The Solomon Scandals is a provocative Washington suspense novel inspired by now-forgotten history. A deadly high-rise collapse happened in Northern Virginia, and a U.S. senator and a Supreme Court justice held stakes in a CIA-occupied building.

In the novel, a rule-breaking reporter for a crooked newspaper investigates the darker side of a popular real estate tycoon. One of the tycoon's rickety buildings houses hundreds of workers for a shadowy bureaucracy. The reporter's incendiary discoveries compel him to hide his related memoir for a century to shield those on the scandals' fringes.

David H. Rothman's complex tale teems with memorable characters caught up in a classic Washington dilemma: friendship vs. duty. Real estate magnate Sy Solomon, a folksy ex-bricklayer, buys up scores of politicians and bureaucrats.

George McWilliams, a Solomon friend, is a mysterious editor wealthy enough to have built a mini Versailles. Wendy Blevin is a powerful but inwardly fragile gossip columnist from an Old Money family with its share of tragedies. Margo Danialson, a B.A. in medieval studies, is unhappily tethered to a corrupt federal agency. Dr. Rebecca Kitiona-Fenton, a multiracial feminist, outspokenly annotates the newspaper memoir of her white great-granduncle, Jonathan Stone.

Rothman's style is hardboiled and often satirical. Although Scandals includes strong language and some sexist and racist dialogue, Dr. Kitiona-Fenton's endnotes provide additional context.

Kirkus Reviews says the second edition "captures the aura of dark nihilism in some quarters of the political world with great power … This is a riveting work, mordantly insightful and surprisingly entertaining."

Note: Scandals is a character-driven suspense novel, not a "non-stop action" thriller.

David H. Rothman, a former poverty beat reporter, is best known for the TeleRead.org ebook site and his library advocacy. In another incarnation he helped Arthur C. Clarke and MGM/UA director Peter Hyams set up a trans-Pacific modem connection for the scriptwriting of the movie 2010. He has long been interested in the technological side of international development.

But how does a pale-skinned white novelist in Alexandria, Virginia, get inside the head of a genius child soldier in the Democratic Republic of the Congo? Through Lemba's tech side, of course. Rothman had help from another technology fan, Junior Boweya in Kinshasa, a translator, software-localization expert, and businessman who fact-checked Gun and otherwise offered an invaluable Congolese perspective. So did the activist Jean Félix Mwema Ngandu, a former Mandela fellow.

Rothman is also the author of six tech-related books and a Washington novel, The Solomon Scandals, which the Washington City Paper praised for "the same dark zeal Hammett held for Frisco or Chandler had for Los Angeles." Reach him at davidrothman@pobox.com.