House Blood

April 2, 2012
In Lawson’s enjoyable seventh thriller starring congressional fix-it man Joe DeMarco (after 2011’s House Divided), DeMarco looks into a lobbyist’s suspicious murder conviction. Demarco quickly figures out the lobbyist was framed to cover the criminal tracks of Orson Mulray, CEO of the pharmaceutical company that bears his name, and several of Mulray’s ruthless underlings. Mulray has developed a drug that can cure Alzheimer’s disease, but to test it, he needs dead bodies, which he pulls from “patient farms” his company has established in Uganda and Peru. DeMarco’s close ex-CIA friend, Emma, helps motivate DeMarco through a mixture of tough love and shame. While Lawson provides a vivid picture of what it takes to get a drug approved and how high the stakes can be both politically and financially, the book’s main appeal is everyman DeMarco, who’d rather watch college basketball on TV than work. As ever, he’s good at tracking the bad guys—and it’s fun to watch him at it. Agent: David Gernert, the Gernert Company.

July 1, 2012
A Washington, D.C., lobbyist is murdered and his partner is framed for the crime. Back for another adventure in congressional fixing, investigator Joe DeMarco untangles a plot involving the deaths of human guinea pigs being used to test a miracle drug. Orson Mulray, new CEO of Mulray Pharma, is counting on a new drug that can eliminate Alzheimer's disease--and, even more importantly, make his company bigger and more powerful than it was under his unloving and underachieving father. True-believing philanthropist Lizzie Warwick has put her organization at Mulray's beck and call in Peru, not knowing the testing of subjects has led to four deaths--and that the deaths are treated as necessary to the experiments. Her lobbyist discovers the truth but is murdered before he can share it with her. DeMarco, deposed Speaker of the House John Mahoney's go-to guy, is soon pursued by professional killers who learned their tactics in Delta Force. DeMarco's friend Emma, a former intelligence agent dying of cancer, is swept into the plot as well. Her calmly pragmatic response to a violent threat is one of the highlights of the book, leaving us wishing she were in it more. DeMarco is a likable enough character with a good sense of humor, but can't be said to have much in the way of star power. Lawson, a former senior civilian executive for the Navy, is likewise a competent storyteller, but the writing lacks color, and the action never rises above the functional. Big Pharm makes for a familiar villain in Lawson's solidly plotted but not especially lively seventh installment (House Divided, 2011, etc.) in the Joe DeMarco series.

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February 1, 2012

Big pharma CEO Orson Mulray wants to test a miracle drug, but human subjects--and autopsy results--are required. Sweeping that little complication under the table, he ropes in starry-eyed philanthropist Lizzie Warwick, but then her lobbyist in Washington, DC, uncovers the true nature of the plan and gets murdered for his troubles. Two years later, congressional fixer Joe DeMarco picks up the case, and things get really complicated. House Rules (2008) was a No. 1 Kindle best seller, and House Divided (2011) was an LJ best thriller of the year, so House Blood is well positioned.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 1, 2012
An egocentric Big Pharma CEO discovers an obscure, tongue-tied researcher who may have discovered a promising treatment for Alzheimer's. But the CEO knows that clinical trials in the U.S. might take two decades because of FDA regulations, so he authorizes his deputy, Fiona, whom he believes to be a sociopath, to circumvent the FDA. She does this with the aid of a handsome French doctor with money problems, a disgraced Army colonel and logistics wizard, two former Delta Force supersoldiers, and a boatload of cash, infiltrating his team into an international disaster-relief agency run by a naive do-gooder. Cynical, reluctant hero Joe DeMarco becomes involved only because his bossconniving, lecherous, alcoholic congressional minority leader John Patrick Mahoneywants to avoid a spat with his wife. The seventh Joe DeMarco novel is even more compelling than House Divided (2011). The plot and pace are relentless, and the milieus of Congress, D.C., and disaster relief seem knowingly presented. But character creation is Lawson's greatest talent, and Fiona, her supersoldiers, and, of course, the ever-cranky cynic, DeMarco, will rivet readers' attention. A host of lesser characters are nearly as engaging. House Blood is so good it will move longtime political-thriller readers to recall the memorable characters, wit, and style of the late, great Ross Thomas.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)