Political Thriller done right!

Joe DeMarco is back and the corridors of power have never felt so deadly…

First a bomb attack on the Baltimore Harbour tunnel is averted. Then a young American Muslim is shot down in a Cessna plane whilst trying to drive it into The Whitehouse.

What follows is chaos as a ruthless senator tries to pass a xenophobic law that will see non-citizen Muslims deported and extensive background checks on all Muslims living in the US carried out immediately.

Speaker of the house John Mahoney wants nothing to do with the bill being pushed through. He knows all to well what trouble a law like that could stir up, and what’s worse he knows the kid who tried to crash the plane into the White House.

Enter Joe DeMarco, a man with a shady past, a lawyer who has never practised law. He’s charged with investigating the attacks but there’s a twist to the attempted mass destruction, something the FBI didn’t even see, and suddenly at every turn DeMarco faces a new and terrifying danger…

Mike Lawson’s debut, The Inside Ring (2006) introduced us to Joe DeMarco, trouble-shooter for the Speaker of the US Congress, Mahoney. Called on to do all the jobs the Speaker doesn’t want publicised, DeMarco works in the dirty underbelly of US politics (not to mention having an office in the basement). In this, the third novel in the series (titled House Rules in North America) The novel is told primarily from the perspective of DeMarco and the Speaker (who’s actually an awesome character, so his increased presence here is definitely welcome), providing insight into both the public and private workings of the US government. Continue reading →