October 29, 2007
At the start of the adrenaline-infused 10th thriller to feature DA Dismas Hardy (Dead Irish
, etc.) from bestseller Lescroart, Hardy agrees to wrap up some of the caseload of a Bay Area lawyer who has mysteriously disappeared. After discovering that the lawyer was set to appeal an apparently straightforward murder case, Hardy realizes that the crime had its origins in Iraq, where the alleged killer and his victim first met. With the help of his old friend, Det. Abe Glitsky, Hardy learns that the victim, ex-navy SEAL Ron Nolan, was sleeping with the girlfriend of National Guard Reservist Evan Scholler, who was later convicted of killing Nolan. As Hardy and Glitsky dig deeper, they discover that Nolan had committed several murders himself, and it’s up to Dismas and Hardy to unravel the conspiracy that may have roots in the U.S. government. Lescroart weaves his trademark complicated yet fast-moving tale, full of believable characters and crisp dialogue. A first-rate addition to the author’s ongoing series, this should please both longtime readers and new fans.

November 1, 2007
In his 12th legal drama (after "The Suspect"), San Francisco defense attorney Dismas Hardy takes on the open cases of missing attorney Charlie Bowen. What seems to be simple housecleaning presents the case of Evan Scholler, a National Guard reservist convicted of the murder of Ron Nolan, a former friend and a private contractor in Iraq. As Dismas works on Evan's appeal, he begins to suspect that the security company Nolan worked for in Iraq and the government money it was bringing in have something to do with Bowen's disappearance, Nolan's death, and an FBI cover-up. With a complex plot, it would be easy to become bogged down in backstory, but Lescroart keeps the action moving. Lescroart's depiction of the measured cynicism of what America is doing in Iraq is so compelling that readers will hardly notice that Dismas and his police detective friend Abe Glitsky are absent for two-thirds of the book. Fans of the duo may be disappointed in the lack of movement in their personal stories, but the novel is still extremely satisfying. Recommended for public libraries where legal thrillers are popular. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 9/1/07.]Amanda Scott, Cambridge Springs P.L., PA

Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2007
Lescroart is giving John Grisham a run for the legal-thriller sweepstakes with his Dismas Hardy series. In his latest outing, San Francisco defense attorney Hardy, coping with a newly emptied nest and a returned-to-work wife, is asked by a judge to clean up the caseload of a missing attorney and soon finds himself plunged into a consuming homicide investigation. The caseload includes an appeal to overturn the conviction of Second Lieutenant Evan Scholler for two murders (of an ex-navy SEAL and a private contractor) while stationed in Iraq. As usual, Hardy teams up with best buddy Abe Glitsey, a former homicide cop now deputy chief of police, in solving the murder. Although the detectivus ex machina device is the one strained element in the Hardy series, this installment works splendidly on so many other levels. Hardy is such a compelling character that he easily holds together a plot that moves back and forth from Iraq (the Iraq scenes are wrenchingly realistic) to San Francisco. The pacing is excellent, never losing the reader, even with the complexities of the plot. And the relationship between Hardy and his detectivus, considered on the human level, gives a lot of comic relief and great cop patter to what could have been an overly somber story. A great read.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)