House Blood
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
“The plot and pace are relentless” as Joe DeMarco investigates a pharmaceutical corporation that has gone beyond the bounds of science and into murder (Booklist, starred review).
Author of House Witness, 2019 Edgar Award Finalist for Best Novel
Things have been better for Washington, DC, insider Joe DeMarco. His boss is no longer Speaker of the House and his girlfriend has left him. So, when he’s asked to look into the murder conviction of a lobbyist, he’s less than enthusiastic. But he soon uncovers a conspiracy that ignites his sense of righteous rage.
Two years ago, Orson Mulray, CEO of Mulray Pharma, discovered a miracle drug worth billions. But the drug needed to be tested on humans. And Mulray needed more than blood samples—he needed autopsy results. So he sent the drug into a devastated warzone as part of a “relief effort.”
But when his twisted scheme was discovered, someone had to die—and a certain lobbyist had to take the fall for murder. To clear his name, DeMarco must go up against a remorseless corporate juggernaut with almost unlimited resources, and take on a pair of callous killers unlike anything he’s ever encountered . . .
With House Blood, Mike Lawson delivers “another page-turner brimming with authentic Washington, DC, detail and distinctive, engaging characters” (Library Journal).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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.