Customer Reviews

The Hunt Club: A Novel

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

I am and have been a huge John Lescroart fan. The Dismas Hardy/Abe Glitsky series has been a joy to read and it was with some curiosity that I awaited the release of The Hunt Club. This was to be a departure from the past and I was hoping it would measure up.

Dismas Hardy makes a few cameo appearances in this novel, but this story as about a new character, Wyatt Hunt, PI. Still set in San Francisco, Hunt becomes involved in the murder of a federal judge and his mistress and the disappearance of a tv personality. The start of the novel is promising and it is not long before you find yourself immersed in the intrigue however, for far too long in my judgement, the story is allowed to meander without apparent purpose until as the end comes into sight, Lescroart finds his feet again and puts some very interesting finishing touches to it.

To my mind this is a novel that does not beg for or even promise a sequel. It can easily be a stand alone book and if there are no further adventures of Wyatt Hunt, that will be alright with me. Hopefully, if Mr. Hunt is to have some longevity in future novels, the author will find something about him to make him relevant to those of us who admire his writing.

Many John Lescroat fans will undoubtedly be disappointed that this story includes only a few exceedingly brief (although meaningful) appearances by Dismas Hardy and only a passing reference to Abe Glitsky, the two friends who have provided so many hours of enjoyment to readers who enjoy both legal thrillers and police procedurals. Nevertheless, THE HUNT CLUB does remain true to several of the elements which have made Lescroart one of my favorite authors: wonderful character development, intricate plotting, attention to detail (perhaps overly so in this case), which as usual are combined with sufficient action and suspense to maintain the reader's interest. To provide a bridge for readers of his earlier works and to increase their background understanding of this story, there are two crossover characters as well. Amy Wu plays a crucial role before the story is completed and Diz' partner Wes Farrell appears several times as well. And as usual, the city of San Francisco itself provides not only the geographic backdrop for the story but a political dimension to the plot as well.

The first section of this book is entitled "That was then", and consists of four chapters which provide both a brief introduction and also some historical background regarding the two characters who will play the central roles in any continuing series originates from this novel. The first is Wyatt Hunt, whose varied experiences have led him to his current occupation as a private investigator and head of the firm which bears his name. The second is San Francisco Homicide Inspector Devin Juhle, Wyatt's best friend and baseball buddy during their teenage years. (Wyatt had unexpectedly reconnected with Devin while investigating a potential case of child abuse during his previous employment by Child Protective Services Department.) As Chapter Five informs the reader with the heading, "This is now"; the story then abruptly transitions to the present as Devin Juhle and his partner Gumqui Shui are summoned to the murder scene of federal Judge George Palmer and his mistress (and mystery woman) Staci Rosalier.

Soon thereafter, Andrea Parisi, a local lawyer who has currently become a media celebrity as a commentator on Trial TV also becomes a central character in the plot; unsurprisingly, since in Wyatt's words she is "beautiful, smart, fun and nice", he finds himself increasing at odds with his friend Dev as Andrea together with her law firm's powerful client increasingly becomes a prime focus of the police investigation. When Andrea suddenly disappears without a trace, the interests of the two friends collide. Dev wants to solve the murders and follow established police procedure to protect the evidence in his case from court challenge; Wyatt is convinced of Andrea's innocence and simply wants to maximize any chance that there may be of finding Andrea alive without much concern for such legal niceties as the rules of evidence and the necessity for establishing probable cause in order to get a search warrant.

Thee are so many elements to the plot of this story that any detailed discussion would make this review both much too lengthy and also unavoidably lead to the introduction spoilers. For example, for some time the police are baffled by the fact that Staci Rosalier's background seems to be a complete mystery - she has few friends and despite the publicity associated with the case no family members come forward to identify her. Another element which complicates the plot is some possible involvement of the CCPOA (prison guard's union) in the murder. Dev and his partner Shiu learn that Judge Palmer's investigation of the union had caused its leaders and lawyers (the firm where Andrea worked) to become very worried about his threat to recommend legal action against the union. (The facts unearthed by the author's detailed research with regard to this aspect of the story are very interesting and are illustrative of why I find his work so enjoyable.)

There is clearly a very important legal backdrop to this story, which involves several cleverly interwoven elements which are central to the plot. The story also provides a fair amount of legal insight, particularly an excellent discussion of the granting of search warrants based on probable cause. Nevertheless, readers primarily interested in legal thrillers (e.g. several of the author's previous works) will probably be disappointed, this book has no courtroom scenes of the type which often figure prominently in the Hardy/Glitsky series. But it does feature the same type of increasing tension and crescendoing climaxes characteristic of that series and then the intensely personal finale (often bittersweet) which follows.

Of course, the reader can only speculate on the reasons why Lescroart has followed in the recent path two other writers with popular series protagonists who have created new series which have also achieved best seller status, viz Robert Parker (who now authors the Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall series in addition to the immensely popular Spenser books) and James Patterson (who now alternates The Women's Murder Club with his Alex Cross novels). But whatever those reasons, this nascent series has the potential to provide additional enjoyment to his readers. However, given the much greater depth of his character development and much greater complexity of his plotting and depth of his narratives, his attention to Wyatt and Dev in future novels may be at the expense of his fans further enjoyment of the Abe and Diz saga, a tradeoff which I hope does not occur. My hope would be that in some manner the two series somehow intersect if not merge and that all these marvelous characters get a chance to interact.


While I tremendously enjoyed the character development in this story, the reason for the reduction in my rating to four stars is that I felt that the details involved in the plot and the actions of some of the characters became extremely implausible at times. In addition, on a few occasions the degree of detail exceeded what was necessary to provide realism. Nevertheless, while as I have indicated this book is nominally a police procedural/detective story, the last few superb pages make it clear that it is really the Wyatt Hunt story with Devin Juhle as the strong supporting actor in Wyatt's drama. The comments and thoughts about love and life contained in various succinct passages throughout this book were extremely insightful and at times quite moving. And thus the title, THE HUNT CLUB is actually a wonderful double entendre, which encompasses both Wyatt's firm (including his employees Tamara and Mickey who in a wonderful touch both appear as children in the first chapter of the book) and also his group of friends who provide crucial support at a critical time in his life. Thus, my fond hope is that this book will provide the springboard for as successful a set of stories as began with THE FIRST LAW (review 2/9/2003), which while only four stars was deeply moving and provided the essential background for Lescroart's two most recent five star efforts THE SECOND CHAIR (review 4/22/2004) and THE MOTIVE (review 2/1/2005). In summary, this is a worthwhile read, especially if you want a standalone thriller heavy on plot and character development and much more complex and requiring more reader involvement than many of the beach or airline flight casual reads that comprise pop fiction currently. And the unexpected twists at the end will certainly leave you on a high note and ready for the next development in Wyatt Hunt's life.

Tucker Andersen

Wyatt Hunt began his career with Child Protective Services but has moved on to private investigation. A federal judge and a young woman have been murdered at the judge's home. A beautiful journalist, Andrea Parisi, in whom Wyatt is interested, has disappeared. Who is the dead woman, what is the motive and where is Andrea. Wyatt and members of his team, The Hunt Club, are determined to find out, sometimes to the consternation of Wyatt's friend, homicide inspector Devin Juhle.

This book started out really well for me but then kind of fell apart. There were too many characters and too many similar names, and other than Wyatt, I didn't feel I'd gotten to know any of them well. I like good twists in a plot, but the route the story finally took didn't convince me. It wasn't that the motive was completely implausible, but the person behind the motive seemed implausible. Some authors set books in the Bay Area and make the unique microclimates a almost another character. Lescroart didn't give me a strong sense of place. In fact, I had to remind myself the story is set where I live. It's a good airplane book, but didn't make me a huge fan of the author.

I don't know about this one. Fairly good story, but thin in many areas. The main character is Wyatt Hunt a former military inspector and former child protective services field agent turned PI. Definitely not of the traditional gumshoe mold -- he's a bit too self aware with some scars from the past left by growing up in the foster care system and later losing his fiance. I really wanted to like this guy, but I don't think Lescroart developed his character well enough or allowed for a rich enough story line for him to grow on me. He did a far better job with the other characters in the book like Hunt's friends Amy Wu and Devin Juhle. But maybe Hunt grew on my just enough, because I do think that I'd give a "Hunt" novel another chance. Just to see where Lescroart can redeem him.

BEWARE, THIS BOOK MAY BE DANGEROUS TO YOUR HEALTH, you may die of boredom. A plausable indroduction, but after that totally downhill. Way too may characters and way too many subplots for the average reader with a really boring murder mystery to begin with. Avoid this book at all costs. 76 per cent through, I put it in the trash.

The discovery of the bodies of sixtyish federal magistrate George Palmer and his 20 year old mistress Staci Rosalier slain by gunshot in his apartment fuels the plot for "The Hunt Club". This grisly detection mobilizes forces both official and unofficial to solve the mystery.

San Francisco homicide detective Devin Juhle is assigned to the case and soon circumstances occur that his boyhood friend Wyatt Hunt, a private investigator, joins the inquest. Hunt, previously employed by Child Protective Services, has a staff and a loosely connected group of colleagues, most of whom are in the legal field to aide him. They are collectively known as The Hunt Club. When an associate of a member of this club, Andrea Parisi a legal talking head from local San Francisco court TV goes missing, Hunt turns up the heat in the investigation. Apparently Parisi, a love interest of Hunt had been involved with the judge.

Author Lescroart throws a bunch of likely suspects at us the create a sense of intrigue. The judges wife Jeannette is a prime suspect, with jealousy being the motive. Also apparently the judge was about to hand down a judgement against the powerful correction officers union which ostensibly had been guilty of some criminal wrongdoings.

The plot turns dramatically when Juhle and Hunt discover that the last people to speak to Parisi were the Manion family, an upper crust high society group involved heavily in the wine business. They apparently have some secrets that may provide answers to the crimes aforementioned.

Lescroart drowns us with a plethora of, for the most part, poorly developed characters in a plot that purposely diverts us from the not too hard to figure perpetrators.

This book was not up to his usual par, but still worth reading because of his use of reoccurring charactors. I felt he struggled to get this one written it did not flow for me as his other books before had. He is creating a new cast of charactors and blending them with the old cast and I think this book was just a prelude to his next book which will be on track once again.
If you enjoy a well written book you will never fail choosing a John Lescroart book. I like the reappearance of characters from past books which enhances the book because you know so much more about them than just what is written in the current book.

As a devoted reader of everything Mr. Lescroart has ever published, I have fallen in love with his San Francisco "Neighborhood", and the characters who inhabit it. I feel like Dismas and Frannie Hardy, Abe Glitsky, and the others are my own circle of friends, as close as my family. Reading about them over the years has been like watching my own friends and family go through the trials and tribulations of life.

However, this process of moving through life meant that these people were, like the rest of us, getting older, and moving into different phases of their lives. I began to wonder what Mr. Lescroart would do as his circle of characters moved into that part of their lives when they were settling into less 'stressful' activities.

He has handled the situation masterfully, befitting an author of his stature. While still capturing the sights and sounds of San Francisco, and keeping our old friends' 'neighborhood' real and lively, Mr. Lescroart has given us a blend of our familiar friends mixed with a whole new cast that continues the feel and excitement of his stories.

The Hunt Club gives us a reluctant Private Investigator who travels in the same circles as our friends Dismas and Abe. He then takes us off into new territory without us even knowing it until we have accepted the new characters and the plot has taken us on the usual "Lescroart Whirlwind". A word of advice: Do NOT start this book in the evening, you'll be up all night!

I can't wait to see what happens next. John Lescroart has given us a whole new family to love and enjoy. There's lots of excitement coming our way!

John Lescroart is one of my favorite authors, and Diz and Abe are among the best fiction characters ever created, but "The Hunt Club" was a real disappointment for me.

The book starts off great, and - despite knowing I was going to miss Diz and Abe - I was all set for Lescroart's latest. But then it fell apart for me.

I think my biggest problem was that I didn't "know" (or like) Andrea Parisi well enough to care about what happened to her. That, coupled with the fact that Wyatt Hunt was willing to risk his business, his friends, his life for her after a very brief encounter was not only unbelievable to me but disappointing as well.

I think the book would have worked much better if it had been Tamara who had been kidnapped. Then we would have cared like crazy! And the fact that Wyatt would have gone to any length to save Tamara would have been believable. That would have worked so much better for me.

In addition to there being too many characters, there were also too many named Richard.

John Lescroart is a wonderful writer though, and I have every confidence that his next novel will be as brilliant as his previous work.

When I started to read this, I was riveted.

The history of Wyatt Hunt while at Child Protective Services was mesmerizing.

And the story stayed strong through his retirement and then formation of "the Hunt Club"--a loose amalgam of friends: cops, lawyers, private eyes.

But then the main component of the plot kicked in, and things got SLOW.

There are really two big problems.

First, Lescroart often succumbs to lawyerese--his prose is labored and pedantic and overprecise.

That's the smaller problem.

The much worse problem is LACK OF SUSPENSE. He has 3 main plotlines going, but instead of running them parallel--so you don't know which will be the correct one till the end--he runs them in series. First, option A is pursued and discarded. Then option B. So (no surprise)--it's option C that is the right one.

By the time I got there, I had almost forgotten about options A and B, and (worse) almost forgotten about the poor hostage.

The other Lescroart books are great. This is, alas, a lapse.