Inexplicably, Sentz refuses and when Dennis finally convinces the desk sergeant to try GPS technology to find Joslyn’s phone and they find the young doctor, it is too late.  Dennis is distraught and in his anger attacks Sentz, getting arrested for assaulting a police officer;  local attorney Ben Kincaid, just back from Washington after finishing out his term as an appointed Senator, goes to speak to Dennis in jail.

When Dennis begins asking questions about murder, Kincaid backs away, not wanting to be the keeper of the knowledge that Dennis may be planning to kill Sentz, even though Dennis insists he is researching a book. 

Two days later when Sentz is shot to death, Dennis is arrested. Ben finds himself representing Dennis even though he doubts his innocence. Ben is starting to mount his campaign to retain his seat in the Senate and has doubts about taking the case; against the advice of his lovely wife Christine, he acquiesces. 

What Ben and his firm’s investigator begin to uncover about Joslyn and her work begins to lead Ben in a different direction, a direction that makes him begin to believe that Joslyn may have uncovered something in her lab and that her death was not an accident, and that Dennis is taking the fall for Sentz’s death as part of some larger plot.  

Fast-paced and well-plotted, Capitol Offense will keep readers turning pages and guessing until the end.  While it is easy to figure out that Joslyn found something in the lab and that Sentz is unintentionally not opening a missing persons file on her, the people pulling the strings and doing the overall planning will come as a surprise to many. 

Ben has a lighthearted side that will surprise many; his new wife, who also has been his law partner for many years tries to keep him from getting too serious, though there may be times when less bravado is called for.  The first line of the book, “I died three days ago” and the description of Joslyn’s seven days in the car allo readers to know her and learn about her from her point of view without long passages of flashback.  

Long time series readers will wonder if Ben mounting a re-election campaign is the prelude to the series taking a different focus if Ben wins and begins spending more time in Washington, D.C.  A surprisingly quick read for a complicated plot, Ben Kincaid once again keeps readers turning pages.                                                  

--Jennifer Monahan Winberry