Act of Darkness

Act of Darkness falls near the top of the second tier of Gregor Demarkian stories. As usual, the solution is found in the history we are given. Bennis's debutante youth and her status as a celebrity author are the perfect cover for inviting Gregor to investigate a murder before it happens. The mental chaos of celebrity and politics breaks the mirror of the characters' thoughts into a jumbled mosaic that masks the real story (and reflects the author's personal views, if her website is any indication). The principle corpse-to-be is Senator Stephen Whistler Fox, a flesh-and-bones marionette on the strings of a very skilled political manager whose ambition is to be the President behind the President. Readers can decide for themselves whether Fox represents anyone in the American political scene, but please remember that this book was written several administrations ago.

L: What hast thou been?E: A serving-man, proud in heart and mind; that curled my hair; wore gloves in my cap; served the lust of my mistress' heart, and did the act of darkness with her; swore as many oaths as I spake words, and broke them in the sweet face of heaven.- Lear and Edgar, _King Lear_, act III, scene ivGregor Demarkian retired from the FBI as one of its highest-ranking administrators: chief of Behavioral Sciences, in charge of tracking down serial killers. A working lifetime spent in Washington merely honed his near-superstitious distrust of politicians. Nevertheless, a former colleague has asked Gregor to attend Senator Stephen Fox's Independence Day weekend 'seminar' in Oyster Bay, New York. Worrying things have been happening to the senator lately - but why?No Washington insider takes Fox seriously; his political manager Dan Chester does things while Fox concentrates on his television performance, the one providing substance and the other image. They have a symbiotic relationship - Chester knows that he lacks the right image for media celebrity, and Fox knows that Chester has the brains. Fox isn't even smart enough to cheat on his wife discreetly; he met his current mistress, Patchen Rawls, through his wife's *mother*, Victoria Harte. (Janet Fox, for her part, never recovered from the death of her only child. Her only real interest is working with Down's Syndrome kids at the Emiliani school, a charity that doesn't fit in with Chester's grand schemes - it's too real and too religious.)As a springboard to the Presidency, Fox is proposing the Act in Aid of Exceptional Children. While providing Fox with the public image of a saintly defender of mentally disabled children, behind the scenes the Act serves as a lever to pry funds and influence out of its real beneficiaries: organizations of health care workers. Fox's friend Dr. Kevin Debrett will benefit substantially no matter what, but the Empowerment Project, via lobbyist Claire Markey, also wants to get aboard. But when the Act was announced to the press, Stephen Fox collapsed, and has been doing so at speaking engagements ever since. After a battery of medical tests, Chester asked the FBI to look into the possibility that Fox is being sabotaged - so Gregor is to attend the seminar. Gregor, in turn, asked Bennis to accompany him as cover; with her looks and background, she's just the type of campaign contributor Fox would like, and Gregor can use an intelligent friend on this. If the attacks are real and not some weird psychological symptom, how are they being staged, and what are they intended to accomplish?Patchen, Fox's mistress, can't think her way out of a paper bag; she thinks it's Fox's destiny to leave Janet for her, and that only Chester is blocking her. Did she stage Fox's attacks as a foolish ploy to drive Chester away? (While she alone of the suspects has no clinic connections, she plays at Wicca, complete with a pharmacopoeia of herbal preparations.) Was Patchen the last