The Setting: A time much like our own, with a two-term president, beleaguered by sex and fundraising scandals, hoping to pass the baton to his vice president in the next general election. The Crime: Todd Nathan Thornburgh - aka Doctor Dirt, who has created a high-tech, multimillion dollar scandal-research firm that specializes in destroying the careers, and sometimes the lives, of liberal and Democratic Party politicians - is found dead on the floor of the Nixon Library, his lips sewn shut, the message Speak No Evil written on a legal pad next to the corpse. Enter former FBI Special Agent Joseph "J.D." Devine, now a consultant to the Bureau for political crimes, and journalist Anne Carlson, who set out to crack the case and find themselves entangled in a web of political conspiracy, murder, and betrayal. They soon discover Doctor Dirt may be more dangerous dead than alive.