When veteran FBI agent George Pritchard is found shot dead on the firing range at Washington's J. Edgar Hoover Building (during a guided tour!), a special team called ""Ranger"" is formed to investigate--quickly, quietly, and with minimum embarrassment to the Bureau. But things soon become complicated for agent Christine Saksis (gorgeous, half-Passamaquoddy Indian), whose lover Ross Lizenby heads the team. First of all, Chris and moody Ross find that working together strains their romance--especially when Chris' old flame Bill (a Native American activist/publisher) arrives in town. Furthermore, though the most convenient suspects in the case are three visiting foreign agents, Chris--despite warnings from higher-ups--insists on sleuthing in another direction: she uncovers a link between the dead agent and famous muckraker Richard Kneeley! Was Pritchard--or his bitter estranged wife--in the process of leaking shocking FBI secrets to Kneeley? Chris, now in peril from both physical attacks (dear Bill is nearly killed) and character-assassination, is steadfastly determined to find out--tracking Kneeley to Manhattan and Fire Island, even resorting to some illegal wire-tapping of computer/phone transmissions. And, along with the ho-hum murder solution, Chris will uncover The Awful Truth (kinky, violent) about lover-boss Ross, Part mystery, part conspiracy-melodrama (a very sketchy one), and part gothicky romance: one of Truman's livelier Washington concoctions--with a little more plot and little less talk than usual.