As usual with these books by Stevenson, it’s well-written, has a satisfyingly convoluted mystery, and there’s witty repartee.
The only problem is that the investigation itself is curiously tedious — it’s mostly just one interview after another with people who just aren’t much fun to spend time with, even in a book.
But it’s fine — it’s better than the previous book.
One kinda interesting thing about this series is how long a period it’s written over. It started in 1981, and the latest book was in 2019 — but there’s only a book every three years or so. And the books are very much into describing what’s going on at the time (politically and not), so readers get a kind of fast-forward through American history… Books like these are often set in some kind of vague unspecified “present” — the thought is perhaps that it gives the book more longevity? And you don’t have to age the characters, I guess.
Shock to the System (1995) by Richard Stevenson (buy new, buy used, 4.07 on Goodreads)