Richard Condon is the famed author of "The Manchurian Candidate," "Prizzi's Honor," and many other dark, satirical takes on the corruption of power, money, greed, and sex. In Winter Kills Condon takes aim at the assassination of the American President.

Winter Kills is Condon at his best - he slices through our preconceptions, cliches, and obsession with the rich and powerful like a razorblade through an exposed wrist. No one escapes his searing wit and commentary.

14 years after President Tim Kegan is shot dead in a motorcade through downtown Philadelphia, a dying man confesses to Kegan's half- brother Nickolas Thirkield, that he was the second rifle. Nick shoulders the burden of finding the man responsible for setting up the assassination. His investigation leads him down dark and dangerous alleys. Murder after murder follows him from the oil fields of Asia, down the lonely roads of backwoods Alabama, to the 5-star hotels and restaurants of New York City.

Conspiracies overwhelm him. Was it the incredibly wealthy oilman Z.K. Dawson? Was it Dawson's beautiful daughter Yvette - with whom Nick is deeply in love? Was it the FBI and the Philadelphia cops? Was it the mafia? Was it the movie studios and the vengeful Hollywood actress ruined by the President?

Nick's father - Thomas Kegan - the father of the dead President - steers Nick one way and another, until the real culprit is revealed, in an ending that will shock and surprise you.