Up in Smoke — Charlene Weir

Governor Jack Garrett is seeking his party's candidacy for the upcoming presidential election and has come to Hampstead, Kansas, to kick off his campaign with a homecoming rally. Trouble follows and quickly strikes his entourage, which includes his ambitious wife, his zealous campaign manager and his oldest friend -- who turns up dead in his bathroom, a gunshot wound to the head. Suicide...or murder?

Police Chief Susan Wren starts sorting through the evidence, which unfortunately implicates Governor Garrett as well as her own cousin Sean, an irrepressible political journalist who's convinced there's a hidden story among the cast of characters. He's right. From a former lover contemplating suicide to a vengeful mother plotting murder, a bizarre string of events -- including a 911 call from the trunk of a car -- puts Susan on a deadly trail of the strange and twisted ties that bind...and kill.