Product Description

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. And in William Bernhardt’s best novel yet, getting to the truth is an unparalleled experience in pure, satisfying suspense.


From the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #167416 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-30
• Released on: 2007-01-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 432 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In Bernhardt's somewhat predictable 14th thriller to feature ace Oklahoma trial lawyer Ben Kincaid (after 2004's Hate Crime), Ben goes to Washington, D.C., to defend his home state's senior senator on a murder charge. Sen. Todd K. Glancy, a former law school colleague who later became "a successful and fabulously wealthy oil magnate" (a fact Ben's mother never lets her son forget), has been caught on video in flagrante with a much younger intern. Soon after the video is shown endlessly on television, the young woman is found dead in a tunnel leading from the Capitol to the Senate offices, and Glancy is charged with her ritual murder. Worst of all, Ben begins to distrust his own client, though dropping the case would be a political and financial disaster. The author has obviously had fun with his research, letting Ben and his team wander around the seats of power, making observations that range from the ironic to the openly gung-ho touristy. If Bernhardt occasionally makes Margaret Truman's books look shrewd and sardonic by comparison, his zeal should please his loyal readers.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
The author shakes up this long-running series by taking his lead character, attorney Ben Kincaid, out of his familiar Oklahoma surroundings and sending him to Washington, D.C., where an old law-school chum, now a U.S. senator, is, well, waist deep in a sex scandal. When the scandal turns murderous, Ben realizes he needs a crash course in Washington law--not to mention backroom politics--if he hopes to keep his old friend out of prison. Assuming, of course, that the senator really is as innocent as he claims. Despite its serious subject, this Kincaid novel is funnier than many of its predecessors. The new surroundings are a plus, too, focusing the reader on the unfamiliar setting instead of the rather-too-familiar legal-thriller formula. All in all, series fans will be satisfied. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
Praise for Dark Eye

“Bernhardt keeps his foot flat on the accelerator, producing action at every turn of the page.”
–Orlando Sentinel

“Murder in Sin City, as investigated by a tough woman cop and her incomparably gifted young associate–Bernhardt and Vegas go together like fire and gasoline.”
–Stephen Coonts, author of Liars & Thieves

“A Silence of the Lambs meets Rain Man thriller that will chill you while its two unique and endearing protagonists steal your heart.”
–Lisa Scottoline, author of Killer Smile

“Cliff-hanging suspense . . . a macabre detective story.”
–The Roanoke Times


From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews

Boring...and partisan
The previous books in the Kincaid series were clever for the most part. Not this one. William Bernhardt discovered his thesauraus for this entry in the series and his soap box. Clearly William Bernhardt felt his political views needed to come through - and they do. Repeatedly. Made the book boring.

So slow
I am a huge Ben Kincaid fan. I was looking forward to this one big time.

What a disappointment. The storyline of a Government official who gets accused of killing an intern - because he was having an affair with her.

The book starts off very well. A murder - and a videotape of the government official and the victim in torrid sex positions (think Monica and Bill). SO far so good.

Except that is when the storyline becomes soooooo borring and soooo slow. We get pages and endless pages of dialogue between the official and Ben, then between Ben and the guy's wife and between Ben and just about everybody else who could possibly be involved in the case.

This is the first time I read a Ben Kincaid book and try to figoure out how many pages I have left to read.

This story dragged and dragged. The usual humour wasn't there, in fact, I felt as though Bernhardt went a little over the top with the "eccentricities of Ben" in this book. Sure, Ben is always a little behind in most things, but in this book, Bernhardt wrote Ben almost over the top - he made him out to be clueless AND a bit of a joke. I did not like that at all. Part of the fun of this series is that Ben is eccentric but interesting. He was neither in this book.

Also, the camaraderie I have come to love between the characters was non-existent here.

Oh, about the murderer. I had it figured out by page 58.

Not a great moment in the Kincaid series.

Bloodsuckers in Washington, D. C.
In his fourteenth Ben Kincaid novel, "Capitol Murder," William Bernhardt moves from Tulsa, Oklahoma to Washington, D. C. Ben's old chum, Democratic senator Todd Glancy, has been having an affair with his beautiful young aide, Veronica Cooper. Glancy and his staff are understandably alarmed when a sordid and explicit videotape is released to the media showing the senator and Cooper in an extremely compromising position. Glancy summons Ben to handle any legal fallout that may ensue. Unfortunately, the senator's problems are just beginning. Soon, Cooper is found brutally murdered in Glancy's senate hideaway, and the police immediately suspect that the politician decided to silence his lover permanently.

Bernhardt has made his reputation by combining lively courtroom theatrics with suspense, romance, and campy humor. This time around, he has chosen an unsubtle metaphor to describe the goings-on in our nation's capital--vampirism. It seems that a bloodsucking cult is operating in Washington and Veronica Cooper, along with other young and beautiful female victims, was under the spell of an insane, Svengali-like leader. Kincaid's investigator, the hulking but good-hearted Loving, makes the rounds of vampire hangouts and meets some extremely sick puppies who are into sex, sado-masochism, drugs, and very eerie and painful rituals. If Loving can prove that Veronica was involved with these weirdoes, there may be enough reasonable doubt to get Glancy off the hook.

"Capitol Murder" is brisk and, occasionally, laugh-out loud funny; however, too often it is cutesy, heavy-handed, and preachy. The stomach-turning torture scenes and the light-hearted banter make for an incongruous combination. As if this unusual blend of dark and light themes weren't enough, Bernhardt also inserts heavy-handed political commentary about ambitious, greedy, and promiscuous elected officials who operate without a conscience or moral code. The courtroom scenes are lively and the mystery is fairly compelling, but the far-out ending is completely implausible.

Still, the lead characters are as likeable as ever. Ben is a sweet nebbish and a man of integrity who is also a brilliant courtroom strategist. Christina is Ben's partner and a knowledgeable and poised defense attorney in her own right. Fans of this series have long been rooting for these two lovebirds to finally pass beyond the snuggling stage. Will Ben's commitment issues forever prevent him from declaring his intentions to his lady love? Although "Capitol Murder" is far from perfect, those readers who, like me, have stayed with Ben and Christina since day one will want to read the latest installment.