grudge. When threatening note is left on Kit’s car, warning her to back off the investigation, she knows she’s closing in on the true story of what happened.

Book 4 of the Washington Whodunit series, which began with Stabbing in the Senate.

Disclaimer: All Characters Appearing in This Work are Fictitious (Except One)

One of the most frequent questions I get about my Washington Whodunit mystery series is whether the characters that appear in my novels are based upon real people.

The answer is no – with one notable exception. One of the stars of my books is Clarence the beagle mutt, owned by my amateur sleuth protagonist Kit Marshall and her husband Doug. Clarence strongly resembles my own dog, Conan. In fact, Clarence is Conan. He’s featured on the cover of all my books, nestled as a small icon in the lower right-hand corner.

Conan is a special dog that I would argue warrants memorialization as a fictional character. We adopted him from the Lost Dog Lost Cat Rescue organization in northern Virginia. They called him a “beagle mix” but we think he’s probably a combination of so many breeds, his lineage is virtually unrecognizable. Although Conan is almost eight years old, he still behaves like a puppy. His favorite pastimes are stealing shoes and morning jogs. Above all else, Conan has a real love of food, particularly pepperoni. His penchant for eating has caused considerable mayhem in our household, providing entertaining fodder for my novels.

Conan’s antics are so wily, I decided to create an entire character in my series based directly on him. Clarence made his debut appearance in Stabbing in the Senate.  He played an even bigger role in Homicide in the House. In the current installment, K Street Killing, Clarence helps Kit uncover an important clue while practicing for a dog agility trial. In each mystery, I try to devise a fun way to involve Clarence. He may be the most popular character in the entire Washington Whodunit series.

All writers need muses. Mine just happens to be a fifty-pound mutt named Conan. He gives new meaning to the phrase “doggone politics!”