Review of "The Asset: A Joe DeMarco Thriller" by Mike Lawson

In this 20th book in the Joe DeMarco series, the political fixer has a delicate assignment. The book works fine as a standalone.

*****

Background: Democratic Congressman John Mahoney is the minority leader of the House of Representatives, and like many politicians, he has questionable ethics.



Joe DeMarco is Mahoney's fixer and bagman - the person Mahoney sends to collect campaign contributions that many people might consider bribes.



As the story opens, Congressman Mahoney is on a mission to destroy Congresswoman Maggie Bower, a Republican from Kentucky. Bower is a regular on talk shows, podcasts, and social media sites, where she espouses mind-boggling conspiracy theories. Bower's current favorite is that extraterrestrials live among us, and the reason they haven't been exposed is because the people running NASA are extraterrestrials.



Bower publicly insults members of her own party who disagree with her, and is even trying to topple the current Republican leadership in the House. Bower's favorite target, however, is Congressman Mahoney. She disparages Mahoney to the media at every opportunity, hurls obscenities at him, interrupts his speeches, and follows him back to his office shouting curses.



Recently, Mahoney learned Bower DID SOMETHING that would turn the voters against her - something observed by a Kentucky pig butcher called Mookie.



Mahoney sends DeMarco to Kentucky, to get a statement from Mookie......



......but the pig butcher travels around to pig farms for work, and he's hard to track down.



While DeMarco is perambulating around Kentucky, Congressman Mahoney is approached by a former CIA agent called Diane Lake. Lake now works for Vicount Analytics, a research firm that politicians use to dig up dirt on their opponents.



Lake tells Mahoney she saw Lydia Chang - a businesswoman married to powerful Republican Senator Dutch McMillian - doing something suspicious.



According to Lake, she was jogging in a park in Arlington, and observed Lydia Chang speaking with a Chinese intelligence agent called Zhou Enlai.



Lake believes Lydia Chang is spying for Zhou, and she thinks Mahoney should inform the FBI.



Congressman Mahoney and Senator McMillian are long-time political enemies, and Mahoney could use a thing like this to ruin McMillian's career.



However, Mahoney wants to CONFIRM Lake's suspicions before he approaches the authorities. So the congressman calls Joe DeMarco back from Kentucky to look into the matter.



DeMarco uses his usual private detectives, Sergio and Javier - a couple of military trained killers originally from South America - to spy on Lydia Chang.



To cut to the chase, Demarco learns Lydia is being blackmailed by Zhou Enlai. It seems Zhou has video evidence of wrongdoing by Lydia's daughter Jenny, who's a college sophomore.



DeMarco informs Congressman Mahoney, and the two of them 'take steps', but to say more would be a spoiler.



There are 20 books in the Joe DeMarco series, but this is the first one I've read, and I enjoyed it. The story is a thriller, but it's also very funny, with interesting characters.

As an example, Congressman Mahoney is self-absorbed, adulterous, and stingy. DeMarco observes, 'For more than forty years Mahoney's wife Mary Pat tolerated her husband's drinking, his many affairs, and his self-centered nature.'



And when the congressman and his bagman meet in a restaurant bar, Mahoney has DeMarco buy shot after shot of bourbon for him ($12 each), but Mahoney never pays the fixer back.



On the other hand, Mahoney can be a 'mensch' on occasion, as you'll see if you read the book.

As for DeMarco, he knows how to get the job done, and he can get out of dangerous scrapes. DeMarco's also a golf nut, and when his car is stolen, DeMarco's biggest concern is getting back his golf clubs in the trunk.



I'm glad I stumbled on the Joe DeMarco series, and recommend it to readers who like humorous crime novels.

Thanks to Netgalley, Mike Lawson, and Grove Atlantic for an ARC of the book.

Rating: 4 stars 

Review of "Katabasis: A Novel" by R. F. Kuang

Professor Jacob Grimes is chair of the Department of Analytic Magick at the University of Cambridge; a Nobel laureate; and the twice-elected president of the Royal Academy of Magick.



Professor Grimes' advisees go on to tenured jobs at top-tier programs, and a recommendation letter from Grimes as good as secures a post anywhere. That's why graduate students Alice Law and Peter Murdoch elect to study under Grimes - to secure rosy futures filled with great opportunities.



Alice and Peter's plans are upended when Professor Grimes is killed in a gruesome laboratory accident. On the fatal day, Grimes has Alice chalk a pentagram for him, but Alice - who's overtired and overcaffeinated - accidentally leaves a tiny opening. Thus when Grimes steps into the pentagram and utters an incantation, howling winds rush in.



Grimes' eyeballs pop like grapes, his intestines spool out of his body, he turns upside down and spins, and his body flies apart in all directions, splattering every surface with blood and bone and guts.



Alice is anxious to finish her research, defend her dissertation, and get a recommendation from Professor Grimes. So she prepares to rescue Grimes' soul from Hell.



Alice consults tartarology texts, chalks the appropriate transportative pentagram, and is about to start her trip when Peter Murdoch shows up and joins her.



Both magick students know the venture will cost half their remaining lifespans, but they step into the pentagram, intone the appropriate chants, and descend to Hell.



Hell turns out to resemble a dark distorted version of the Cambridge campus, and Alice and Peter set out to find Professor Grimes. There's friction between the twosome because they were VERY COMPETITIVE RIVALS for Grimes' favor, and - unknown to them - he played one off against the other.



Alice and Peter find that Hell is a dangerous place full of trouble, risk, shades, and killers. Dying in hell is especially dire because it's not just your mortal body that disintegrates, it's your soul too. There's total annihilation of the self, and no chance for reincarnation.



In their search for Professor Grimes, Alice and Peter make their way from one part of Hell to another. It's fatal to eat or drink anything from the underworld, so the searchers ration their supply of Lembas Bread (stale, cardboard-y nutrition strips) and only drink from their perpetual flasks of water, that refill themselves.



Alice and Peter's major exploits in Hell begin with a climb up a fifty-meter-high vertical wall of bones.



They then encounter the courts of Hell. The first is the Court of Pride, a huge library with stacks and stacks of shelves stretching in every direction.



Here Alice and Peter meet a shade called George Edward Moore, whose office contains a massive desk; plump armchairs; porcelain tea sets; memorabilia from overseas trips; framed diplomas on every wall; etc. Alice decides Grimes isn't confined in 'Pride' because he hated peacocking and could legitimately boast of his accomplishments.



The second court is the Court of Desire, which is populated by shades who were gluttons; sex addicts; drug addicts; etc. Here, Alice and Peter observe ALL SORTS of physically pleasurable exploits (ewwww), but Grimes isn't trapped here either, because overindulgence wasn't among his flaws.



Alice and Peter move on to the other courts in Hell, their goal being to get to the eighth court and bargain with King Yama, Ruler of the Underworld, for Grimes' soul.



As the searchers continue their long journey, they encounter the river Lethe - whose water erases memories; the Weaver Girl whose Prisoner's Dilemma game causes a breach between Alice and Peter; Elspeth Bayes - a student of Professor Grimes who committed suicide; Nicomachus and Magnolia Kripke - magicians who kill creatures and drain their blood to do warped magic; bone-creatures that attack and kill; and other denizens of the abyss.



The lives of Alice and Peter are repeatedly threatened.....and worse!

On the bright side, Alice and Peter are joined by Archimedes, Cambridge's Department of Analytic Magick cat, who can freely move between the living world and Hell. Archimedes turns out to be an asset in the searchers' quest.



During their sojourn in Hell, Alice and Peter share secrets, and they come to know more and more about Professor Grimes. It's clear that Grimes is an exploiter who steals his students' research, and a sexual predator who pressures females in his group. If the women complain to school personnel, they're advised to keep mum, for themselves and the institution.



Alice and Peter discover that Hell is a parody of graduate school at Cambridge (or anywhere), with punishing hours; pressure to do research; worries about the dissertation defense; etc.



There's a tiny smidge of romance in the story. After Alice and Peter comprehend that Professor Grimes deliberately drove a wedge between them, the sparks of attraction - which previously flared and died - are reignited. This isn't a love story though.

Does Grimes soul get saved? It would be a spoiler to tell.

The book is filled with interesting characters, and liberally sprinkled with esoteric literary references and allusions to monsters, demons, and real-life writers, scientists, mathematicians, philosophers, and scholars who've contributed to knowledge and civilization.



I admire author R.F. Kuang's imagination, and commend the prodigious amount of work that went into this novel.

The story is well worth reading. Highly recommended.

Rating: 4 stars