"Blend literary brilliance with outstanding mystery writing, stir in a bit of political intrigue and you get a surefire winner, Smith's third book to feature D.C. — based FBI agent Poppy Rice (after 2003's She's Not There). Poppy agrees to help a friend's mom find closure in the case of the death of a pregnant woman in her native Ireland during the 1970s, but before you can say 'Erin go bragh,' the body of another pregnant young woman with an Irish link washes up on a beach in Boston Harbor. Police detective and Hindu/Catholic Rocky Patel heads the Beantown investigation of the American victim, and his coolness and wisdom complement Poppy's no-nonsense professionalism. When the corpse gets a name, her family ties prove to be political powerhouses — including connections clear to the White House — and one relative appears to be dirty in more ways than one. Was the dead woman this family's bad seed, or contaminated by someone truly evil? Her sister pronounces the latter, and in doing so, reveals a cancer that has spread far beyond the cells of her own family. In a plot that takes Poppy's crime fighters on a desperate chase across the country and beyond, the action concludes in a heart-hammering climax. Smith shines in this superb whodunit. Agent, Molly Friedrich at Aaron Priest Literary Agency. (June 3)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information, Inc.)

When intrepid FBI agent Poppy Rice is asked to solve two cases--separated by thirty years, but connected by DNA--she finds herself snared in a web of political deceit, family intrigue, and out-and-out bad guys.