The Asset by Mike Lawson

Published by Atlantic Crime on February 3, 2026

The newest entry in Mike Lawson’s long-running Joe DeMarco series departs a bit from the usual political crimes that DeMarco either thwarts or commits. DeMarco is a fixer for John Mahoney, the leader of the Democratic party in the House of Representatives. Mahoney is currently the minority leader but will presumably become the Speaker if Lawson completes the next novel after the 2026 midterms.

A relatively plain college student named Jenny McMillian is having an affair with a hot professor named Noah Parker. They have some drinks at a rural diner before Jenny drives them to Noah’s place. Jenny takes a corner too fast and slams the car into a man who is standing in the middle of the road. Noah encourages her to leave the dead body and flee the scene with him to avoid the complication of being charged with a DUI that causes a death.

Someone took a video of the crash. Zhou Enlai, a spy in China’s embassy, uses the video to blackmail Jenny’s mother, Lydia Chang. Since Chang is married to Dutch McMillian, the Republican leader of the Senate, Enlai believes Chang can gain access to classified information.

Diane Lake, a former CIA agent who now works for a firm that does political investigations, sees Enlai having a clandestine meeting with Chang and concludes that Chang is a spy. She brings that information to Mahoney, who suspects that Lake has an ulterior motive. He tasks DeMarco with getting to the bottom of the story.

The novel follows DeMarco as he interviews Chang and Jenny, learns something disturbing about Noah (more disturbing that his shagging of students), and tries to learn how the video was made. The plot is twisty but not convoluted. Some aspects are improbable, but less so than is typical of modern crime novels.

A secondary plot involves a hog butcher in Kentucky who witnessed a gruesome act committed by a Republican political candidate. Mahoney wants DeMarco to verify the story so Mahoney can use it to trash her candidacy. DeMarco’s adventures in Kentucky add comic relief to the story, although Lawson always writes with a light touch. Notably, while the gruesome act should be disqualifying for any political office, it is drawn from the life of a real person who held political office and currently holds a cabinet position notwithstanding that stain on her character.

I appreciate the way Lawson loosely conforms the DeMarco stories to the real world of politics without getting too far into the weeds. Readers of most political viewpoints can enjoy the novels without feeling obligatory outrage because Lawson insulted their favorite politician.

DeMarco might not be the most admirable protagonist in the world of thrillers, but that’s part of his charm. He holds his nose while doing his job and, while he’d rather be golfing, keeps at it so he can afford the greens fees. While he doesn’t always succeed, he does the best he can to keep himself free of political stink.

For a time, DeMarco worries that achieving the political end desired by Mahoney will cause a killer to go unpunished. The Asset arrives at a reasonably just resolution.  As always, the story moves quickly, no loose ends are left untied, and the ending is satisfying.

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