Customer Reviews

Guilt (Abe Glitsky)

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

It has been a while since I have been able to sit down and just enjoy some good 'ol legal fiction - nothing heavy, nothing outrageous, just a good story. It was a pleasure to spend long hours reading this book and trying to figure out at first who really was guilty, who really did commit these murders.

The book builds up rather nicely to a somewhat predictable though still suspenseful (can this both be true?) climax that puts the book at a level that often surpasses that of John Grisham types. There is a depth to the characters that makes you root for them and want to keep on reading. I am impressed with Lescroart's ability to present a believable court case - especially since he is not a lawyer.

The actual facts are not entirely believable however. Dooher is so nice, so caring and yet the dark side that eventually comes out is a bit too jolting to seem believable. Perhaps that is the point, to make you think ANYONE could be a murderer. Still, I felt slightly cheated.

This is a good book to curl up with, however, and to want to finish right to the end.

Maybe I should not have read one of your readers reviews of this book before I read it myself, but I thought it might be good. Some your readers deadpaned the book through the first 300 pages. Most people assume who the killer is, but it is not enntirely certain until the last few chapters. I feel that GUILT is dealing with the loyalty of friendships and the trust broken...even by long time friends. Guilt is an excellent adventure into human relationships and how some people will use those relationships for their own selfishnefss. I love any type of courtroom novels, and there were some good ones here, but it was the mystery and well developed characters that kept me reading and turning the pages. This is one of the best "legal novels" written by a non lawyer. This is a must read for any serious legal, thrill reader!

Despite good experience with Lescroart in the past, despite the rave reviews on this site and despite the rave reviews on the back cover and a dozen rave reviews inside the front cover, I found myself only caring about what happened to Abe Glitsky. The slow-moving, plodding plotline only reinforced the fact that I did not care what happened to the Mark Dooher. Did he kill his wife? I don't know - it's mentioned in the first sentence in the plot synopsis on the back cover and 200 pages into the book she's still alive and I'm getting irritated at reading about Dooher's connivings to sleep with one of his young employees.

So, anyway, I read exactly 200 pages of this book. It was not easy. I was forcing myself to continue on, much like I would do with a college textbook. Then I came across the new Tony Hillerman book and I gladly dropped this one into the box of books that I'm dropping off at the Goodwill. Thank goodness I am now "Guilt" free!

I give this one a grade of F.

....of many faults in this book. I've read some of his priors without much enthusiasm, but due to his apparent popularity thought he might be worth another try. In GUILTY, Lescroart has a good plot with interesting characters, but somewhere around the middle you start to feel uneasy about how his supposedly intelligent cast speaks and acts. They are more like spoiled children, all lost in the miasma of their own self-image and their confusion about who they are, what they need to achieve, etc. It doesn't say if Mr. Lescroart is a lawyer, but in his courtroom his attorney acts like a Perry Mason at the same time he is proclaiming that in real life attorneys are not like Mason. He dissects and destroys his witnesses on cross, with alarming consistency. I do believe this book was written with the Simpson 'trial of the century' in mind, given the golf driving range and other similarities. Speaking of the driving range, one thing bugged me about the witness who did not see our hero there and who if believed would have brought doubt to the alibi. I kept expecting the witness to say he was a left-handed golfer which would have explained his clear view of the mat in question. It never was explained and so they might as well have edited that right out of the book; it was a non-issue. Regardless, by book's end I had the distinct impression Lescroart was more of a romance writer than straight fiction. All the pink moments were just too much for this reader. I don't think Lescroart is my kind of author.

Fifty year old San Francisco attorney Mark Dooher lives the type of life that most people would only be able to dream of having. He is rich and wields power as the head of a large law firm. One of his clients is the city's Archdiocese which has good and bad points. It makes Mark an even more influential person because he has the support and backing of the Catholic Church, but it also does not allow him to divorce his one liability, an alcoholic spouse. ....... When Mark meets law student Christina Carrera, he decides he wants her. Whatever, Mark wants, Mark must have. However, this time the lawyer has a few problems standing in the way of his "desire". He manipulates his way into Christina's life and when his wife is found murdered allegedly during a bungled robbery, Mark can now grab onto his latest "desire". However, the police think Mark killed his wife to free himself from an obligation that was in the way of obtaining Christina. It is up to the legal system to decide if Mark is a cold blooded killer used to getting what he wants or just the surviving husband of an unlucky victim. Talk about paradigm shifts when it comes to legal thrillers! GUILT is a fabulous, action packed police and legal thriller, but has a freshness rarely seen in the genre, perhaps because it is written by a non-lawyer. John Lescroart is one of the top three in the sub-genre and his latest novel, GUILT, will leave no one guilty by reading it. Mark is an incredible character (watch how good he is at getting his wants - brilliantly written). This is clearly one of the best novels of the year. ......Harriet Klausner

On the back of the book, a critic raved that you shouldn't read this book during the week because you'll be up all night trying to finish the book. Fortunately, I started it over the weekend and finished it in one day. It is a fun mystery read ~~ gripping too. You can't put this book down without knowing what's going to happen next.

I really like the humor that Lescroart injected into the book. And though some of the lawyer terms are technical ~~ he was good about explaining the terms in layman's terms so I can understand it without feeling like a dunce.

Dooher is the main character ~~ suspected of killing his wife. Christina, the gorgeous woman who falls in love with Dooher, stands by her man. Wes Farrell is another lawyer who defends his best friend Tom Dooher from the charges ... and all of their lives are changed by his actions and statements. Glitzy (I'm not sure of the spelling here) is the investigator who is hot on Dooher's trail. And they all make for an interesting read as they work to solve the mystery.

I picked this book up by accident ~~ and though it doesn't rate to be my favorite book of the year, it did pass a lovely, lazy Sunday afternoon time with lots of ease and suspense.

If you're looking for a book with mystery and gripping suspense, I would recommend this book. But be warned, once you pick it up, you won't be able to put it down. Best for a long air flight or for a lazy Sunday afternoon in the garden.

This was a very fun and painless read, which is just what you expect books like this to be, so I definitely recommend it. It was as soothing and unchallenging as an episode of Law and Order. There was a villain you could feel very good about wanting to get caught-he was so evil you really wanted him to be, too. And it's always fun reading about the crimes of an honestly wretched character.

The best thing about this book is that its hero was memorable, which is pretty rare with these sorts of thrillers. Abe Glitsky-half-black, half-Jewish, hardened police detective of San Francisco-is really likable and unique. That's definitely the key to making a successful franchise-creating a recurring character people like. So, please buy this book and dive in, it's perfect for the airplane, train ride, or whatever other thing you have to do that you'll need to be distracted from.

I've enjoyed all this author's previous books, and found this book not up to Lescroart's standard as I thought of him. "Guilt" was too loosely written, and in my opinion had too many characters. Glitsky and Dooher's characters were handled nicely, I thought, but Wes Farrell never developed, I could never figure out what kind of a guy he was. Further,the D.A. and officer Thieu had no depth.Thieu, in particular shuld have been developed more. At the end, the climax was not gripping like the author's previous books.I could, and did, put it down several time's during the last 50 to 100 pages, to do my chores. Lescroart's earlier books did not allow me to abandon them for any reason until it was finished.

Mike Dooher is a successful and utterly self-centred San Francisco lawyer,head of a major legal firm which does the bulk of its business with the city Catholic archdiocese.He falls in love with Christine a young law student and sets out to marry her,not in the least phased by the fact he is already married,or that she is engaged to a young attorney in his employ.The only morality he acknowledges is his own success and desires.Realising he must murder his wife that is precisely what he does.He engages a friend WeS Farrell to defend him in the resulatant trial .Farrell despite becoming convinced of his guilt takes the case
There is no "who dun it"aspect to the book which revolves around "Will he get away with it and if so how and at what cost,professionally and personally?
The OJ overtones are clear but what gives the book its strengths are the characterization and its psychological depth.the lawyers are well drawn as is Abe Glitzky the Jewish/Afro-American cop who is a regular in Lescroarts books
I especially liked the depiction of the relationship between Farrell and Samantha a rape crises centre worker with whom he develops a relationship
Not blood and thunder but a well and carefully wrought book with something to say

Like many others before me, I kept waiting for something of interest to happen. By this time you are 300+ pages into the book and must complete it in anticipation of an exciting and meaningful conclusion. But the ending chapters made me wish I had stopped reading after page 300. What do all these references to the Catholic church mean to the plot? Very little, except to alter one point in the trial. I was looking for an alternative to Grisham and Tudrow as far as courtroom suspense novels: this book is not in the same class. One other point to Amazon, why do you allow another reviewer to reveal the ending of this book?!? I have been very upset to see the 'surprise' ending of several books listed in other reviews. Please delete such non-sense.