Another of the author's trendy, undermotivated plots takes P.R. man/sleuth Julian Quest (The Party Killer, etc.) to the Hudson River city of Bridgetown, a city dominated by the Manchester Arms munitions company. Martha Best, secretary to the company's president, Mark Foreman, was murdered here: months later, the killer is still unknown. Now Martha's brother Wally, world-famous country singer and a client of Julian's, has decided to run for mayor of Bridgetown as a cover to finding the murderer. Just before her death, Martha had told him that she was about to blow the whistle on some dastardly company secrets. Now, Julian, accompanying Wally as he opens his campaign, finds the company influence all pervasive in the town, with Greg Martin, one of their VIPs, opposing Wally in the mayoral contest. Things heat up when Julian's girlfriend, Lydia Morton, is kidnapped and when chambermaid Sue Wilson is found dead in his hotel room. After a thwarted attempt on the life of local newspaper columnist Liz Davis, Julian then finds some unexpected allies--the all-too-obvious culprit is nabbed, and Lydia restored to her lover. Readable and forgettable--middling Pentecost.