Capitol Threat — William Bernhardt

Tapped to fill out the term of a disgraced U.S. senator, attorney Ben Kincaid has barely gotten his political sea legs when he must advise the president's next Supreme Court nominee during the sometimes thorny confirmation process. Popular on both sides of the aisle, Judge Thaddeus Roush seems a shoo-in -- until he decides to out himself on national television. But the Beltway uproar becomes a tabloid nightmare when, at a photo-op on liv TV, a brutally murdered woman is discovered in the judge's backyard.

While Ben uses his best courtroom strategies to counter the frenzy, his crack private eye, Loving, hits the capital streets to fight a much more hands-on battle -- with hustlers, hit men, and homicidal hoods -- as he digs for dirt in places even Deep Throat would avoid. It's soon clear that this game is anything but politics as usual.