MURDER AT THE KENNEDY CENTER

Workmanlike ninth outing for Truman, which finds staff-worker Andrea Feldman shot in the bushes following a gala in support of liberal presidential hopeful Senator Ken Ewald. Family friend and Georgetown law professor Mac Smith is summoned for ""damage control"" because Ewald's registered gun was the murder weapon; his married son Paul had had an affair with the girl; Paul's wife has disappeared; and the conservative forces of rival Senator Backus, evangelist Kane, and ousted Panamanian dictator Morales are gleefully licking their chops. Abetted by ex-cop Tony Buffolino and girlfriend Annie, Mac traces the victim's ties to past indiscretions of Ewald's, a shyster blackmailer, and a right-wing organization (to which Andrea reported the senator's activities). Buffolino's legwork in S.F. and Annie's in N.Y. culminate in Mac's accusing the guilty party in the Ewalds' stately redbrick Georgetown home--in time for the senator to head for a fancy dinner where a Morales' assassin takes a shot at him, although he lives to vote another day. Once again: many Washington travelogue snippets; flat, move-the plot-along-but-pad-the-pages dialogue; and a romantic couple to root for. Included also are simplistic political-system explanations, with both left and right factions showing as failed heroes. Ranks middle to low in the series. Vote no.