Capital Crimes Books in Order
Part ofMargaret Truman Books in OrderSee the Capital Crimes books by Margaret Truman in order, with quick summaries, series background, and help deciding where to start.
Last updated: June 7, 2026
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Publication Order
32 books
Murder in the White House
by Margaret Truman
1980
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.
Murder on Capitol Hill
by Margaret Truman
1981
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.
Murder in the Supreme Court
by Margaret Truman
1982
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.
Murder in the Smithsonian
by Margaret Truman
1983
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.
Murder on Embassy Row
by Margaret Truman
1984
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.
Murder at the FBI
by Margaret Truman
1985
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.
Murder in Georgetown
by Margaret Truman
1986
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.
Murder in the CIA
by Margaret Truman
1987
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.
Murder at the Kennedy Center
by Margaret Truman
1989
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.
Murder at the National Cathedral
by Margaret Truman
1990
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.
Murder at the Pentagon
by Margaret Truman
1992
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.
Murder on the Potomac
by Margaret Truman
1994
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.
Murder at the National Gallery
by Margaret Truman
1996
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.
Murder in the House
by Margaret Truman
1997
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.
Murder at the Watergate
by Margaret Truman
1998
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.
Murder at the Library of Congress
by Margaret Truman
1999
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.
Murder in Foggy Bottom
by Margaret Truman
2000
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.
Murder in Havana
by Margaret Truman
2001
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.
Murder at Ford's Theatre
by Margaret Truman
2002
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.
Murder at Union Station
by Margaret Truman
2004
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.
Murder at The Washington Tribune
by Margaret Truman
2005
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.
Murder at the Opera
by Margaret Truman
2006
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.
Murder on K Street
by Margaret Truman
2007
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.
Murder Inside the Beltway
by Margaret Truman
2008
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.
Monument to Murder
by Margaret Truman
2011
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.
Experiment in Murder
by Margaret Truman
2012
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.
Undiplomatic Murder
by Margaret Truman
2014
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.
Internship in Murder
by Margaret Truman
2015
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.
Deadly Medicine
by Margaret Truman
2016
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.
Allied in Danger
by Margaret Truman
2018
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.
Murder on the Metro
by Margaret Truman
2021
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.
Murder at the CDC
by Margaret Truman
2022
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.
Series background & context
The Capital Crimes books are Washington mysteries built around place. Margaret Truman takes a familiar institution, the White House, Capitol Hill, the Supreme Court, the Smithsonian, the CIA, the Kennedy Center, the Library of Congress, and many more, and asks what happens when murder slips behind the public facade. The settings matter because each one comes with its own rules, pecking order, and secrets.
That gives the series a slightly unusual shape. These are not books with one detective marching through every title from the start. Many of them work as standalones. Truman moves among lawyers, reporters, police officers, spies, political staffers, diplomats, and ordinary Washington insiders who suddenly find themselves much too close to a killing. The connecting thread is less a single hero than a city where status, access, and information can be as dangerous as any weapon.
Washington is the real recurring character.
Still, some familiar faces do return. Mackensie Smith, first a prosecutor and later a law professor, becomes one of the series' most reliable anchors. So does Annabel Reed-Smith, the Georgetown gallery owner who brings art-world savvy and sharp instincts to several cases. Other books follow people like Max Pauling or Robert Brixton, depending on the kind of story Truman wants to tell. That flexibility is part of the appeal. One book may feel like a political mystery, the next more like a police procedural, an espionage story, or an art-world puzzle.
The tone stays grounded. These novels are interested in ambition, money, image, sex, loyalty, and the damage people do while protecting careers or causes. Truman knew how institutions present themselves to the public, and she liked peeling that image back. In Murder in the White House, Murder on Capitol Hill, and Murder at the National Cathedral, the tension comes not only from who killed whom, but from who has the power to shape the story afterward.
Later entries broaden the map a little, but the heart of the series stays the same. Even when the action reaches places like Havana or dips more heavily into intelligence work and terrorism, the books still circle back to Washington and the way power operates there. After Margaret Truman's death, the series continued under Donald Bain and later Jon Land, but the core idea remained intact: murder is one thing, and the machinery around it is another.
So if you're wondering what to expect, think of Capital Crimes as a long-running tour of Washington under stress. The books are brisk, readable, and usually more interested in pressure and motive than gore. You come for the body, but you stay for the system around it.
Edited by
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