A Watergate Tape

Roy Hoopes's Our Man in Washington, an entertaining look at Washington, D.C., in the early 1920s through the eyes of James M. Cain and H. L. Mencken, got great reviews. "An entertaining, hard-boiled novel about political corruption . . . history with a twist," said Playboy. Now Hoopes turns to the Nixon era.

It's 1973, the year after the Watergate break-in, and everything that happens in and around Washington seems to have some connection to that scandal, including the death of Nixon-hating Senate staffer Tom Cranston. Cranston had told his friend, reporter Ray Hartley, that he felt endangered and might send him a tape to pass on to Bob Woodward at the Post if something should happen to him.

Just a day later, Tom is on a Delaware beach found with a bullet in his head. Ray decides to investigate and quickly finds there are too many likely suspects and motives, too many lists, tapes, photographs, and guns. But where is the tape Tom was talking about, and what's on it that makes a difference?