Wicked Good Secrets.

• Position: Brief article - Book review

Wicked Good Secrets

By Janice Law

In her flashy, fast-paced cinematic thriller, Janice Law teams a former criminal court judge with a Native American chief to unravel one of America's most stubborn historic mysteries: the two-century-old disappearance of the U.S. Capitol cornerstone President George Washington laid in 1793.

Law's riveting narrative weaves a wicked secret, double-encrypted in an 18th century soldier's diary--with 19th century Vatican art, intersecting under the U.S. Capitol dome, from which a gadfly journalist plunges to his death during a gala reception.

Increasingly dangerous clues climax in dark, isolated Washington, D.C., Congressional Cemetery, where human and nonhuman forces threaten the duo's quest and their lives.

While styled mainly as an entertainment, Wicked Good Secrets also has serious themes about law, treaties, and Native American history and culture.

Legal terminology proves a key to unlock the mysteries: in pari materia. To...