House Standoff (Joe DeMarco Series #15)

by Mike Lawson

Overview

When someone close to him is shot dead in a roadside motel in a small-town in Wyoming, DeMarco shirks his responsibilities as the Speaker of the House’s fixer to make sure the authorities are doing everything that can be done to catch the killer. He soon realizes that the rural area is dominated by Hiram Bunt, a wealthy rancher with an obstructionist streak who is willing to take on the federal government at gunpoint and seems to have a number of politicians under his thumb.

But Bunt is not the only one in the way. DeMarco also learns that his friend—a woman he was once in love with—had unearthed a number of explosive secrets during her time in the backwoods, and that the deputy in charge of the investigation may be ignoring several leads to preserve a secret of his own. Surrounded by people willing to kill to maintain the status quo, DeMarco launches his own investigation into a growing list of intertwining suspects. And being DeMarco, he concludes that breaking the law to uncover the truth is the best way to ensure that justice is done. Gripping and genuinely unpredictable to the very end.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802158567
Publisher:	Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Publication date:	04/06/2021
Series:	Joe DeMarco Series , #15
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Mike Lawson is a former senior civilian executive for the U.S. Navy. He is the author of fourteen previous novels starring Joe DeMarco and three novels with his protagonist Kay Hamilton.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Mike Lawson:

“Excellent…No surprise, the resourceful Demarco finds ingenious ways to solve all the problems. The author’s felicitous style will keep readers smiling throughout. Lawson remains at the top of his game.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review), on House Privilege

“House Privilege is worthy of as many stars as the stargivers are giving this year. And you’d think the award-givers would—after 13 novels featuring Joe DeMarco, one of the genre’s most intrepid and endearing (very) private investigators—heap cheesy trophies and worthy praise on Lawson. Lawson is a natural storyteller. He can craft believable characters and connivances that leave you breathless. House Privilege is a lesson in writing believable prose. Lawson makes it look easy, and that’s what fiction writers all hope they’re doing or aspire to do.”—Durango Telegraph, on House Privilege

“This is a consistently entertaining, well-crafted series. The real mystery here is why Lawson has yet to garner a major award.”—Booklist (starred review), on House Privilege

“Another first-rate novel from Lawson, the thirteenth in his celebrated Joe DeMarco series (following House Witness, 2018), with a clever cliff-hanger ending that will both delight and concern his legion of fans.”—Booklist (starred review), on House Arrest

“Lawson's matter-of-fact tone, walking a fine line between satire and reportage, propels his tale forward…And his final sequence, both blackly comic and ineffably sad, provides the perfect conclusion.”—Kirkus Reviews, on House Arrest

“Lawson [is] a reliably excellent writer . . . As always, Lawson’s plotting is ingenious and his characters memorable.”—Seattle Times, on House Rivals

“What a pleasure to read a book by a writer who gets everything right—the engaging protagonist, the fluid and often funny dialogue, the quick-paced and believable plot . . . Grade: A.”—Cleveland Plain Dealer, on House Odds

“Mike Lawson . . . should be a fixture on the bestseller lists, if not a household name . . . Lawson has a deceptively smooth, low-key style that is perfect for the stories he tells . . . Mike Lawson is the only writer I know who comes close to matching the stories of the great Ross Thomas, the finest thriller writer to ever roll a blank page into an Underwood.”—Strand Magazine, on House Reckoning

“A what-happens-next, edge-of-your-seat thriller, told with the author’s clear prose and storytelling skills . . . [Lawson’s] consistent excellence needs to be more universally acknowledged.”—Deadly Pleasures, on House Blood

From the Publisher

2021-03-03
Consummate D.C. insider Joe DeMarco high-tails it to Wyoming in the hope of solving the murder of a successful author who just happens to have been his ex-lover.

Speaker of the House John Fitzpatrick Mahoney wants his unofficial bagman and fixer to track down the person who leaked news to CNN about Mahoney’s secret meeting with two telecom CEOs looking for a merger. But DeMarco, overwhelmed by the news of Shannon Doyle’s fatal shooting, travels to the town of Waverly, Wyoming, instead. There, he learns that everybody just loved Shannon, who was on an extended visit to gather material for her second novel, but that a few people might have had it in for her anyway. Shannon’s discovery, duly recorded in the copious journal DeMarco gets access to by his usual roundabout ways, of the romance between FBI–defying rancher Hiram Bunt’s much younger wife, Lisa, and Jim Turner, the Sweetwater County deputy heading the investigation into Bunt, might have put her in the sights of Turner; his wife, Carly; or Lisa Bunt, who can’t afford to throw away the 10 years she’s invested in her cash cow of a marriage. And motel manager Sam Clarke’s daughter, Lola, a drug-addicted cleaner who almost certainly stole Shannon’s diamond earrings, might have killed her just to swipe her missing laptop as well. Despite DeMarco’s continuing disdain for the niceties of the law, he’s a lot less interesting as a sleuth than as a fixer, and the solution, which he doesn’t even uncover, will have many fans of this entertaining series demanding their money back.

The most conventional and least satisfying of the antihero’s recent adventures. Bring back Beltway corruption.

Kirkus Reviews