Author: Allison Leotta
Publisher: Touchstone (July 3, 2012)
Format: Hardcover; Pgs 336
Genre: Thriller
Source: Library
Hosted by Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea
Chapter 1
Even now, Caroline got nervous before every big job—and this was bigger than most. She knewhow to smile past smirking hotel concierges and apartment–building doormen who deliberately looked the other way. The key was looking confident. But committing a crime in the U.S. Capitol was a different experience altogether.
She tried to radiate authority as she strode up the marble steps to the Capitol's Senate carriage entrance. It helped that she was dolled up like a successful K Street lobbyist: ivory St. John suit, Manolo heels, hair painstakingly highlighted just the right shade of blond. Two men coming out of the portico murmured hello to her, and she smiled as if she greeted congressional staffers all the time. One staffer turned to watch her pass. His glance was appreciative but not shocked; she was young and beautiful, but she looked like she belonged in this world of high–octane political deal–making. Good.
Overview
When a beautiful young woman plummets to her death from the balcony of the U.S. Capitol, Assistant U.S. Attorney Anna Curtis is summoned to the scene. The evidence points to a sexual assault and murder. The victim is one of the city’s highest-paid escorts. And the balcony belongs to Washington D.C.’s lone Congressman, the most powerful figure in city politics.
The Congressman proclaims his innocence, but he’s in the middle of a tough primary fight, and the scandal could cost him the election. For Anna, the high-profile case is an opportunity. But as the political stakes rise, she realizes that a mistake could end her career.
At the same time, her budding romance with Jack Bailey, the chief homicide prosecutor, is at a crossroads. Determined to gain respect in the office, Anna wants to keep their relationship under wraps. But the mounting pressure and media attention that comes with the office’s most important case will inevitably expose their relationship — if it doesn’t destroy it first.
The investigation leads Anna to Discretion, a high-end escort service that caters to D.C.’s elite. With each break in the case, however, the mystery deepens. And the further Anna ventures into D.C.’s red-light underworld, the larger the target on her own back.
From the secret social clubs where Washington’s most powerful men escape from public view to the asphalt “track” where the city’s most vulnerable women work the streets, Discretion is a gripping exploration of sex, power, and the secrets we keep.
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