Title: Strachey's Folly (#7 in the Donald Strachey series) Author: Richard Stevenson Published by: St. Martin's Press, 1998 ISBN: 0-312-18669-X [hardcover, 216 pages]
Albany P.I. Donald Strachey and his lover, Timothy Callahan, take a trip to Washington, D.C., to visit Maynard Sudbury, one of Timmy's old friends from his Peace Corps days, and to see the AIDS Memorial Quilt. But their visit to the quilt is marred when Maynard come across a panel for an ex-lover -- a conservative Washington insider named Jim Suter -- whom Maynard had seen alive and well two weeks earlier in Mexico. Even odder than the bogus panel is the disguised visitor they spot looking at the panel -- conservative ex-Congresswoman Betty Krumfutz, who resigned her seat in disgrace after a fiscal scandal erupted over her election and her husband left her for another woman.But what first seemed odd soon becomes dangerous. First, Maynard gets a letter from Suter telling him that his life would be in danger if anyone knew Maynard had seen Suter in Mexico, then the evening news reports that Suter's quilt panel has been vandalized, and finally, Maynard himself is gravely injured in a not-so-random drive-by shooting.
With the police not inclined to look further than Strachey and Timmy for suspects and Maynard barely clinging to life, Strachey decides to take matters into his own hands. Strachey must find the secrets behind Suter's disappearance, the fake panel in the AIDS Memorial Quilt, Betty Krumfutz's mysterious appearance, and, most important, who is willing to kill to protect those secrets. And he must do so before whoever is behind all of this decides to come after him.
Return to Jay's West Hollywood Home Return to Mystery Send to Jay
