AMONG RICH NORTHEASTERN SUBURBANITES, POLITICS CAN BE POISON.
Hancock, Connecticut-a historic enclave of wealth and conservatism-is in the final heat of a three-way mayoral election when long-shot candidate Ivan Deakin takes a sip of cyanide-laced water and is retired to the morgue.
His murder exacerbates an already fierce controversy over proposed changes in rules governing the landmark status of local real estate-changes that would drastically alter property values. Like everyone else, amateur sleuth Susan Henshaw suspects unusually dirty politics and when her husband-who's running for town council-is tarred in the general smearing, Susan gets serious about finding Ivan's killer. But the possibilities are myriad, for Ivan Deakin was a political loose cannon, and the murkiness of his business deals is matched only by the notoriety of his romantic adventures. . . .