Mike Lawson Second Perimeter

Second Perimeter

Mike Lawson

Doubleday, Jul 2006, $24.95

ISBN: 0385515324

Though he has doubts as the allegation from his nephew Dave Whitfield is vague, Secretary of the Navy Frank Hathaway decides a quiet inquiry without official connections is worth doing. He arranges with The Speaker of the House John Mahoney to send his troubleshooting "fixer" Joe DeMarco to the navy base in Bremerton, Washington to ascertain whether fraud has occurred and perhaps worse espionage.

Joe and his colleague retired DIA Agent Emma head to the Bremerton Naval Station to determine what is going on there. They soon find themselves stepping over dead bodies of apparent spies and tangling with lethal Chinese national, Li Mei, who seems to discard her agents once they complete their mission. Emma knows Li first hand from a Cold war fiasco, but that fails to help DeMarco and team as the enemy agent obtains top secret nuclear submarine technology and abducts one of Joe's agents in order to obtain more information and annihilate the person she blames for destroying her career, Emma.

This action-packed fast paced espionage thriller is top rate because of the flawed hero. DeMarco is not sure of his next move as he has never dealt with spies before and worries that one mistake could cause someone's death even as he amusingly ridicules himself for not being James Bond light. Thus as he did in THE INSIDE RING, DeMarco takes the tale to lofty quality heights.

Harriet Klausner