Buy this book
Books N Bytes participates in affiliate programs including Amazon Associates and Bookshop.org. We may earn a commission when you purchase through our links at no extra cost to you.
The Witch of Watergate is one of Warren Adler's Fiona Fitzgerald novels, a long-running DC police series that takes the city's political class as its natural prey. Fiona, a homicide detective with personal money and a complicated family, gets a case involving the murder of a Washington Post reporter at the Watergate building. The backstory leads back to a sealed Watergate-era file that almost no one remembers.
Adler writes the Washington social geography with the confidence of a longtime resident. The newsroom scenes, the cocktail circuit, the way the federal city operates after dark, are all rendered with care. The case itself is competent rather than ingenious.
Three stars. Recommended to fans of DC-set political mysteries. The series is uneven but has its real strengths in the texture rather than the puzzle.
Related reads
If you liked The Witch of Watergate
Senator Love
by Warren Adler
A Warren Adler Fiona Fitzgerald novel. DC homicide investigation involving a senator with discretionary problems. Adler in full DC-social-fiction mode.
The Ties That Bind
by Warren Adler
Late Fiona Fitzgerald. Warren Adler's DC detective still working murders that the city would prefer remain unsolved.
Blood Ties
by Warren Adler
Blood Ties by Warren Adler 1979 review. An assimilated American Jewish lawyer travels to Bavaria for a family wedding and uncovers a Nazi-era secret that pulls his identity apart.
Cult: A Novel of Brainwashing and Death
by Warren Adler
Warren Adler in domestic-thriller mode. A daughter's deprogramming, a parent's panic, and a mid-80s look at the cult crisis.
Mourning Glory
by Warren Adler
Mourning Glory by Warren Adler 1996 review. A broke single mother in Palm Beach starts trolling funerals for wealthy grieving widowers. Then she actually falls for one.
The Casanova Embrace
by Warren Adler
The Casanova Embrace by Warren Adler 1978 review. A Chilean dissident in Washington beds a string of women for political intelligence. An FBI handler tries to piece it together after his death.
More by this author