Charlie Galloway has hit bottom-hard. His wife has left

him, and the Los Angeles Police Department has

suspended him. It is beginning to look as if his life has

been permanently shattered.

But when his Filipino housekeeper is savagely

murdered, Charlie sees his one last chance for

redemption-if he can find the killer. Somewhere deep

in the dark recesses of Galloway s brain is the notion

that if he can just solve this one puzzle he can put his life

back on track. His desperate search leads him into the

heart of a conspiracy that has its genesis in the jungles

of the Philippines and snakes its way across the country,

through the corridors of power in Washington, D.C., and

all the way to Langley, Virginia. It is a conspiracy driven

by the calculating opportunism of two men, each of

whom wants more power than any one man should

have: Senator Byron Truskett, who has a chance

for the presidency; and William Laforge, who is

Truskett s choice to be the next director of the Central

Intelligence Agency.

In the course of his investigation, Galloway stumbles

into a morass of political double-dealing and runs the

gamut of Washington s sins-adultery, manipulation,

and betrayal-all conducted with the obligatory smile.

Charlie Galloway slowly comes to realize that he is out

of his depth.

Campbell Armstrong has given us the complexities

of modern political reality before in such bestselling

novels as Jig and Mambo, but never so compellingly as

in Agents of Darkness. The shattering climax resonates

with an explosive rage deeply rooted in the agony and

hopelessness that dominate-the life of an honorable

man determined to do what he must, regardless of the

personal consequences.