Capital Crimes (Donald Bain) Books in Order

Secretary of State Lansard Blaine is found strangled inside the White House, and counsel Ron Fairbanks is told to find out why. The deeper he digs, the more the case threatens the presidency and the people closest to it.

When Senator Cale Caldwell is murdered at a glittering Capitol Hill reception, attorney Lydia James suspects the crime is tied to an earlier family tragedy. Washington power, money, and old secrets make every answer dangerous.

A killing linked to the Supreme Court shatters one of Washington's most guarded institutions. With almost everyone around the victim nursing a grievance, the case turns into a tense search through privilege, ambition, and legal power.

Historian Lewis Tunney is murdered before hundreds of guests at a Smithsonian gala, and Captain Mac Hanrahan takes the case. As Tunney's fiancee asks questions of her own, an art scandal and more deaths widen the danger.

When British ambassador Geoffrey James dies during his own party, suspicion falls on a missing valet. Two Washington investigators soon find a nastier mix of diplomacy, espionage, and personal corruption behind the polished facade.

A murder inside FBI headquarters opens a case steeped in bureau secrecy and Washington turf wars. Truman uses the Bureau's guarded world to build a mystery where official loyalty and personal ambition are hard to separate.

Valerie Frolich, a senator's daughter and rising reporter, turns up dead in the C&O Canal. Reporter Joe Potamos follows the story into a maze of bribery, kidnapping, and espionage that reaches well beyond Georgetown society.

When literary agent Barrie Mayer dies at Heathrow, officials call it natural causes, but her CIA friend Collette Cahill knows better. The missing briefcase Barrie was carrying leads straight into espionage and Cold War deception.

A young woman is brutally killed during a gala for Senator Kenneth Ewald, and the evidence points toward the candidate's own family. Law professor Mac Smith steps in as politics, religion, and scandal collide under Washington's brightest lights.

Mac Smith and Annabel Reed barely finish their wedding before murder drags them into a new case. What begins at Washington National Cathedral soon stretches to England, where secrets and violence shadow their honeymoon.

Major Margit Falk is drawn into a Pentagon investigation after a doctor is murdered and an antimissile project starts to unravel. The case mixes military secrecy, political pressure, and a threat that could turn catastrophic.

Mac Smith discovers a body in the Potomac and cannot let the mystery go. His search pulls him and Annabel toward a wealthy Washington circle and a theatrical group obsessed with reenacting famous murders.

A Caravaggio exhibition and a risky forgery scheme set the stage for blackmail and murder at the National Gallery. Annabel Reed-Smith and Mac Smith follow the case from Washington into the murky international art world.

A respected congressman's rise toward higher office is wrecked by scandal, then by an apparent suicide that may actually be murder. The case exposes how quickly rumor, sex, and power can destroy a Washington career.

At the Watergate, political ambition, rich donors, and private appetites overlap in all the worst ways. Mac and Annabel are pulled into a case where campaign money and old loyalties make the body count climb.

When a noted scholar is bludgeoned inside the Library of Congress, Annabel Reed-Smith finds herself in the middle of the case. Missing art, a vanished researcher, and a mysterious Columbus diary deepen the intrigue.

A stabbing in Foggy Bottom seems small until passenger planes start falling from the sky. Truman turns a neighborhood murder into a larger story about terrorism, intelligence, and the secrets buried in Washington.

Ex-CIA and ex-State Department man Max Pauling agrees to fly medical supplies into Havana and lands in something far murkier. Murder, embargo politics, and divided loyalties make Cuba every bit as dangerous as Washington.

When Nadia Zarinski is found dead behind Ford's Theatre, two mismatched detectives step into a mess of sex, politics, and performance. Senators, actors, and arts officials all have reasons to want the truth managed.

Former mob hit man Louis Russo is shot as he arrives at Union Station, carrying a story powerful people would prefer buried. The investigation races from trains and back rooms to Congress and the West Wing.

A young journalist is strangled at the Washington Tribune, then a second media worker turns up dead. Veteran reporter Joe Wilcox chases the killer while fearing his own daughter may be next.

An aspiring soprano is stabbed backstage before a Washington opera performance can even begin. Mac and Annabel move through egos, grudges, and larger political shadows to find who turned rehearsal into murder.

After Senator Lyle Simmons finds his wife bludgeoned to death, retired prosecutor Philip Rotondi is pulled back into Washington combat. Lobbyists, spin, and dirty money make the case as much about influence as homicide.

A murdered call girl, a hidden video camera, and a heated presidential race make a volatile mix. As detectives chase the killer, the case opens onto kidnapping, blackmail, and the polished rot of campaign season.

Savannah investigator Robert Brixton takes a cold case involving Louise Watkins, a woman killed after prison and long believed guilty of a crime she should not have owned. The trail leads from local power brokers to dangerous Washington secrets.

When psychiatrist Mark Sedgwick is killed, Mackenzie Smith defends a patient who quickly becomes a suspect. The case twists into a CIA mind control program and a programmed assassin willing to kill anyone in the way.

State Department security investigator Robert Brixton loses his daughter in a cafe bombing and refuses to let the case go. His search uncovers embassy killings, political protection, and a violent cabal hiding behind public respectability.

Congressional intern Laura Bennett disappears after getting too close to a charismatic congressman with a polished family-values image. When she turns up dead in the Congressional Cemetery, Robert Brixton starts pulling at the lies around her.

Robert Brixton stumbles into a pharmaceutical case where a promising new painkiller has made somebody desperate enough to kill. Corporate greed, medical stakes, and Washington influence turn the search for truth into a dangerous chase.

Robert Brixton investigates a fraudulent charity and a brutal power struggle with ties to Nigeria, while a British security officer hunts answers about his son's death. The story pushes the series beyond Washington into international intrigue.

After Robert Brixton stops a bombing attempt on the Metro, he is drawn into a larger plot involving a vice president's suspicious death and an international terror attack. The danger feels immediate, modern, and uncomfortably close to power.

A shooting on the Capitol steps and a poisoning tied to the CDC send Robert Brixton into one of his most personal cases. The deeper he looks, the clearer it becomes that an old secret could push the country toward catastrophe.