Political Intrigue with Mike Lawson

INGRID THOFT

A few years ago, I went to Portland, OR to receive the Spotted Owl Award for the Best First Mystery by a Pacific Northwest Writer, compliments of the Friends of Mystery.  It was lovely to get the award, of course, but equally exciting was the opportunity to meet writer Mike Lawson who was accepting the Best Mystery award that same year (for the second year in a row).

Mike lives in the Seattle area and is also a member of the Seattle7Writers organization.  Our paths have crossed in the ensuing years, and it's always a treat to catch up with him.  Mike writes two series, both of which are set in the halls of power amid the political intrigue in Washington, D.C.  His latest book, House Witness, came out in February, and I'm thrilled to have Mike give us the scoop.

INGRID THOFT:  Tell me about your main character, Joe DeMarco.  What inspired you to write a character who is a fixer for a corrupt politician?

MIKE LAWSON:  Actually, the DeMarco series started with the setting as opposed to the character.  I wanted to write a thriller series using Washington D.C. as a launch point for the novels because D.C. is a “target rich” environment for a writer.  There’s always something going on there that’s intriguing, criminal, and convoluted. (Now more so than ever.)  With that in mind, I wanted a protagonist that wasn’t a cop or a detective—there were already too many good cops and detectives in fiction that I couldn’t compete with—so I came up with DeMarco, a fixer for a powerful politician.  Making the politician a corrupt one wasn’t a stretch, obviously, since it seems as if one gets indicted about every other day.
 

IPT:  Where do you find inspiration for your plots?  Do you draw on your experience working as a nuclear engineer for the Navy?
  
ML:  Almost all my books have been inspired—not sure “inspired” is the right word—by some real-life event or circumstance.  The idea for House Rules came from an article I read in the "Washington Post" about the no-fly zone around D.C.  House Blood was sparked by a story in "Vanity Fair" about drug companies doing so-called clinical trials in third world countries.  House Justice was based, in part, on the reporter who outed the CIA agent, Valerie Plame, and was jailed for refusing to name her sources.  

My latest book, House Witness, came to me when I heard a guy on the radio talking about a man being arrested for murder and then tried four years later.  Four years!  It occurred to me: Gee, what can possibly go wrong when it takes four years to bring a case to trial?  My next thought was: What if someone made it her job to make things go wrong? 

Only one of my books was has had anything to do with the navy job I used to have, and that was The Second Perimeter.  The story was actually based on an incident at Los Alamos where the Chinese were accused of stealing a classified computer disk.  I’m a little leery, by the way, about writing about my experiences having to do with navy submarines and aircraft carriers; I don’t need NCIS agents showing up at my door asking why I’m writing about classified matters.  My navy/government background, however, has been very helpful when dealing with the D.C. institutions I often write about.

IPT:  I also love your series featuring former DEA agent Kay Hamilton.  Can you explain the inception of that series?

ML:  The Kay Hamilton series came about in a really odd way. There’s a television producer in LA who loves the Emma character in my DeMarco novels, and he called me one day and asked if I’d like to develop a script with a strong female protagonist for a TV movie.  I said sure, wrote the screenplay, which never got produced, but after the screenplay was finished it was really easy to write my novel, Rosarito Beach.

Rosarito Beach was intended to be a one-and-done stand alone, but when Penguin saw it, they said they wanted a series.  Which, of course, I agreed to; no writer turns down a two-book deal.  Rosarito Beach was also optioned for a television series—a long, sad story I won’t go into.

IPT:  What has surprised you most about being a published author?

ML:  I love writing, and there’s nothing else I’d rather be doing.  And I’ve been extremely fortunate when it comes to my agent, my various editors, and to have been published by great houses like Doubleday, Penguin, and in particular, Grove Atlantic.  So although I really have nothing to whine about, I’ve been surprised by, and somewhat dismayed by, the amount of time, effort, and money that has to go into self-promotion.  My fantasy has always been to become a famous author-recluse like J.D. Salinger—but, of course, no one cares if you’re a recluse unless you’re really famous.

  
  
IPT:  Is there a wannabe book lurking in the back of your brain, something you would write if you didn’t have to consider agents, editors, and fans? A romance?

ML:  Yes, there is.  Right now I’m working on a book that’s unlike anything I’ve done before.  Not a thriller, not a mystery.  It’s sort of a comedy—I’m thinking Tom Hanks in the lead role—Are you listening, Tom?—and it deals with today’s divided, caustic political environment.  I’m not sure the book will ever see the light outside my laptop, but I’m plugging away at it in between my other books.  

Mike will be stopping by today to answer your questions.  He's also giving away a copy of House Witness.  Just comment to enter!

In House Witness, the twelfth novel in the Joe DeMarco series, Mike Lawson puts his likable protagonist on the trail of a different kind of fixer―one whose job is to influence, and sometimes disappear, witnesses in seemingly airtight criminal cases.

Minority Leader of the House and DeMarco’s long-time employer John Mahoney has kept more than one secret from his wife over the years, but none so explosive as this: He has a son, and that son has just been shot dead in a bar in Manhattan. Mahoney immediately dispatches DeMarco to New York to assist prosecutor Justine Porter, but with five bystanders willing to testify against the killer―rich-boy Toby Rosenthal―the case seems like a slam-dunk. That is, until Porter begins to suspect that someone is interfering with those witnesses, and that this may be connected to a pattern of cases across the country. Is there someone who is getting witnesses out of the way when the fate of a wealthy defendant is on the line?


Mike Lawson is the award-winning author of fifteen novels.  He has been nominated five times for the Barry Award and has twice won Friends of Mystery Award.  The twelve books in his Joe DeMarco political thriller series revolve around a character who is a fixer for a semi-corrupt politician.  The first of the three books in his Kay Hamilton series, "Rosarito Beach", was optioned for television.  Prior to turning to writing full time, Mike was a nuclear engineer employed by the Navy and he lives in the Northwest.