House Justice (Joe DeMarco Series #5) » (Unabridged)

A former senior civilian executive for the United States Navy, Mike Lawson is the author of four previous novels starring Joe DeMarco, The Inside Ring, The Second Perimeter, House Rules, and House Secrets. He lives in the Pacific Northwest.

In his thrillers starring Joe DeMarco, Mike Lawson has made a name for himself as one of the most entertaining and insightful writers focusing on the dirty games played in our nation’s capital. In House Justice, 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. House Justice is classic Mike Lawson— fascinating characters, inside-the-beltway intrigue, and a gripping plot packed with surprises.

Publishers Weekly

After the head of the CIA, Jake LaFountaine, gives a secret briefing to a group of congressional leaders in Lawson’s engaging fifth thriller featuring fix-it man Joe DeMarco (after House Secrets), someone leaks the information to the press. This slip results in the brutal killing of CIA agent Mahata Javadi (“one of the bravest persons I ever met,” LaFountaine tells a room full of reporters), who was working undercover in Iran. John Fitzpatrick Mahoney, Speaker of the House of Representatives and Washington’s premier political puppet master, tasks DeMarco with finding the leaker. Despite three wild cards confounding the search—a Russian mobster, the wealthy head of a technology company, and a mysterious killer bent on revenge—DeMarco manages to remain alive and get himself a fabulous new girlfriend. The always present push and pull between the political machinations of alcoholic, egotistical Mahoney and De Marco’s basic decency raises the ethical stakes. (July)