House Witness (Joe DeMarco Series #12)

by Mike Lawson

Overview

In House Witness, the twelfth novel in the Joe DeMarco series, Mike Lawson puts his likable protagonist on the trail of a different kind of fixer—one whose job is to influence, and sometimes disappear, witnesses in seemingly airtight criminal cases.

Minority Leader of the House and DeMarco’s long-time employer John Mahoney has kept more than one secret from his wife over the years, but none so explosive as this: He has a son, and that son has just been shot dead in a bar in Manhattan. Mahoney immediately dispatches DeMarco to New York to assist prosecutor Justine Porter, but with five bystanders willing to testify against the killer—rich-boy Toby Rosenthal—the case seems like a slam-dunk. That is, until Porter begins to suspect that someone is interfering with those witnesses, and that this may be connected to a pattern of cases across the country. Is there someone who is getting witnesses out of the way when the fate of a wealthy defendant is on the line?

With the help of Porter’s intern, as outrageously smart as she is young, DeMarco becomes determined to follow that question through to its violent resolution in what turns out to be this series’ most unexpected plot yet.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802126665
Publisher:	Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Publication date:	02/06/2018
Series:	Joe DeMarco Series , #12
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

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

Read an Excerpt

What Toby did was walk out to his car, which was parked directly in front of McGill’s. That was the only luck he’d had in the last three days: finding that parking spot. He jerked open the passenger-side door, opened the glove compartment, and pulled out the gun—a Smith & Wesson .357 revolver with a walnut grip and a three-inch barrel. He slammed the car door shut and walked back into McGill’s—and immediately saw the whale at a table, sitting by himself, still wearing his trench coat and his stupid hat. Toby walked over to him and, without hesitating, shot him three times. “That’ll teach you to fuck with me,” he muttered.

It was as if the sound of the gunshots woke him from a nightmare, and he suddenly realized what he’d done. He stood for no more than a second looking at the fat man—his white shirt was turning crimson—then he ran. He almost hit a busboy carrying a tray of glasses before he got to the door, banged it open, jumped into his car, and took off. He was driving away less than a minute after he killed Dominic DiNunzio.

As he was driving he kept saying, “What did you do? What did you do?” The short-barreled .357 was on the passenger seat, but it was no longer an inanimate object. To Toby it was alive, like a malignant machine in a Stephen King novel, giving off heat, possessing a dark, throbbing heart.

Editorial Reviews

11/06/2017
At the start of Lawson’s winning 12th Joe DeMarco thriller (after 2016’s House Revenge), John Mahoney, the minority leader of the House of Representatives, learns that his son has been killed. Still worse, his wife, Mary Pat, doesn’t know he had one. Dominic, who’s the result of Mahoney’s affair many years before with Connie DiNunzio, an aide to a New York congressman, has been killed in a New York City bar by Toby Rosenthal, a rich man’s son who is probably going to try to buy his way out of a conviction. Connie wants vengeance. Mahoney assigns DeMarco, his fixer, the job of making sure Toby goes to jail. Each of the five eyewitnesses to the shooting can identify Toby as the killer, and each becomes the target of a con woman, Ella Fields, whose specialty is witness tampering. Readers will enjoy watching the case unravel and how DeMarco goes about making things right. The action builds to a satisfying resolution, but an open ending promises more troubles for DeMarco down the line. Agent: David Gernert, Gernert Company. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for House Witness:

“One of the best in a superior series . . . I’ve read all twelve and consider this series to be among the top ten mystery series being published today.”—Deadly Pleasures, Rating: A

“Each of Lawson’s DeMarco novels have been first-rate, but House Witness may be the best yet. DeMarco’s investigation and the machinations of the witness tamperers are skillfully detailed and thoroughly involving, but the love affair between two of the criminals is an unexpected bonus. Readers will once again find themselves comparing Lawson to the late, great Ross Thomas.”—Booklist (starred review)

“Winning . . . . Readers will enjoy watching the case unravel and . . . the action builds to a satisfying resolution.”—Publishers Weekly

“Veteran fixer Joe DeMarco, who's never met a problem he couldn't solve by hook or by crook, goes up against a criminal as canny and resourceful as he is . . . The resulting game of cat and cat . . . is irresistible . . . The devil is in the details, and Lawson's details are unfailingly devilish, right down to the very last twist. A perfect candidate for in-flight entertainment.”—Kirkus Reviews

Praise for Mike Lawson and the Joe DeMarco series:

“Lawson [is] a reliably excellent writer . . . As always, Lawson’s plotting is ingenious and his characters memorable.”—Adam Woog, 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

“If you've been reading and enjoying Block, Crais, Child, Pelecanos, Winslow, et al, you should also be reading Mike Lawson . . . Mike Lawson is a very fine writer. His plots are devious and intriguing, and his characters are well developed.”—JB Dickey, Seattle Mystery Bookshop, on House Odds

“A great novel from a great author! . . . Equal parts funny, clever and cool, this book will make your heart race and your mind ponder.”—Lisa Gardner, on House Divided

From the Publisher

09/01/2017
Political fixer Joe DeMarco must investigate the shooting death of the son his employer, House minority leader John Mahoney, has kept secret from his wife. When someone starts interfering with the witnesses in a disturbing echo of cases nationwide, Joe sees that he's up against a fixer of a different sort. Look for a big push at PLA and ALA Midwinter.

Library Journal

2017-11-14
Veteran fixer Joe DeMarco, who's never met a problem he couldn't solve by hook or by crook, goes up against a criminal as canny and resourceful as he is.Five eyewitnesses see Toby Rosenthal run from McGill's bar after he shoots accountant Dominic DiNunzio to death following a brief, apparently routine altercation. The case against Toby would be open and shut if his boss and father, Henry, weren't an immensely wealthy and well-connected lawyer. David Slade, the criminal defense attorney Henry hires to defend his son, sees only one path to acquittal: contacting a self-described jury consultant he's heard about who goes to exceptionally active lengths to alter the facts on the ground. When Henry agrees, Slade unleashes his dark, expensive ally, who promptly goes to work bribing, blackmailing, and murdering those five witnesses. Luckily for the forces of justice—if Lawson believes in such a thing—DiNunzio was the unacknowledged offspring of House Minority Leader John Mahoney, who, having never met his son in life, is determined to avenge him in death. So Mahoney unleashes his own not-so-secret weapon, Joe DeMarco (House Rivals, 2015, etc.), who begins by assuming that his services won't be needed but then realizes that those five witnesses are endangered species who'll vanish from the Earth if he can't figure out who's marked them to be neutralized. The resulting game of cat and cat—DeMarco scrambles to identify and defang that jury consultant before the defense succeeds in discrediting or disposing of all the witnesses and providing an innocent alternative defendant to boot—is irresistible.Eminently predictable in its larger contours—but the devil is in the details, and Lawson's details are unfailingly devilish, right down to the very last twist. A perfect candidate for in-flight entertainment for readers confident that their seatmates can't possibly be carrying.

Kirkus Reviews