House Odds by Michael Lawson

Published by Atlantic Monthly Press on June 25, 2013

John Mahoney is the minority leader in the House of Representatives. His daughter Molly has been arrested for insider trading. Mahoney turns to his fixer, Joe DeMarco, to get Molly out of trouble. Is Molly guilty? Is someone trying to frame her to put the squeeze on her father? The fast-moving plot involves a lobbyist, a shady investment manager, a crooked casino manager and the mob boss who employs him, a former NFL linebacker, assorted thugs, devious politicians, a hyper-aggressive SEC lawyer, and an unsolved murder that occurred while some of the characters were still in their college years.

Politics is a dirty game and Mahoney is a dirty player, which means his go-to-guy DeMarco isn't your usual squeaky clean thriller hero. In the Washington of House Odds, bribery and blackmail are business-as-usual. Apart from the creative wrongdoing that keeps the plot moving, Mike Lawson peppers the story with the everyday shenanigans of congressional politics: the tricks pulled by the out-of-power political party to become the in-power political party; the use defense appropriations bills to fund projects that have nothing to do with defense. Lawson has fun with the nonsensical babbling that substitutes for political discourse in the House of Representatives, as well as the scuzzy nature of politically motivated federal prosecutions. If you're cynical about politicians (and who isn't?), this is the book to read.

Fortunately, Lawson writes with a light touch, avoiding the overbearing attitudes that too often mar novels set within a political milieu. Politicians of both parties are dirty in House Odds; this isn't a partisan rant. The scheme that Mahoney cooks up and that DeMarco executes to get Molly out of trouble would make Machiavelli proud. Some of the novel's events are just a little too convenient for the real world, but given the novel's tone, I was willing to accept the unlikely for the sake of amusement. House Odds is the sort of novel you can read while giving your brain a rest, the literary equivalent of junk food: not particularly nutritious, but satisfying.

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