House Arrest: A Joe DeMarco Thriller (Joe DeMarco Thrillers, 13) - Hardcover

Lawson, Mike

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0802129307 ISBN 13: 9780802129307

Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2019

Synopsis

In the thirteenth book in Mike Lawson’s celebrated series, Joe DeMarco finds himself on the wrong side of an investigation―in the wake of a political assassination, he’s been framed as the killer.
As the fixer for Congressman John Mahoney in Washington, D.C., Joe DeMarco has had to bend and break the law more than a few times. But when Representative Lyle Canton, House Majority Whip, is found shot dead in his office in the U.S. Capitol and DeMarco is arrested for the murder, DeMarco knows he’s been framed. Locked up in the Alexandria Jail awaiting trial, he calls on his enigmatic friend Emma, an ex-DIA agent, to search for the true killer.
Emma’s investigation leads her to Sebastian Spear, the ruthless and competitive CEO of the multi-billion-dollar Spear Industries. Spear had a motive for killing Lyle Canton: Canton’s wife, Jean, had once been Spear’s high school sweetheart and the one true love of his life―until Canton won her over. Now Jean was dead, killed in a car crash while driving drunk, and Spear blamed Canton for the accident. But the case the F.B.I. has built against DeMarco is airtight, and not a single piece of evidence points to the grieving CEO. Using her cunning and her D.C. connections, Emma sets out to prove that Spear has been using some fixers of his own.
Featuring crimes of passion, corporate corruption, and partisan feuds, House Arrest is a gripping, timely political thriller, and one of Lawson’s best books yet.

About this title

About the Author

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

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

As Emma had no answer to Agent Peyton’s question, she asked a question of her own: “Agent Peyton, have you considered the possibility that someone may be trying to frame DeMarco for Canton’s murder?”
“You know, John Mahoney said the same thing and I’ll tell you what I told him. In my twenty-five years in the Bureau, I’ve never heard of a single person being framed for a crime.”
“Well, how would you have heard?” Emma said. “If the frame was perfect an innocent man would be sent to jail and no one would ever know.”
“Yeah, but I’ve never even heard of a botched frame. Nor can I remember a defense attorney ever making a plausible argument in court that a client was framed. Mistaken identity, yes. Framed, no. People are framed in movies.”
When Emma didn’t immediately respond, Peyton said, “Let me ask you something, Emma. If a smart, rich person like you wanted someone dead, why would you do something as complicated as framing someone for the murder? Killing the guy yourself in some clever way would be simpler. Or if you couldn’t do it yourself, why not just hire a sniper to shoot the guy?”
“I’ll tell you why,” Emma said, “and the reason is you.”
“Me?” Peyton said.
“Yes. If the person I wanted to kill was a U.S. congressman I would know that the FBI would assign a man like you to the case, along with a hundred other agents, and you wouldn’t give up until you caught me. But if I framed someone and if you caught the person I framed immediately―which you did in the case of DeMarco―then I might get away with the murder because you’d no longer be hunting for me.”

About this edition

• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 0802129307
• ISBN 13: 9780802129307
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288