THE THIRD INSTALLMENT IN DAVID CHADWICK'S NIXON'S AMERICA TRILOGY

Why did a US general kill his own son, then shoot a Pentagon rival? And who mailed the murder weapon to reporter Wat Tyler?

June,1976: Crime reporter Wat Tyler is plunged into Washington DC’s political shark-tank when his pal Johnny Tedstone and Pentagon big-shot Keith Zetchik are murdered on the same night, in the same neighbourhood.

The prime suspect is General Joseph “Holy Joe” Tedstone – Johnny’s dad and Zetchik’s bitter rival.

Still worse, Johnny had told Tyler the previous evening that his dad was planning the double murder. However, Tyler ignored the prediction because Johnny was drunk and stoned.

Filled with self-recrimination, Tyler – a Special Forces veteran – discovers Holy Joe and Zetchik served together as friends in Vietnam but became implacable enemies over war crime allegations.

Tyler’s investigation takes on an even darker significance when he encounters Kim Lamb, a CIA double agent who is also probing the Tedstone-Zetchik incident.

She reminds Tyler of a young spy killed in Saigon when an undercover operation went badly wrong. And he must defeat his own demons to untangle ominous links between then and now.