The Inside Ring (Joe DeMarco Series #1) » (Unabridged)

Michael Lawson served for years as a senior civilian executive for the United States Navy. He lives in the Pacific Northwest and is currently working on his next Joe DeMarco novel, which will be published by Doubleday in 2006.

The video begins with the President walking toward a marine helicopter . . . From a bluff overlooking Georgia s untamed Chattooga River, an assassin fires three shots. The President of the United States is wounded; his best friend and a Secret Service agent are killed. Two days later, a man in Landover, Maryland, commits suicide and in the man s home is overwhelming evidence that he was responsible for the assassination attempt.General Andy Banks, the Secretary of Homeland Security, is nursing a guilty conscience. Only days before the assassination attempt on the President, Banks had received a note with a dire warning: Eagle One is in danger. Cancel Chattooga River. The inside ring has been compromised. This is not a joke. The message on Secret Service stationery was signed An agent in the wrong place. Banks immediately passed the note on to Secret Service Director Patrick Donnelly, who proceeded to ignore it.Even after the assassin is found dead, Banks is determined to di...

Library Journal

Lawson's debut novel introduces Joe DeMarco, a lawyer who looks like a "knee-cracker for an Italian bookie" and works as a troubleshooter for a Washington congressman. Loaned out to Secretary of Homeland Security Andrew Banks, DeMarco is asked to investigate a Secret Service agent for possible complicity in an assassination attempt on the President. Thus begins a series of compelling incidents, enlivened by just the right touch of menace and mystery. DeMarco is an appealing protagonist with a familial past he'd rather forget and a group of multitalented friends to help him in his reluctantly assumed quest. While the villains are stereotyped and several supporting characters are regulars in the covert operational game (the computer expert, the surveillance wizard, the telephone company insider), this witty, lightning-quick read is recommended for popular fiction collections. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 1/05.]-Ronnie H. Terpening, Univ. of Arizona, Tucson Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.