Mike Lawson Books In Order

The Inside Ring

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 dig a little deeper. He turns to Speaker of the House John Fitzgerald Mahoney. The Speaker has a guy an under the radar, go to guy he uses for things like this things he can t afford to have connected to his office. The guy is Joe DeMarco, an honest lawyer with a sordid family history.

After one meeting with Banks, DeMarco realizes he s in way over his head. But Mahoney finds the prospect of taking down Donnelly irresistible and sets DeMarco on a trail that twists through the Secret Service, the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security and snakes all the way back to one of the more enduring mysteries of the twentieth century.

Brim*ming with suspense, authenticity, and wit, The Inside Ring marks the debut of a major new talent and introduces a cast of intriguing characters with many more cases ahead.

The Second Perimeter / The Payback

The dazzling sequel to The Inside Ring finds Joe DeMarco, the Speaker of the House’s all purpose fixer in a battle of wits against a lethal female spy. When the Secretary of the Navy s nephew says he believes that two colleagues at a U.S. naval base may be committing fraud, his uncle is skeptical. Reluctant to launch an official investigation based on a relative s vague suspicions, the secretary asks House Speaker, John Mahoney, to send his troubleshooter, DeMarco, to check out the story. As DeMarco and his friend Emma, a retired DIA agent, began to investigate what they thought was a low stakes government swindle, they come to the terrifying realization that an espionage ring has infiltrated the naval base. The leader of the espionage cell is a woman with whom Emma has a history that goes back to the cold war. Their encounter destroyed the woman s once promising career and turned her into a ruthless operative who cares about only one thing: destroying Emma, the person responsible for her shame, dishonor, and shattered life. DeMarco has never been near a spy in his life at least not that he knew of and now he s dealing with a foreign agent who is more deadly than anyone he s ever encountered.

House Rules / Dead on Arrival

Mike Lawson’s Joe DeMarco thrillers have drawn praise for their fine tuned suspense, off kilter characters, intricate plots, and revealing portrait of Washington, DC behind closed doors. In House Rules, a terrorist bombing of the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel is narrowly avoided. Then a private plane headed straight for the White House ignores warnings and is shot down. An atmosphere of fear and panic overruns the country, and when the junior senator from Virginia proposes to deport all noncitizen Muslims and run extensive background checks on all Muslim Americans, his bill gains surprising traction. Speaker of the House John Mahoney is not pleased. He knows it is the kind of knee jerk response people will come to regret, like Japanese internment camps, and he needs to find a way to kill the bill before it exposes a secret he wants to keep. So Mahoney calls his man DeMarco. An average guy who struggles with debt, divorce, and an unreasonable boss, DeMarco is an unlikely hero, in over his head, relying on old friends as he attempts to get to the bottom of the attacks in this riveting read, full of suspense, fascinating characters, humor, and timely political intrigue.

House Secrets / Dead Man’s List

Mike Lawson’s previous novels starring Joe DeMarco, ”fixer” for the Speaker of the House, have earned him a loyal following from thriller aficionados and a place among the most talented and captivating thriller writers focusing on the dangerous games of our nation’s capital. In House Secrets, DeMarco is sent to investigate the death of a reporter, the son of one of his boss’ old colleagues, even though it appears to be nothing more than an unfortunate accident. He soon learns that the reporter was on the trail of Senator Paul Morelli, a rising star considered a shoe in for his party’s presidential nomination. Some politicians are lucky, and Morelli has been luckier than most, but his past has already been thoroughly scrutinized and he looks clean. But then, why is DeMarco being followed by a pair of rogue agents who freelance for the CIA? Dirty secrets, beltway politics, and divided loyalties threaten as DeMarco’s investigation spirals dangerously out of control. Filled with surprising twists, a captivating plot, and excellent characters both old and new, House Secrets fourth in the Joe DeMarco series is Lawson’s best book yet.

House Justice

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.

House Divided

With his series featuring Joe DeMarco, fixer for Speaker of the House, Mike Lawson has won a reputation as one of America’s best political thriller writers. InHouse Divided,with his boss out of commission, DeMarco is on his own, a sacrificial pawn in a lethal game between a master spy and a four star army general. When the NSA was caught wiretapping U.S. citizens without warrants, a scandal erupted and the program came to a screeching halt. But the man who spearheaded the most sophisticated eavesdropping operation in history wasn t about to sit by while his country sleepwalked into another 9/11. Instead, he moved the program into the shadows. So when the NSA records a rogue military group murdering two American civilians, they can t exactly walk over to the Pentagon and demand to know what s going on. That doesn t mean their hands are tied, however. As the largest intelligence service in the country, both in money and manpower, they have plenty of options mostly illegitimate. DeMarco learns all too well just what the NSA is capable of, but he doesn t like being used, so he fights back. House Dividedis inspired and compelling, a strong addition to this celebrated series.