Murder in State

by E. Howard Hunt

Georgetown lawyer Alan Stuart finds his peaceful bachelor life threatened when Selwyn, a former colleague at the State Department, turns up dead, Selwyn's widow hires him, and an arms negotiation talk leads to a confrontation with the KGB

296 pages, Hardcover

First published December 31, 1990

About the author

E. Howard Hunt was an American intelligence officer and writer. Hunt served for many years as a CIA officer. Hunt, with G. Gordon Liddy and others, was one of the Nixon White House "plumbers" — a secret team of operatives charged with fixing "leaks." Hunt, along with Liddy, engineered the first Watergate burglary, and other undercover operations for Nixon. In the ensuing Watergate Scandal, Hunt was convicted of burglary, conspiracy and wiretapping, eventually serving 33 months in prison.

He published over eighty books wrote under the pseudonyms Robert Dietrich, Gordon Davis and David St. John

From Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Stuart · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story was a lot tighter than I thought it would be (I wasn't expecting much from a Nixon coconspirator turned fiction writer).That's to say it had a believable and interesting plot and was well written. I appreciated the details Mr Hunt included to create a realistic setting whether it was a Parisian street, meals in a fine restaurant or sketchy locations in a remote Mexican town.
The only negatives for me was the unlikely transformation of Alan Stuart from middle aged competent estate and tax attorney to wiley and deadly amateur sleuth and at times too much extraneous detail.
I am editing my review at this moment. When I wrote the first part I still had a chapter left to read. I planned on skimming it, not expecting anything interesting. That's when I discovered a very exciting twist!

[John Stanley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit slow. However, it was a pretty good story, written well, and with a nice double-twist at the end.