This book sent chills up my spine with each page I read. Perhaps it was the time of year I chose to read this book or perhaps just the thought of terrorists shooting down 3 commercial airplanes in one day was just too realistic. Whatever the case, the book was a great read and probably very accurate, as far as procedure is concerned give Ms. Truman was a President's daughter. A great read with lots of twists and turns. This book will not disappoint.

This series is usually well written (which at this point makes me wonder if she is the author still because they still hold together well, and she has to be getting up there in age), not too heavy on character development, and not driven by action--acceptable mysteries

One of my favorite series. Catching up with several of them this year.
Read in 2009

Intriguing. It held my interest throughout.

An interestingly relevant plot around homegrown terrorists shooting down planes with missiles, written over 20 years ago. Likeable and believable characters. Another good story from Truman.

3 airplanes are shot down in the same day in the US. FBI, CIA, & State Dept follow leads & clues. Mac & Annabelle small part of this story. Joe, a reporter, Skip, an FBI agent undercover & Max travel great distance to put the puzzle together.

I enjoyed the mystery and the story, but boy were the number of disparate characters hard to keep track of. Not sure why Mac and Anna-Belle were introduced in here at all; they have nothing to do with the story.

I wonder what this would've read like *before* September 2001. Note to self: ProQuest search for dissertations discussing 9/11 effect on fiction still an interesting idea.

An okay story. Mac and Annabel made some cameo appearances which I almost found unnecessary. There were a lot of characters in this one and at times that was confusing.

Lots going on and lots of old friends, but just a little all over the place. Mac and Annabel don't do anything except remind us we like them and they are just like us. Joe Potamos is kind of important as is Roseann. Jessica is around too. A dead Canadian and downed flights are just part of the drama as Russian mafia is also going. It was just a bit higgledy piggedly

Margaret Truman’s Capital Crimes series has mysteries set in different Washington locations, giving readers a flavour of the place itself, and the power games always on in the Capital. This one, book 17 in the series, is set in Foggy Bottom. Once a swamp, this became a trendy area with the Watergate, and the Kennedy Center, among other things. In this book, a body is found in a park in the area, a victim of a stabbing. Joe Potamos, a Washington Post reporter we’ve “met” in one of her books before is assigned to the case, and feels this is more than just a random stabbing, and keeps pursuing it even against instructions to drop the investigation. Meanwhile three planes are shot down in different locations killing many innocents and sending chill waves through the country and the administration. Jessica Mumford, an employee of the State Department, and Max Pauling, who she is dating, and who is with the CIA are involved in the investigations at different levels, and we also see how different government and law enforcement departments respond to it. But these two events turn out to be connected: and it is these characters that identify the connection.

While I didn’t find myself immediately gripped by the book (even though it was very readable), after a third of the way in, I was really hooked and found myself reading on right to the end to see how things turn out. What was kind of unnerving about this one was that it was written in 2000 just a year before 9/11 and on a smaller scale deals with the same kind of situation, and the impact that it had on people in their daily lives. While there was a mystery in this one as always, it had somewhat more of a thriller vibe. What stood out more than the mystery itself was the politics and diplomacy, and how these are what take the forefront pretty much all the time. So the “truth” is sometimes never to surface and sometimes moulded to suit the demands of politics. I enjoyed meeting recurring characters from her books, Mac and Annabel Reed-Smith, who are very much present through the book, though they don’t have a role in the actual mystery, reporter Joe Potamos and his pianist girlfriend, Roseann, and also new to me characters Max Pauling and Jessica Mumford, who I think appear in other books as well. This was a fast-paced and gripping read. Very enjoyable.

Very haphazard with too many superficial characters. Thin plot.