Rosarito Beach

November 4, 2013
Single-minded San Diego, Calif., DEA agent Kay Hamilton doesn’t hesitate to go to the mat—or the mattress, if it comes to that—to take down her target, as is evident early in this fast-paced, if far-fetched, thriller, the debut of a new brand from Lawson (House Odds and seven other Joe DeMarco novels). The ballsy blonde succeeds in apprehending Tito Olivera—a U.S. distributor for his older brother, Mexican drug kingpin Caesar Olivera—after strong-arming Tito’s live-in girlfriend into planting bugs in their house. But Kay’s careful plans begin to implode when the Olivera cartel stages a military-style strike to rescue Tito as he’s being transferred to court. Meanwhile, a total game changer arrives in the form of a stranger connected to Kay’s past. Lawson knows how to script action-packed suspense, but proves far less adept with character—particularly his main one, who for much of the novel could just as well be called Ken without making the story skip a beat. Agent: David Gernert, Gernert Company.

November 1, 2013
For sexy Drug Enforcement Administration agent Kay Hamilton, arresting the drug kingpin was nothing compared to making sure he stays in custody long enough to face justice. Kay left the agency's Miami office under a cloud of controversy. She let a big-time drug dealer seduce her, then became his live-in girlfriend for months, gathering evidence all the while. Eventually, he found out she was a cop, and when he tried to kill her, she shot him dead. Case closed. Now, she's starting fresh in San Diego, but she's still playing fast and loose with the rules. But again, she's getting results--namely, the arrest of Tito Olivera, whom Kay caught murdering a rival on video. But now that Tito is in custody, his half brother Caesar will leverage all the force he can muster to free him, and as the head of a powerful Mexican cartel, he can leverage quiet a lot of force indeed. Maybe even enough to spring Tito out of his cell in the brig at Camp Pendleton, the Marine base where he's being held. When someone close to Kay returns to her life, the cartel realizes they now have a powerful opportunity to make Kay do what they want. But Kay isn't one to be pushed around, especially when the person doing the pushing is a drug lord. Despite a few interesting ticks, Lawson (House Odds, 2013, etc.) turns in a fairly standard thriller here. There's plenty of action and a variety of sleazy drug lords and conflicted cops, just as one would expect. Unfortunately, the characters fall flat, pulled straight from central casting. Even Kay mostly reads as a standard tough-guy lawman, only with a tacked-on sexual side. The plot has its merits, though, focusing as it does on keeping the bad guy, as opposed to catching him, and the twists and turns don't strain the reader's credulity. A few interesting details pull this thriller just barely above the pack.

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July 1, 2013

Lawson--actually, Mike Lawson, creator of the Joe DeMarco series, using a lightly disguised pen name--launches a new series starring tough 'n' sexy DEA agent Kay Hamilton, who's in San Diego about to bust the younger brother of drug kingpin Caesar Olivera when a stranger arrives on her doorstep and makes the case way more personal and complicated.

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