Alligator Alley by Mike Lawson

After I raced by way of Alligator Alley and found that it was Mike Lawson’s 16th Joe DeMarco thriller, I skilled a wave of FOMO *Fear Of Missing Out*. The characters are unforgettable—from Democratic Home Speaker John Mahoney (an old-school Boston pol within the Tip O’Neill custom); Mahoney’s longtime troubleshooter, Joe DeMarco; Henry Cantor, upright Inspector Common on the Division of Justice, navy hero, and Medal of Honor recipient; to enigmatic and uber-capable ex-spy Emma: I need all their backstories. It’s not essential to have learn the sooner fifteen DeMarco thrillers with a view to admire Alligator Alley. Here’s a link to the first chapter.

A phrase that’s a lot within the information—“crooked, near-retirement FBI brokers”—matches  brokers McIntyre and McGruder completely. Pals since their days at Quantico, they’re fishing buddies with a yen to dwell the nice life in retirement, if solely their retirement financing stretched to a giant ocean-going boat and a condominium on the water. With the assistance of their longtime buddy, former FBI agent turned authorities lawyer Patricia “Patty” McHugh, (a girl with deep experience in fraud investigations), the 2 Mac’s determined to assist themselves to the stolen property of a pair of crooks. Their job was to convey Lenny and Estelle Berman to justice for defrauding the aged sufferers of their nursing dwelling however McIntyre and McGruder made a whole botch of the investigation. A lot in order that Inspector Common Henry Cantor despatched younger Andie Moore to Florida to dig into why. 

The Everglades—at midnight—was the final place twenty-three-year outdated Annie Moore wished to be.

There was solely a pale half-moon offering any gentle, and she or he might barely see the place she was strolling. She was additionally petrified of snakes and alligators, and there was little question that there have been alligators throughout her.

Andie is following 4 folks, “praying they wouldn’t spot her,” realizing full properly her boss, Henry Cantor, desires her to maintain a low profile.

The 4 folks had been all thieves. There was Lenny Berman and his spouse, Estelle, and two males named McIntyre and McGruder. The Bermans had been of their forties, small, darkish, and modern; they made Andie consider two-legged ferrets. McIntyre and McGruder had been massive, beefy white guys. They had been over six ft tall, over fifty, and chubby. There wasn’t something modern about them in any respect, however that didn’t make them any much less harmful.

Andie is aware of Henry Cantor is correct—that she is “risking her life.” However she’s as contemporary as paint, half flash/half silly and decided to seize the corrupt FBI brokers within the act. Rather than a gun, Andie has her iPhone—she videotapes the execution of the Bermans. 

She stopped the video, praying that the iPhone had a minimum of captured the sound of the gunshots and the flashes of sunshine. Now what she needed to do was get away with out being seen, or she’d find yourself as useless as Lenny and Estelle.

Deadly final ideas. Andie journeys, the brokers hear her, chase her by way of the darkish, and after a heated dialogue beside her automobile, the place it looks as if she’s satisfied them to chop her in on the spoils, McIntyre shoots “Andie Moore twice within the coronary heart.” Henry Cantor is heartsick—Andie reminded him of his grand-daughter, who additionally died earlier than her time. He pleads with Speaker Mahoney to avenge Andie’s demise.

I interview all of the folks I rent personally, and I requested her why she wished to work for me. It’s actually not a glamorous job. She instructed me that for folks to belief their authorities, the federal government needs to be reliable and sincere—and she or he wished to be one of many individuals who stored it sincere.

Cantor requests an unbiased investigation i.e., no FBI. He says, “I believe an FBI agent might need killed her.” Henry Cantor asks for Mahoney’s prime operatives, recalling an earlier case, “—there was a girl named Emma concerned. I would really like her and Mr. DeMarco to look into Andie’s homicide.” Emma (no final title, identical to McIntyre and McGruder don’t have first names) jogs my memory of the lately retired feminine operatives in Deanna Raybourn’s Killers of a Certain Age. She’s frighteningly competent and bossy: DeMarco doesn’t get an opportunity to catch his breath, not to mention play a couple of rounds of golf. They make an ideal workforce. DeMarco could seem like a slouch in comparison with Emma, however he understands the felony thoughts. 

Alligator Alley is a grasp class in how to not clear up crime scenes. There’s no finish to the errors made by McIntyre and McGruder. They struggle sprinkling a bit disinformation on Andie Moore’s demise scene however rapidly resolve discretion is the higher a part of valor and take off to the Florida Keys. Emma’s prime cellphone man (she has limitless safety people at her disposal) tracks them down. DeMarco confronts them, calls for they lower him in and the 2 bunglers, after disingenuously saying sure, resolve to take him out of the image, completely. DeMarco doesn’t perceive them—they’re so bizarre.

They had been lazy, unambitious, and detached to their jobs, a few guys who simply appreciated to drink and fish. In some methods, they weren’t a complete lot completely different from him. How on earth had they turn out to be cold-blooded killers? Fifteen million {dollars} was a hell of an incentive, however DeMarco sensed that McIntyre and McGruder in all probability needed to be pushed into committing homicide—and he puzzled who it was that did the pushing.

We’re entering into spoiler territory. DeMarco’s prescient ruminations are proper on the cash. Alligator Alley is fast-paced, humorous, chilling, and vividly correct. Not for a minute does it look like Mike Lawson’s 16th DeMarco thriller is straying into fictional fantasy. I can’t wait to return to the start, when Speaker Mahoney and his fixer troubleshooter DeMarco, started their partnership. 

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