Washington Statehouse Mysteries

Book #1: Final Adjournment

The scenic campus of the Washington state capitol is outwardly calm, but the Legislature is in session and no one better understands the turmoil that swirls beneath the surface than professional lobbyist Sandy Dalton. In the middle of a busy day, a powerful senator is found dead in his office with an antique Native American hunting knife in his chest. Sandy becomes the prime suspect in the case, having had an argument with the senator the morning of the murder and been the last to see him alive, but he isn’t the only one to have disagreed with the senator’s policies. The resulting tectonic shift in the political landscape turns the legislative world upside down.

As motives, conflicting testimonies, and hints of behind-the-scenes blackmailing add up, Sandy embarks on a struggle to clear his name. It seems almost everyone in Olympia politics has a stake and almost anyone could be the killer.

Book #2: Suspension of the Rules

When a respected dairy farmer drowns in his own livestock waste lagoon, the Yakima County Sheriff rules the death an accident. Meanwhile, professional lobbyist Sandy Dalton has taken on a new client: a group of conservation-minded farmers who wish to offer a pro-agriculture/pro-environment bill in the Washington State Legislature. As he lobbies this bill, Sandy inexorably discovers several potential motives for the dairy farmer’s murder. None, however, seem significant until, in a moment of inspiration, he realizes that the deceased farmer was NOT alone at the time that he died. He also discovers that his investigation may have placed his life and the lives of those close to him in danger. Sandy ends up identifying the killer, but in doing so, he also uncovers a scandal that will shake the state legislature to its core.

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Book #3: Censure and Repeal

The charismatic CEO of a high-tech multinational corporation dies when his self-driving car plunges off a cliff into Puget Sound. The company’s own technical experts find that the car’s computer was turned off at the time of the accident. So the police rule his death a suicide.

But lawyer and professional lobbyist Sandy Dalton doesn’t believe it.

Then a whistleblower who triggered a political crisis that had threatened the CEO’s company shows up in Sandy’s office in need of an attorney. In the ensuing legal battle, Sandy and his law partner, Sherry Sebold, use the legal discovery process to pierce the wall of corporate secrecy. And Sandy initiates a back-channel strategy at the State Capitol to flush out the killer.

What the discover will place them both in danger as it implicates top executives inside the company, embarrasses powerful elected political leaders at the highest levels of government and threatens committed activists in the current campaign for Washington State Governor.

The reader observes this tale of technological and political intrigue from the point of view of deeply likable Sandy Dalton, a master of the craft of legislative lobbying and inside politics, but also a man who always seems, somehow, to find a way to make the system work.