Review
Author: Mike Lawson
Reviewed by: William Lilley, III
Issue: March 2021
Joe DeMarco thrillers are solid mysteries - fast out of the gate and fast to the finish. House Privilege is the 14th in the series and is sophisticated in plot, rich in cynicism, and there are no good guys. The story kicks off in the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York where the private plane of a billionaire is sabotaged. The billionaire and his wife are killed, but their 15-year-old daughter Cassie survives, along with her $3 billon trust fund. Managing the trust is a Boston estate lawyer, a woman, who is skimming the trust. She is a sociopath, and revels in it. She engineered the billionaire's murder in order to detour an audit of the trust fund. Godfather to Cassie and, by default, godfather to her trust fund, is John Mahoney, a Boston Congressman who rose to the position of House Speaker on the shoulders of a long career of bribery and bullying. A big drinker and womanizer, he is also very smart, quick to honor favors, and even quicker to settle grievances. Mahoney's "fixer" is Joe DeMarco, tasked by Mahoney to discharge favors and satisfy resentments. Mahoney is Irish, DeMarco is Italian, and both have mob connections. DeMarco's father was the "hit man" for the Queen's branch of the Gambino family in New York and was murdered in the line of duty. DeMarco is a character made for the movies. He is the classic colorful rogue, self-described "sleazy good looking," saddled with shaky finances and a passion for golf. A lot needs fixing in House Privilege. Policing the crooked trust manager turns out to be a fulltime job. She kills the accountant auditing the trust, and she makes a run at the 15-year-old trust fund baby. The plot's highpoints are the interactions between DeMarco and the embezzler. Who can best swindle the other becomes the heart of the mystery. DeMarco unravels the woman's career. He uncovers how she started out a small timer, as a little-league thief, and how things spun out of control. She went big time and hit a level of mastery where she could embezzle $150,000 a year and nobody would be the wiser. But it was not enough. Not her fault, she said, it was the system's fault. She was forced to play in the billion-dollar league, which meant a new house, a new wardrobe, and a new Tesla. Each new lifestyle required more embezzlement. The best part of the plot is the embezzler's shrewdness. "How to embezzle" could be the book's subtitle. A part of her life was getting ready for the DeMarco's; she always assumed that someone, someday, would come after her. The woman set up a maze of defensive perimeters with ready-to-go new identities. They were the best that money could buy. It was not easy but she created sets of new worlds complete with new passports, new banking accounts, new credit cards and new house rentals. When DeMarco made his run at her, she was waiting for him - not a mousy little estate lawyer but a high-powered one with style, looks, and layers of legal protection. DeMarco does not tangle with her layers of defensive legalities, he goes after the embezzler just like Mahoney would have, or as his father would have - he hires muscle, a marvelously talented and dodgy lot.