House Privilege (Joe DeMarco #14)

House Privilege is the 14th book in the Joe DeMarco thriller series by Mike Lawson. Released 7th July 2020 by Grove Atlantic on their Monthly Press imprint, it's 320 pages and available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

This is a really well written engaging and fast paced mystery full of skullduggery, crime mobs, high stakes murder, and at the center of it all, the fixer with a heart of gold, rescuing damsels, protecting orphans, righting wrongs, and exposing the bad guys. In a lot of very good ways, this book reminded me of John D. MacDonald's superlative Travis McGee books, with a dash of Robert B. Parker thrown in for good measure. That isn't to say that this book was derivative, it's not, the author has a masterful grasp of plotting and narrative arc and the nuts and bolts of the story work very well.

There's a fair amount of graphic violence and strong language - murder, mob bosses, embezzlement and the like, and readers who find the "f-bomb" problematic might want to give this one a miss. There's also a short but somewhat graphic description of a small-craft airplane crash with attendant death (it's very short and central to the plot).

Despite being the 14th book in the series, this one works perfectly well as a standalone. I hadn't read any of the other books for at least a couple years (my notes before 2018 were sketchy at best) and I had no trouble following any of the action.

Four stars. Well worth a look.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.