House Rules: A Joe DeMarco Thriller (The Joe DeMarco Thrillers, 3)

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. Version : 5.0

In House Rules, two foiled terrorist attacks and a law targeting Muslim Americans send Joe DeMarco on a dangerous mission among mobsters, meth dealers, and the Washington political elite.
First there was the bomb meant for the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel, then a private plane headed straight for the White House is shot down. An atmosphere of fear and panic overruns the country, and when a senator proposes to run extensive background checks on all Muslims and deport any who aren’t citizens, his bill gains surprising traction. John Mahoney, the larger-than-life Speaker of the House, is not pleased. But Mahoney has a connection to one of the attackers, one he wants kept a secret. So he calls DeMarco, who attempts to get to the bottom of the attacks, and to pacify his difficult, yet charismatic boss in this riveting installment in the series.

Publishers Weekly

At the start of Lawson's snappy third thriller starring congressional snoop Joe DeMarco (after The Second Perimeter), a series of three failed attempts by Muslim terrorists to attack Washington, D.C.—one by plane, one by car, one by lone suicide bomber—causes nationwide panic. DeMarco wades into the mess when his boss, House Speaker John Mahoney, asks him to check out the possibility that the terrorist onslaught may have been more homegrown than it appears. Quickly appearing on DeMarco's radar is a suspicious, high-profile piece of anti-Islamic legislation, pushed by the blowhard junior senator from Virginia, that's on the fast track for approval. While the efficient plot takes some predictable turns, Lawson's engaging characters, with DeMarco leading the pack, come across as seriously flawed individuals trying to navigate a political world of high demands and constant distractions. Full of insider information, this novel reinforces Lawson's place in the upper rank of Washington thriller specialists. (June)

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Panic grips Washington, DC, in this thriller featuring “a lightning-paced plot [and] a charmingly likeable character” (Tess Gerritsen). Author of House Witness, 2019 Edgar Award Finalist for Best Novel Two foiled terrorist attacks and a law targeting Muslim Americans are about to send Joe DeMarco on a dangerous mission among mobsters, meth dealers, and the political elite. First there was the bomb meant for the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel. Then a private plane headed straight for the White House is shot down. An atmosphere of fear and panic overruns the country, and when a senator proposes to run extensive background checks on all Muslims and deport any who aren't citizens, his bill gains surprising traction. John Mahoney, the larger-than-life Speaker of the House, is not pleased. But Mahoney has a connection to one of the attackers, one he wants kept secret. So he calls on Joe DeMarco... “Full of insider information, this novel reinforces Lawson's place in the upper rank of Washington thriller specialists.” —Publishers Weekly In The Wake Of A Narrowly Avoided Terrorist Bombing Of The Baltimore Harbor Tunnel, A Virginia Senator Proposes To Deport All Non-citizen Muslims, Unless Speaker Of The House John Mahoney Can Have Investigator Joe Demarco Uncover The Truth About The Attacks. Michael Lawson. A Joe Demarco Thriller--cover.