William Bernhardt' s bestselling novels featuring Oklahoma defense attorney Ben Kincaid capture the bare-knuckles reality of high-stakes criminal defense, as lofty ideals of justice clash with power, corruption, and wealth. In Capitol Murder, Bernhardt' s hard-charging hero takes on his most shocking, headline-making case yet. Kincaid' s legal success has earned him a dubious reward: a journey through the looking glass into the Beltway. Here, in the heart of the nation' s capital, a powerful U.S. senator has been caught first in a sordid sex scandal, then in a case of murder. Senate aide Veronica Cooper was found in a secret Senate office beneath the Capitol building, on Senator Todd Glancy' s favorite couch, blood pouring from the knife wound in her throat. The young woman' s death comes on the heels of the release of a sordid videotape depicting her and Senator Glancy in compromising positions. With the senator' s reputation in tatters, the evidence against him- as a sexual predator and possibly a killer- mounts. By the time a nationally televised murder trial begins, Kincaid and his team know they' re facing the challenge of a lifetime. According to public opinion, and even in Kincaid' s most private thoughts, Glancy is one more politician who cannot admit his own culpability. But while a dramatic trial unfolds in the courtroom- loaded with pitfalls, traps, and an astounding betrayal- another trial is taking place on the mean streets of D.C., as Kincaid' s investigator pursues a young woman who was a friend of Veronica Cooper' s, plunging Kincaid into a bizarre world of Goths, sadomasochists, and a community of self-proclaimed vampires. Somewhere in this violent underworld lies the secret behind Veronica Cooper' s demise . . . and the crux of Senator Glancy' s innocence or guilt. In a case that pits Kincaid and his freewheeling partner Christina McCall against the brutal machinery of Washington politics, the answers they seek are hidden in a murderous maze of lies and hidden motives.