House Privilege

A Washington fixer takes on a simple babysitting job for a powerful politician-that soon escalates into embezzlement and murder: Excellent.-Publishers Weekly (starred review) Fifteen-year-old Cassie Russell, the only daughter of a mega-rich Boston couple, is the sole survivor of a plane crash that killed her parents. She's also the goddaughter of the Speaker of the House, John Mahoney, who's now her legal guardian. Normally, Mahoney would send his kind-hearted wife to deal with his new ward, but she's unavailable-so he dispatches his fixer, Joe DeMarco, to make sure the girl's okay. DeMarco's job is only to put things into a holding pattern until Mrs. Mahoney is able to step in-but DeMarco unintentionally flips over a rock and out from under it crawls a lawyer, the one managing Cassie's vast estate. DeMarco learns the lawyer has been embezzling-and may have killed Cassie's parents. What should have been a simple assignment soon unleashes murderous plots involving a Boston mob boss and his thugs, and DeMarco ends up chasing the scheming lawyer halfway around the world to save Cassie and ensure that justice is done-though he may ignore some of the legal niceties-in this fast-paced new mystery in the consistently entertaining, well-crafted series from the Edgar Award-nominated author (Booklist, starred review). A writer who gets everything right.-Cleveland Plain Dealer