Calculated Risk

In this chilling mystery, the terrifying specter of AIDS combines with blackmail and murder to overshadow the surreal world of California politics - and the secrets long buried in a senatorial candidate's past. As the young, vital, and self-centered Charles returns - after escaping for a few hours to his local bar - to the home he shares with his dying lover, Randy, he rails at the injustice of his situation and wonders how much longer it will be before he is free. His reverie is interrupted - permanently - when a vicious young man steps from the shadows armed with a lead pipe. Though Frank Hastings at first believes the murder to be a random gay-bashing, he soon discovers a complex trail of motives and money leading into the political arena and finds he must step warily through a maze of not-so-veiled threats.