"After you left Colchester, Cardinal O'Banion paid twenty-five thousand dollars into the Armenian Refugees Relief Fund in the name of Father Tibor Kasperian.  Father Kasperian is your parish priest."

"Father Tibor," said Bennis automatically.

"Father Tibor and the cardinal," Gregor said "have been friends for several years."

"Really.  I suppose it's even true.  But I'll tell you something that isn't true.  You, as a campaign contributor.  Especially as a campaign contributor to Senator Stephen Whistler Fox.  You're much too intelligent for that.  Do you want to know what else isn't true?"

"What?"

"You as the fat, middle-aged lover of this wayward debutatante here."

"Ah," Gregor said.

"I am not a wayward debutante," Bennis said.

Victoria pulled open the great front double doors of her home, stepped into the foyer, and told them, "If the two of you were lovers, she'd be wearing a great deal less underwear."

Jane Haddam (pronounced Hod'um, after a town in Connecticut) writes in the grand tradition of the Golden Age of mysteries.  With a few lamentable exceptions, her stories are marvelous puzzles.  They are also a canvas for social, political, or character commentary.  In Act of Darkness she gives us Senator Stephen Whistler Fox, a man who might be a canvas painted by his campaign manager.  Fox is surrounded by cynical, double-dealing lobbyists, pressure groups, and hangers-on.  And something has started to go wrong with Senator Fox.  He's collapsing at campaign functions, always in public.

When Senator Fox hosts an event for campaign contributors, retired FBI administrator Gregor Demarkian is asked to attend.  Boldness and confidence are essential in politics, but this event includes a murderer confident enough to go to work with Gregor in the house.

Written in 1991, Act of Darkeness is surprisingly relevant to today's Washington scene.