PRAY GOD TO DIE
by Carey Roberts
Washington, D.C., homicide cop Anne Fitzhugh's hardcover debut (by the coauthor of the historical novel Tidewater Dynasty, 1981) is the hilariously amateurish tale of the murder of well-connected environmentalist Caroline McKelvey—who switched from lobbying to a staff job for high-profile New Jersey Congressman James Woodward (whose name is being bruited as the first cabinet Secretary for Environmental Protection) just in time to get her neck sliced right in the ``aorta artery.'' As if her links to the Woodward entourage don't provide suspicions enough, Caro was also seeing a lot of charismatic canon Jesse Clore, of neighboring Washington Cathedral, and had newspeople for two of her closest neighbors and a thoroughly misfit brother who admits, ``I take what I can...whenever I can.'' Plus, she was about to give her fiancÇ, Lt. Cmdr. Daryl Swan, the heave-ho, even though ``he really loved her, thought Anne.'' Plus, she was four-to- six weeks pregnant. Plus, plus, plus. As one of the leading suspects asks Anne, ``What's a beautiful and classy female like you doing in the messy business of homicide?'' Good question.