Quick Review: THE OPERATOR by Mike Lawson (Atlantic Crime)

Joe DeMarco returns, facing off against a ruthless lawyer working for an unscrupulous billionaire

It’s fixer versus fixer, and only one can win

Joe DeMarco is a capable man. He works as a fixer for John Mahoney, the former Speaker of the House (though DeMarco prefers the term “troubleshooter”). He’s the one Mahoney calls upon when there’s a situation that requires creative problem solving.

Carla Andretti — a cutthroat lawyer at one of the world’s top firms — is a fixer too. On behalf of the ultra-wealthy tech-mogul Leo Cage, Carla helps her boss conquer whatever he desires, even if she too must bend the law to make it happen.

When one of Leo’s schemes begins to crumble, it threatens to expose them both on a massive scale, forcing Carla to do what she does best: fix the situation. In order to keep her and Leo’s names clean, she’ll have to go after the people responsible for the unraveling. The only problem? Joe DeMarco’s onto her — and he knows all too well the tricks of the trade.

In Mike Lawson’s 20th novel starring Washington fixer Joe DeMarco, the protagonist finds himself facing off against another fixer, one who is far more ruthless, and working for a tech billionaire. It’s a fast-moving, gripping thriller, and delivered everything I have come to expect from Lawson’s long-running, excellent series.

I have been a long-time reader of Lawson’s novels, first picking up The Inside Ring on a whim while still at university (it was his only novel available in the UK for some time, before others started appearing). Ever since, I have been an avid and eager reader of each new novel, and it has become one of the most consistently satisfying thriller series. There aren’t many series still like this; while it is up-to-the-minute in terms of political and social subject matter, it has retained a late-90s/early-00s political thriller feel, and can comfortably take its place alongside Richard North Patterson (e.g., the Kerry Kilcannon series), Philip Margolin (Dana Cutler series), and David Baldacci (especially the Camel Club series), to name but three. There are surely many others like this, but I can’t think of any off the top of my head. [Feel free to share recommendations in the comments.]

As with all of the author’s novels, The Operator has plenty of nods to contemporary politics, expertly woven into the story — not always in the forefront, often in the background. In addition to the general commentary on American politics in this novel, something else resonated in a different way. I only noticed it some time after finishing the novel, when I read Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor’s End Times Fascism: some of the content in that book about the situation in the Middle East was reminiscent (though not identical) to the scheme at the heart of this novel. I don’t want to spoil anything, so I won’t go into much detail, but it involves a billionaire’s diabolical scheme to (of course) vastly increase in wealth without any thought about what it might mean for the people whose lives will inevitably be upended if he gets his way.

All of Lawson’s strengths as a writer are on display in The Operator: his prose is well-composed, the characters are realistic and three-dimensional, all of the dialogue feels natural, and I struggled to put it down at night when I really should have been getting some sleep. (I read this in to deep-into-the-night reading sessions.)

DeMarco continues to grow as a character, aging realistically, maintaining his political cynicism, and he’s still solving problems through sheer doggedness and a powerful sense of justice (albeit, one that is ever so slightly askew). He’s no James Bond, and he prefers to avoid physical fights, but — as is the fate of all thriller protagonists — action seems to find him. Carla Andretti is an interesting antagonist for DeMarco; someone whose ruthless drive has ultimately pulled her into criminality, and her arrogance and assumed-by-association sense of invincibility was always going to be the cause of her downfall. As these two maneuver around each other, the action takes us across the United States and also abroad.

Overall, then, another excellent addition to the series, and a must for those who are already fans of the series. If you are looking for a thriller series to sink your teeth into, and haven’t yet tried Lawson’s novels, then give The Inside Ring a read — I think you’ll like it, and then have 19 other gripping novels in the series to read.

Definitely recommended.

Mike Lawson’s The Operator is due to be published by Atlantic Crime on February 16th, 2027.

Also on CR: Reviews of House Rules/Dead on Arrival, House Secrets/Dead Man’s List, House Justice, House Divided, House Blood, House Odds, House Reckoning, House Rivals, and The Asset