Potomac Fever: A Novel [Hardcover]

Henry Horrock (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 25, 1999

A high-powered thriller set in Washington, D.C., features a pair of cops in a fiendishly clever plot that involves everything from kinky sex to shady real estate development. Local media.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

From the pseudonymous husband and wife team of Diane Henry and Nicholas Horrock (Blood Red, Snow White) comes a seamless collaboration that tingles with suspense, breathing new life into the clich?-ridden White House conspiracy plot. Homicide Detective Lt. Cal Terrell wakes up in the hospital unable to speak, but devotedly attended by his ex-wife, Vivian. As he fades in and out of consciousness, Cal relives the attack on his life, which is tied to the murder of Mary Jeanne Turner, the hostess of a posh D.C. restaurant, who was branded on her buttock with a letter "B" just before she died. Investigating the case with his voluptuous partner Sgt. Bobbie Short, Terrell soon finds links to D.C.'s black Republican mayor, Martin Cameron; a real estate development called Rivergate; Vivian's current husband, Edward St. Denis, who's a White House aide; and a shoot-out at the Reggae Club, which just happens to be located in a neighborhood slated to be torn down as part of the Rivergate project. When Terrell learns about a party on a boat called Potomac Fever, the White House connection falls into place, but there's nothing tired about the way Horrock lays the trail. The writing here is crisp and clear; the characters are sharply drawn and always believable, and the realistic dialogue has zing and heft. A clear picture of how Washington worksAthe way power and money and race keep colliding against each otherAis visible on every page. This is a stand-out effort: exciting, engrossing and impossible to put down.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

A modern fable of campaign finance reform, this noir romp through Washingtons power strata shimmers with local color and local gossip. When an ultra-shady deal to finance a presidential campaign with drug money stalls, a nightclub massacre gets is going again. Coincidentally, a beautiful restaurant hostess is murdered. Are the crimes related? Police detective Cal Terrell and partner Roberta Short, whose previous shenanigans have put them in the nothing to lose category, try to crack the case, with dire results. Henry Horrock is a pseudonym for the husband-and-wife team of Diane Henry and Nicholas Horrock, both journalists and the authors of Blood Red, Snow White (LJ 12/91). Beltway buffs will enjoy this fast, entertaining roman clef. The dialog is punchy, the plots are suitably complex, and the authors convincingly render the nastiness of the characters and their machinations. Political thriller fans will not be disappointed and will nurse a secret hope that silent Cal will appear again.Barbara Conaty, Library of Congress
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; 1st edition (May 25, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316354724
• ISBN-13: 978-0316354721
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,167,341 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A SHOCKING YET COMPELLING READ, February 11, 2001

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Potomac Fever (Mass Market Paperback)

As up to the minute as the latest CNN news report and as chilling as reading your own obit, Potomac Fever by the pseudonymous husband/wife team of Diane Henry and Nicholas Horrock (Blood Red, Snow White, 1992) is part psychological thriller, part savvy political commentary, and all can't-put-down, spine-tingling drama.

This Washington based, suspense driven tale has everything - a compelling opening, an unexpected finish and in between violence, sex, race, betrayal, conspiracy - all held together by crackling dialogue and authentically drawn characters.

For starters, we witness the sadistic beating of homicide detective Cal Terrell, an honest experienced cop with a love of horses and the Chesapeake. Cal has been ambushed by masked thugs at his stable/home. Years on the Washington scene have taught him what he didn't want to know: evil does exist.

As Cal lies in a hospital's intensive care unit he mentally replays his investigation of the murder of nubile Mary Jeanne Turner, a 19-year-old dining room hostess in a posh club. Her cocaine stoked body, distinguished by a "B" branded on her posterior, had been retrieved from Chesapeake Bay.

Cal and his partner, feisty, gorgeous, tough Bobbie Short, misnamed because she's about 6'1" in heels, were also ordered to investigate shootings outside the youth oriented Reggae Club. What on the surface had appeared to be random acts of violence, perhaps gang related, turned out to be a heinous plot designed to force residents to sell their property to Virgil James, a wealthy black realtor and compatriot of Washington's black Mayor, Martin Cameron.

James, it seems, has been dating Mary Jeanne who has a penchant for interracial relationships and, as we later learn, has also become the Mayor's main squeeze. We suspect that perhaps James is providing cover for the married Mayor's liaisons, and we learn that James is trying to accrue property for rich and questionable Harry Moray, who wants to transform downscale D.C. areas into profitable luxury condos.

Moray is a lobbyist, a power broker with easy access to the President. A former senator, he "saw that the opportunities in Washington were in a different direction, that the rewards of government were not in governing."

Add to this mix of nefarious no-gooders Vivian, Cal's ex-wife, a glamorous TV journalist now married to Edward St. Denis, the President's counsel. She tries to rekindle any old sparks lying dormant in Cal's heart and loins. Why?

Blend in Nathaniel Bench, Cal's former partner and now proud to be Washington's black police chief - somewhere along the line he lost his spine and mastered double speak. He's busy throwing roadblocks up in Cal and Bobbie's investigations.

The possibility and plausibility of the authors' inventive story line make this tale more chilling than a sci-fi epic. Combine that with non-stop action ignited by an insider's edgy narrative and you have Potomac Fever - a shocking yet compelling read.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This "Thriller" is Tired..., January 9, 2003

By 

A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Potomac Fever (Mass Market Paperback)

Those who can't get enough of the "conspiracy at the highest level" genre of thrillers will want to add this to their reading lists, but the average reader is likely to grow exasperated with this overblown mess, which is stuffed with every push-button issue under the sun. Sex, race, class, drugs, corruption, homosexuality, shadowy operatives, high-power lobbyists, shady real-estate deals, professional athletes, hit teams, public relations, the White House, it's all been crammed into the plot. At a certain level one has to admire the husband-wife authorial team for managing to leave no stone unturned in their attempt to craft a gripping tale. However, all the "ripped from the headlines" plotlines won't help if the story is told in awkward prose with cheezy dialogue by cardboard characters in a confusing mix of flashback, flashforward, and present tense narration. The plot is too convoluted to recap here, but basically everything is driven by one homicide detective with a dogged determination to pursue justice in the face of high-level opposition. It's a tired character type, and there's certainly no new twists to it here. Indeed, there's no a single character that brings anything fresh or new to the mix, you've seen 'em all before, and here they are again, running through the paces. If you want to read crime stories set in the real D.C.-not the imaginary world of movers and shakers-check out any of George Pelecanos's books, like Right As Rain. They'll show you the real city, whose crimes are much more banal, and much more tragic than the foolishness in this tired "thriller".

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A suspenceful, can't-put-down tale of greed in Washington, May 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Potomac Fever: A Novel (Hardcover)

By Richard J. McGowan

Potomac Fever is a suspenseful, can't-put-down story of survival told against a background of greed, power and political intrigue in Washington, D.C. Like most Washington novels, this one is full of knaves and knights, vendettas, plot twists and hard-boiled action. However, Potomac Fever doesn't focus on smarmy denizens in Congress or the White House. It unfolds through the eyes of two world-weary homicide detectives, Cal Terrell and Bobbie Short, who start out investigating the murder of a beautiful 20-year-old, District of Columbia restaurant hostess. They wind up burrowing through the mean streets of the nation's capital to uncover the corruption strangling the District's power brokers. Anyone who has followed the political shenanigans in D.C. in recent years should recognize some of the players in this well plotted and riveting tale. Henry Horrock is the pen name of veteran journalists Diane Henry and Nicholas Horrock. The husband-and-wife team, authors of the sexy thriller Blood Red, Snow White, live in Virginia. In Washington, power is the ultimate aphrodisiac and the quest for power runs unchecked in all branches of government. Potomac Fever fills in the District's blanks as the reader is taken on a roller-coaster ride. The body count soars and the beatings get bloodier. Everyone has a hidden agenda, except the two jaded but dedicated detectives. The psychological suspense holds until the final pages when the villain is finally unveiled. By then the reader will be as spent as our charismatic hero cop Cal Terrill who, hopefully, will return in another thriller by the Horrocks.