Blowout

Blowout is a thriller by Catherine Coulter, published in 2004. Its two investigators are the married FBI agents Dillon Savich and Lacey Sherlock, who are devoted to their jobs, their son and each other, and who treat every new case with the same appetite. The pair work hard and play hard, appreciate every moment of downtime they can grab, and this case offers them none.

A long weekend at a secluded cabin in the Pennsylvania woods is cut short when they are recalled to Washington. The night before the Supreme Court is due to hear opening arguments in a contested death-penalty case, a prominent judge is found murdered in the court's third-floor library.

Savich and Sherlock are put in charge of the investigation, and then the killings continue, with each new victim another successful figure in the city. The case turns into a search for somebody who has a list and a reason, and it is run by two agents whose private life is as close to the middle of the story as their professional one.