A CANDIDATE FOR MURDER

After overhearing a snatch of conversation at a party, high- schooler Cary Amberson is followed, framed, and terrorized. Cary's father is running for governor of Texas, facing not only a corrupt incumbent but a withering barrage of cruel editorial cartoons, slanted news stories, and crank calls—as well as incidents of vandalism, a home break-in, and Cary's arrest on a trumped-up drug charge. Who's behind this shadow campaign? With the help of a friendly reporter, Cary discovers evidence that one of the governor's cronies has killed a potential whistle-blower. Alerted, she barely escapes being murdered at a crowded fund- raiser. Despite plenty of red herrings, this thriller is more predictable than usual for Nixon, but the suspense is expertly created and drawn out. (Fiction. 12-15)