Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
---|---|---|
Searching... Silver Falls Library | FIC LAWSON | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Salem Main Library | Lawson, M. | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
As a fixer for influential congressman John Mahoney in Washington, D.C., Joe DeMarco has found himself in plenty of unexpected and dangerous situations. In House Rivals , the tenth book in Mike Lawson's award-winning series, DeMarco is taken further out of his element than ever before, sent to North Dakota to protect a passionate but naïve twenty-two-year-old blogger who has put herself in harm's way.
The young woman is Sarah Johnson, whose grandfather saved Mahoney's life in Vietnam. For the past two years, Sarah has been on a relentless crusade against a billionaire oil tycoon who has profited handsomely from the natural gas boom in the Dakotas--and who she believes has been bribing small-time politicians and judges to keep things in his favor. Though she has no hard evidence against the man, Sarah has been assaulted and received death threats for her meddling. DeMarco, given his years of experience bending the rules in D.C., suspects that a middleman like himself is pulling strings for the tycoon. But as DeMarco tries to identify his adversaries, the situation turns unexpectedly violent, and DeMarco finds himself in a battle of wits against two ruthless problem solvers who will stop at nothing to win.
Author Notes
Mike Lawson is a former senior civilian executive for the U.S. Navy. He is the author of nine previous novels starring Joe DeMarco.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In the prologue of Lawson's workmanlike 10th Joe DeMarco thriller (after 2014's House Reckoning), three men assault Sarah Johnson, a muckraking blogger who's trying to expose corruption in Montana and North and South Dakota, late one night behind a restaurant. One of her attackers delivers a chilling warning-next time "we'll tie you naked to a tree and leave you for the wolves"-before letting her go. Wealthy Leonard Curtis, an independent natural gas driller, has set his dogs on Sarah: a pair of down-market fixers, Marjorie Dawkins and Bill Logan, who hired the assailants. Sarah's grandfather calls on an old friend for help, House Minority Leader John Fitzpatrick Mahoney, who's DeMarco's employer and "as corrupt as any congressman on Capitol Hill." Sent west to deal with the problem, DeMarco comes to admire Sarah's resolve and crusade. This is a decent, though familiar, story-the individual pitted against big business and the state-and Lawson spells out every plot point and emotion along the way. Agent: David Gernert, Gernert Company. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
D.C. fixer Joe DeMarco, posted to the wilds of North Dakota, schemes to avenge the death of a young woman he was sent there to protect. Maybe 50 people read Sarah Johnson's blog posts ranting about the systematic low-level bribery of state lawmakers. But when Sarah begins linking the bribes to billionaire independent natural gas driller Leonard Curtis, he gets madder than hell and decides he doesn't have to take it anymore. So he calls DL Consulting, his longtime fixers-cum-bagmen in Bismarck, and asks partners Marjorie Dawkins and Bill Logan to quit threatening Sarah and shut her up for good, unaware that a potential rescuer is already on the way. Sarah's grandfather Doug Thorpe, a Marine who saved John Mahoney's life in Vietnam, reaches out to Mahoney, now minority leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, and Mahoney dispatches DeMarco, his own fixer-cum-bagman, to Bismarck to make sure nothing happens to Sarah. DeMarco's way of dealing with the problem, trying to dig up politically connected people who'll turn informant against Curtis, doesn't pan out, and one night, DeMarco, instead of responding to Sarah's phone summons, beds a local schoolteacher instead. The next day, Sarah's dead, shot apparently by a burglar she interrupted but actually, as both DeMarco and the reader are quick to appreciate, by a hit man Marjorie and Bill have hired to kill her. Under pressure from both Mahoney and Thorpe, remorseful DeMarco, aided by the world's most reluctant FBI agent, assures anyone who'll listen, including Marjorie and Thorpe, that he's going to nail their hides to the wall. And so he does, very entertainingly, though not quite in the way he expected. After DeMarco's unwontedly personal stake in finding his father's murderer (House Reckoning, 2014), it's nice to see him go up against some fixers as impersonal as him. Everything here, from the hard-case characters to the headlong pace, is professional-grade. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
This tenth Joe DeMarco political thriller (following House Reckoning, 2014) tackles the murky world of state and local politics with the series' hallmark blend of danger and cynical wit. An old friend contacts Congressman John Mahoney with concerns about his granddaughter's safety, so Mahoney sends fixer DeMarco to Bismarck, North Dakota. Sarah Johnson is a blogger obsessed with outing the misdeeds of energy tycoon Leonard Curtis, whom she is convinced is bribing local decision-makers to favor his fracking ventures. Sarah doesn't have solid evidence, but her investigation has uncovered earmarks of carefully concealed bribes, and a terrifying attack signals that she's onto something. That's when the really bad stuff starts, leaving DeMarco feeling guilty and with some serious scores to settle. This is a solid thriller, both suspenseful and smart, much in the manner of the great Ross Thomas, and an eye-opening portrayal of often-overlooked political machinations on both sides of the narrow legal line.--Tran, Christine Copyright 2015 Booklist