The Daedâlus Conspiracy: Part II – The City by Edward Cline

Returning to San Francisco after an event-chocked sojourn at the Daedàlus Grove encampment of the Daedàlus Society, an exclusive, elite and men-only club, in a redwood forest north of the city, Cyrus Skeen pursues the mystery of Chase Marley, a would-be assassin of Brand Olcutt, a U.S. senator from Nebraska. Skeen was sent there as a guest of Charles Gilchrest, chairman of the Society, to detect and foil what at first was thought to be a prank played by a member of the club, and stops the assassination attempt. Skeen is not satisfied that the plot was Marley’s own.

He follows the few clues he gathered at the Grove – cryptic notes, codes names, and the mystique and reputation of the Society – and soon uncovers a plot that reaches down to the lowest levels of San Francisco’s criminal society, implicating a congressman for the city and a city supervisor. Soon the Bureau of Investigation enters the picture, and Skeen races to solve the mystery before the case is taken over by the Federal authorities. This is the conclusion of The Daedàlus Conspiracy, Cyrus Skeen’s most ambitious and demanding case, with political and social parallels in today’s culture.

Edward Cline’s (1946 -) first detective novel, First Prize, was published in 1988 by Mysterious Press/Warner Books, and his first suspense novel, Whisper the Guns, was published in 1992 by The Atlantean Press. First Prize was republished in 2009 by Perfect Crime. Perfect Crime has since published two more in that series, Presence of Mind and Honors Due. The Sparrowhawk series of novels set in England and Virginia in the pre-Revolutionary period has garnered some critical acclaim (but not yet from the literary establishment) and universal appreciation from the reading public, including parents, teachers, students, scholars, and adult readers who believe that American history has been abandoned or is misrepresented by a government-dominated educational establishment.

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