House Privilege

Fourteenth in Mike Lawson's DeMarco series, House Privilege takes its central character from Boston to a distant country where American law has no hold. Lawson, whose work has earned an Edgar Award nomination, opens with a plane crash that kills the parents of Cassie Russell, a fifteen-year-old heiress. Cassie is the one person who survives, and she is the only child of a couple with a very large fortune.

Cassie is also the goddaughter of John Mahoney, the newly chosen Speaker of the House. After the crash, Mahoney is named her legal guardian. His wife would ordinarily handle a responsibility like this, but she cannot, so Mahoney sends his fixer, Joe DeMarco, to check on the girl and keep things steady until Mrs. Mahoney can take over. While doing so, DeMarco uncovers the lawyer who manages Cassie's sizable estate. He learns the man has been siphoning money from the estate and may have had a hand in the deaths of her parents.

What was supposed to be a routine job draws in a Boston crime boss and his Irish enforcers, and the danger grows quickly. DeMarco pursues the lawyer across the globe to protect Cassie and make certain justice is carried out. True to the character, he has little patience for procedure and the usual legal formalities along the way.