Hitchcock Sewell really should know better by now. His job as an undertaker is to bury people, not to go snooping into the reasons why they've ended up on his slab. But then again, if Hitch didn't stick his nose where it doesn't belong, he just wouldn't be Hitch - and readers would be robbed of the latest installment in one of the most talked-about new mystery series to come along in years.<BR>This time out, Baltimore's most eligible mortician is taking up the cause of a former flame whose young nanny has just been fished out of the Severn River, near Annapolis. The police are calling it suicide, but Hitch isn't buying it. And it's more than just the cause of death that Hitch finds suspicious. A felonious former governor of Kentucky; a tainted right-wing religious organization; a really, really bad actor; and a dogged tabloid journalist with more interest in chasing down Hitch's luscious ex-wife Julia than in chasing down the story all fall into Hitchcock's path as he attempts to sort out the truth behind what really happened to the nanny.