Dearly Departed — Marcia Mitchell

Dearly Departed opens with an opening -- exhumation of the body of a glamorous Russian-born film star, a double agent working for FBI Special Agent Maggie Sachet and Russian intelligence chief Vasili Selishanko. The exhumation launches a mesmerizing international spy story, with intelligence and counterintelligence plots, secrets and tantalizing revelations, and trickery from Hollywood to Arkhangelsk. A web of intrigue circles around an atmospheric scientist who apparently committed suicide by hurricane, an elderly Chinese widow with all the answers, and a dead body in Maggie's bedroom. The ultimate burning question: Are the lives of millions in danger?