Room 9 — Soledad Santiago

When Deputy Mayor Jason Isenberg jumps to his death from his elegant Sutton Place highrise, City Hall is filled with whispers. Did Isenberg have terminal cancer or was his death somehow linked to his banishment from the Mayor's exclusive inner circle? In Room 9, City Hall's media center, scandal-hungry reporters shift into high gear. A rash of fires in the homeless shelters which Isenberg was instrumental in creating brings a cheerless Christmas vigil to the steps of City Hall, and adds to the list of questions the Mayor must answer.

Marie Terranova balances her duties as the Mayor's administrative assistant with parenting her twelve-year-old son Joey. Marie worked for Isenberg briefly before assuming her current position, and she is deeply affected by his death. Only three years earlier, Marie was widowed when her police officer husband was killed in the line of duty. Amid rumors of conspiracy and corruption, Marie's previously rock-solid loyalty to Hizzoner the Mayor is shaken.

In her turmoil, Marie is vulnerable to Raul Vega, a handsome, ambitious reporter who is a newcomer to Room 9. Raul has turned up evidence to suggest that Isenberg was the victim of some very unsavory circumstances. When a passionate conflict-of-interest romance flares up between Marie and Raul, she steps unwittingly into the cetner of a dangerous web. Like Isenberg, Marie finds herself cast out of the inner circle.

Caught between the passions and truths of today and the unsolved riddles of the past, she is plunged into the powerful and unforgiving dark side of New York City politics.