I liked this book. The author, Mike Lawson, is a brilliant storyteller. He does a good job with Good People doing Bad Things to Bad People, all to make a less bad world. It's an excellent and entertaining caper adventure. Recommended as a good read. ( )

A spy is dead because a newspaper story leaked her identity. The leak probably came from someone in Congress. Speaker of the House, John Mahoney, needs the leaked plugged and calls in his go-to-guy, Joe DeMarco. And we're off to the races. Except, we're not.

This is the second book I've read in the DeMarco series and it does the same slow burn that I found in the first one, The Inside Ring. It's more suspense than thriller. This time around we spend more time with the other characters in this intricate plot than with DeMarco. That's mostly okay because these other characters are the ones that are making things happen. Joe is just fumbling along, trying to make sense of it. It's a little amazing that he's able to keep up at all with the few resources he has at his disposal.

Eventually, the story picks up steam and we start getting answers. But we also start racking up dead bodies. And then we're finished with a reasonably satisfying ending. It's not a bad read. It touches on some interesting points about politics and morality and spies. I just think it could have been tighter and stronger. ( )

Not very memorable. ( )

What starts off as an interesting story turns into a plot laden with too many characters and not enough interest. A spy is outed and murdered and the CIA is going to get her killer at all costs. But they are up against a mystery man who also wants revenge. At some point, their paths cross, but the reader doesn't much care by this time. ( )

Mike Lawson just keeps getting better and better with his Joe DeMarco series. Each volume is like reading the headlines of the Washington Post and the supermarket tabloids. Serious issues like the arming of Iran missles are interspersed with the misbehaving shenanigans of our elected officials. House Justice has DeMarco, the off-the-books fix-it guy for the Speaker of the House, once again trying to find out what congressman had a hand in getting a deep cover CIA agent in Iran exposed and killed. The action goes from Iran to Washington and across the U.S. as DeMarco and a gorgeous CIA agent try to track down the truth. There are so many characters that you need a scorecard to figure out who is who. But the book is an entertaining read that leaves the reader shaking their head at the political games played by our country's most powerful leaders--often with devastating results.