The Solomon Scandals

Ever wonder why our politicians, business leaders, and media figures
so often disappoint us, and what happens after the scandals?

The Solomon Scandals is not only about the original chicanery
and related crimes but also their ripples--right up to the late 21st
century. It mixes suspense, tragedy and satire in an edgy look at
Washington life in the fast lane. What happens when a newspaper
colludes with the White House? In the wake of the Rupert
Murdoch scandals--with unsavory ties between press and government in
the U.K. and with investigators checking out some disturbing American
leads--Scandals is chillingly timely.

Along the way, the novel goes beyond the bare-bones approach of the
standard Washington nonfiction, exploring the personal lives of
journalists, real estate tycoons, federal contracts officers and other
Washington players as part of the main theme: the conflict between
friendship and duty.

Politicians blackmail and corrupt. A high-rise on the Potomac may
fall. A dictator launders his money with help from the D.C. elite.
Spies and journalists court each other in a moral or not-so-moral
mist, and lines can blur between the two occupations, just as they
have at times in real life. A gossip columnist kills herself. What
starts out as a campaign-donations investigation ends up going
lethally awry in more ways than one. A nuclear-regulatory scandal
fuels a subplot. Jonathan Stone, the reporter protagonist, finds
himself literally in bed with the voluptuous female bureaucrat behind
the sleaze. Will their bedroom talk be fodder for a grand jury?

Although on the surface a beach read or airplane book, Scandals
has plenty lurking below. The author grew up on the outer fringes of
the D.C. elite--a future Watergater lived almost next door--and the
novel offers the nuances you would expect from a Washington-area
native. Partly inspired by now-forgotten events, including a Senator's
secret CIA-related investment reported on the NBC Night News but not
in Washington dailies, Scandals was required reading in a
course at George Washington University, as a roman a clef weaving
together "the various strands of politics, big business and media in a
concrete (no pun), character-driven way."

The Seymour Solomon in the title is a massive ex-bricklayer with two
fingertips missing. Ever attentive to the crew at the General Services
Administration, from the administrator on down, Solomon leases acres
and acres of office space to the federal government.

Tens of thousands of bureaucrats work in Solomon's buildings. An
immigrant's son, he has managed to break into the highest reaches of
Washington society, not so coincidentally befriending his share of
powerful politicians, judges, and building inspectors. Jon Stone, the
reporter, discovers that Solomon has stinted on construction of the
huge Vulture's Point complex on the Potomac River. In researching the
story, Stone is aided by Margo Danialson, a spirited young medieval
studies graduate trapped within the bureaucracy Solomon has bought
off. By the end of the book, thanks in part to Margo, not just the
scandals, Stone is a different person. During the investigation, Stone
must struggle with resistance from his editors and even his own
father, who works for a PR and lobbying firm representing a bank that
has financed Solomon's projects.

If you're familiar at all with Washington and its ways, you'll nod at
the observations in Scandals. This D.C. is not the mystical
city--of white stone monuments and secret ceremonies--that one
reviewer saw in The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. Instead it is
the city of lawyers and lobbyists, strategically targeted campaign
gifts, and other "practical" concerns.