House Justice
A Joe DeMarco Thriller
Mike Lawson
Review: Attorney Joe DeMarco, a self-described "fixer" for the Speaker of the House of Representatives, relegated to a windowless office in the sub-basement with no official connection to any Congressional department, is tasked with seeking out the person who leaked confidential information that led to the death of an undercover CIA agent in Iran in House Justice, the fifth political thriller in this series by Mike Lawson.
The dead agent is Mahata Javadi, in Iran for more than 6 years before being revealed as a spy, brutally tortured before her murder. House Speaker John Fitzpatrick Mahoney is determined to know who revealed her true identity to the Iranians. Mahoney thinks the leak is in the CIA, but the Director of the CIA believes it to be someone in the Capitol. It could be neither, as a newspaper reporter has revealed that a Conrad Dillar, an executive for a prominent defense contractor, was in Iran just prior to Javadi's capture. But that raises the question, how did he know? She won't reveal her source and Mahoney is reluctant to press her on this ... for personal reasons. Mahoney assigns DeMarco while the CIA brings in Special Agent Angela DeCapria, who work together to discover the source of the leak.
To mix metaphors here, House Justice is one of those mile-a-minute thrillers that simply doesn't let up. Often exhilarating in the pace of its twisty plot, time is still taken to develop interesting, appealing characters; the relationship between DeMarco and DeCapria, for example, who always seems to be in the face of danger, is both amusing and touching. The supporting cast is equally engaging, from members of Congress, agents with the CIA, lobbyists, the Russian Mafia, and a man intriguingly known only as "the florist". House Justice should definitely be on your summer reading list this year.
Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of House Justice.
Acknowledgment: Kaye Publicity provided a copy of House Justice for this review.
Review Copyright © 2010 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved
Selected reviews of other mysteries by this author …
House Rules
Atlantic Monthly Press (Hardcover), June 2008
ISBN-13: 9780871139832; ISBN-10: 0871139839
Location(s) referenced in House Justice: Washington DC
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House Justice by Mike Lawson
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
Format: Hardcover
ISBN-10: 0-8021-1937-9
ISBN-13: 978-0-8021-1937-7
Publication Date: June 2010
List Price: $24.00
Synopsis (from the publisher): An American defense contractor goes to Iran to sell missile technology, and the CIA knows all about it thanks to a spy in Tehran. But the story is leaked to an ambitious journalist and the spy is burned, brutally tortured, and executed.
The director of the CIA isn’t about to let the callous sacrifice of his valuable spy go unpunished. DeMarco’s boss, Speaker of the House John Fitzpatrick Mahoney has his own reasons to get to the bottom of the leak: he once had a fling with the journalist, and now that she’s in jail for refusing to reveal her source, she is threatening to tell all unless he helps get her out.
DeMarco and the CIA aren’t the only ones looking for the source of the leak. Someone else wants to avenge the spy’s death, and is tailing DeMarco hoping he’ll lead him to his prey.
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