Washington, 1917. The Great War grinds on in Europe, but the real danger may be closer to home. When a California congressman is shot dead at a dinner party and a fellow traveler named Dwight Tilghman is poisoned on an eastbound train, the city's powerful men find themselves tangled in a conspiracy that reaches into the highest circles of government. Colonel Calhoun, a man haunted by warnings of Japanese espionage and America's vulnerability, becomes obsessed with unmasking a plot that threatens the nation's very security. But as layers of deception peel away, the truth proves more dangerous than any threat from abroad: someone in Washington wears a mask, and the nameless man could be anyone. A lost relic of early American crime fiction, this 1917 mystery pulses with wartime paranoia, political machinations, and the unsettling question of who truly controls the levers of power. Perfect for readers who crave the clipped prose and cosmopolitan dread of vintage thrillers, before the genre learned to explain itself.
