A wholly original plot involving a US president who really should break his habit of doodling, a low level government employee who sees something she shouldn’t, an intelligence director who has way too much power and way too many yes men and women working for him, a good cop even if she is only a year in, an ex-Speaker who positively lusts after getting his job back, and Joe DeMarco, a fixer who cleans up Congressional messes. 

This isn’t one but DeMarco’s job is taking out the ex-Speaker’s dirty laundry and he does as he is bid, which is mostly finding people to ask questions of, which nearly gets him killed, not to mention the three other victims in his wake. (He really needs to learn how to spot a tail.) The action is non-stop and by the end DeMarco, the son of a mob hitman, channels his dead father to see justice done, or at least justice as it would be called by Teddy Roosevelt. 

Good characters with every elected government official confirming every suspicion you ever had about living and working in D.C. and a narrative that just won’t stop, including a last scene that Mickey Spillane, who famously said “The last line sells the next book” would have given an A+. Here’s a book you’ll stay up late to finish. You have been warned.

Book Review Monday Chatter a Joe DeMarco thriller Mike Lawson Untouchable