THE TEXAS CAPITOL MURDERS
by Bill Crider
A lighthearted look behind the dignified facade of the state capitol in Austin, Texas, where the strangled body of pretty, promiscuous Ramona Gonzalez, one of the building's cleaners, has been found in a basement hamper. Texas Ranger Ray Hartnett has scarcely begun to investigate when there's a second killing—this time the victim is Ron Matson, chief aide to State Senator Samuel Wilkins, a married man whose fondness for young women is common gossip. Bisexual, closeted Ron was close to Todd Elton, one-time capitol tour-guide, now a small-time drug-dealer who meets his pet clients in the capitol's chapel. Hartnett is drawn to attractive Chief Administrator Jane Kettler, provoking the jealousy of besotted head tour-guide Stan Donald. All of this is further complicated by a straggle of homeless sleeping around the building, a blackmailing head janitor, and the ineptitude (to say the least) of the building's security police. A perilous chase up endless staircases to the capitol's dome brings a tension-filled climax to this wryly amusing, mildly raunchy, thoroughly entertaining novel by the versatile Crider (Blood Marks, p. 634, etc.).