Untouchable by Mike Lawson

Published by Atlantic Monthly Press on February 25, 2025

The Joe Demarco series follows but sometimes lags behind the current political world, particularly when elections change the party that controls the House. Whether series regular John Mahoney, the Democratic leader, holds the position of Speaker depends on the result of the most recent election. Mahoney is the minority leader in Untouchable and would have been even if the novel took place after the most recent election because Republican control of the House didn’t change. Mahoney would like to be Speaker again because, like nearly all political leaders, he craves power. His fixer, series protagonist Joe DeMarco, doesn’t care which party controls the House. He’d rather be golfing than working.

Untouchable imagines a wealthy friend of politicians and celebrities who has been indicted for sex trafficking a minor. A 15-year-old girl accused Brandon Cartwright of throwing sex parties and hiring young prostitutes to hook up with guests. Cartwright is plainly based on Jeffrey Epstein, while Maxine Barkley, the woman who procures underage prostitutes for Cartwright’s parties, is the fictional analog of Ghislaine Maxwell.

The novel opens with two men, Shaw and Burkhardt, breaking into Cartwright’s home and killing him. They also shoot Cartwright's lover. The men steal every document they can find but leave valuables and the two bodies behind.

The president has a hobby of doodling during meetings, often without realizing he’s taking notes. On the back of a speech, he wrote “Cartwright a-hole!!! Pardon? No f-ing way!!! Pay? Too rich $$$. Doyle’s way? Only way.” The draft speech made its way to National Archives but it took months for the cryptic note to come to the Archivist's attention. He interpreted the note to mean that Cartwright asked the president for a pardon that the president refused. The president countered with a payoff that Cartwright refused because he didn’t need the money. From this, the archivist concluded that Cartwright was trying to blackmail the president to obtain the pardon. “Doyle’s way” is an expression used by pundits to refer to the national security advisor, who routinely ordered the assassination of terrorists and others he considered to be a threat to the country without regard to the collateral damage a missile or bomb might cause. The implication is that Doyle had Cartwright killed to protect the president.

The archivist shows the note to Mahoney but won’t let him keep a copy. Her hope is that Mahoney will take some action that will bring the president to justice. He won’t go to the press or the FBI himself because he’s breaking the law by sharing the president’s document and doing so publicly would destroy the integrity of the National Archives.

Mahoney assigns Demarco to search for evidence that the president was being blackmailed. Being the person he is, Mahoney is less interested in bringing the president to justice than in gaining leverage over him.

The story follows Demarco’s investigation. He quickly realizes that the FBI slow-walked its investigation of Cartwright’s sex trafficking and refused to investigate his death. The DC police chalked up the death to a robbery but a young, disgruntled detective tells Demarco that her boss refused to allow her to conduct a real investigation. Demarco interviews the 15-year-old (who is now a chubby adult alcoholic), tracks down Barkley (who is too frightened to confirm that Cartwright was blackmailing the president), discovers the president’s indiscretions that fueled Cartwright’s blackmail attempt, and tries to find witnesses who can confirm Cartwright’s relationship to the president.

Doyle has Shaw and Burkhardt follow Demarco. More people die at their hands as Doyle tries to puzzle out the source of Demarco’s knowledge of the blackmail attempt. Demarco enlists the help of the mysterious Emma, a former NSA official who is now a series regular. Shaw and Burkhardt will try to kill them both before the story ends. Will they succeed? Will Demarco get the goods on the untouchable president? Will Doyle get away with his crimes? The novel takes a suitably cynical view of power-mad politicians and the political appointees who enable them.

While some Demarco novels are more engaging than others, this one captivates. The story moves quickly and gains credibility by drawing on real-world events that would be difficult to believe if they weren't so well documented. Mike Lawson writes these novels in a breezy style, but the style doesn't detract from his ability to build tension as Demarco follows clues that lead to danger.

Although Demarco has a well-established personality, he gains a bit of darkness by the novel’s end. Demarco has always had conflicted feelings about his father, a contract killer for the Mafia who nevertheless lived by a moral code that prevented him from killing the innocent. The key question at the novel’s end is whether Demarco is also willing to kill someone who, in his moral judgment, is likely to escape justice and deserves to die for his sins. The answer is surprising. It also sets up the next novel in the series. As always, I look forward to reading it.

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