The disappearance of Lincoln Bowe, a notably controversial Republican ex-senator who lost his seat through the efforts of Arlo Goodman, the new governor of his state, send shock waves through Washington and the oval office. Chief of staff Bill Danzig calls upon his trusty investigator, Montana-born Jake Winters, a roadside bomb amputee and bureaucracy maven. If anyone's going to get anywhere with this, it's Jake.

No simple assignment; the convolutions are thick with political intrigue and hints of illegality. Chief suspect Goodman is surrounded and served by his corps of "Watchmen" a volunteer militia that range in peoples' opinions from local do-gooders to ex-military thugs. He could easily have set them on Bowe to silence his hot-tempered verbal abuses. Bowe was not a man to shrink into the background. And, later, one of Bowe's lovers will make the accusation.

Jake is stunned when he arrives at the home of the very private wife of the missing congressman, Madison Bowe, for an interview. As he will later confess, the first time he saw this raging beauty who might be a new widow he wanted to jump her. But he professionally puts his glandular reactions aside to gain her cooperation and access to her husband's papers and possessions. Mixed feelings occur when he learns of the Bowes' sexual estrangement for years, and the husband's alternative preferences, which figures as much in the case as it does to his increasingly personal interest in the lady. Even more so when the senator's body shows up burned and headless, barb-wired to a tree.

Author Sandford's 22nd novel shows a superb blend of taste and narrative power by integrating a love story into a thriller of magnitude and taut suspense. It contains a highly choreographed climactic ambush by military-trained hunter-strategists; a determined widow carrying her load; a mystery package that someone's trying to destroy, a few good belly laughs (refer to the pork chop in the vegetable chili), and a wrap-up that ties up all loose ends into a wholesome dish of satisfaction.