The King of Lies [Audio CD]

John Hart (Author), David Chandler (Narrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2006

Jackson Workman Pickens – ‘Work’ to his friends – an unambitious lawyer in a small Southern town, has some serious baggage. His mother died a year ago from a ‘fall’ down the family’s colonial staircase and his father, Ezra, has been missing ever since. Work is left to deal with his psychologically damaged sister, his father’s legal caseload and his own rocky marriage. Power and greed bring many enemies, especially for a man as cruel as Ezra Pickens, so when his body turns up pretty much everyone in town is a suspect – but only one man is charged with the murder... With time, his wife and public opinion against him, Work embarks on his toughest case yet: proving his own innocence. His investigation will uncover a web of intrigue he could never have imagined – and he soon realises that no one is above suspicion - even those he loves most.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

These days most novels are performed, not narrated. The skillful actors who have made audiobooks their art form take on multiple voices—male and female, old and young. Chandler's careful reading is generally disappointing. His lack of vocal range is all too obvious. Lawyer and murder suspect "Work" Pickens sounds exactly like his female nemesis, Detective Mills. Work's wife, Barbara, could be his brother. Oddly, the homeless Max, a minor player in this thriller, has the most distinctive voice. Another problem is that Chandler's performance is devoid of the lovely North Carolina lilt, which is an essential component of this novel, much as John Grisham's South looms large in his characters' psyches. Too frequently, Chandler seems to suffer from dry mouth as his tongue separates audibly from the roof of his mouth. Water, please! On a more positive note, Chandler reads Hart's delicious similes and clever phrasing with slow elegance. Hart's writing sparkles throughout, and this is a compelling story, one the reader won't turn off, despite a performance that doesn't matches the brilliance of the novel.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School–Jackson Workman Pickens, or Work, has always lived in the shadow of his larger-than-life father, a respected attorney. His life as he knows it–the law practice he shares with his father, the beautiful home and socialite wife–is a tribute to Ezra Pickens's ideas of success. When Ezra is found shot to death, Work is ambivalent about helping the police find the killer, afraid that the path will lead to his younger sister, Jean. Only he and Jean know how abusive their father was and how his actions ultimately led to their mother's death. Work's reticence only serves to reinforce the lead detective's belief that he is the guilty party, especially since he stands to inherit over $15 million. As Work becomes more enmeshed in a web of circumstantial evidence, he learns that his sister's partner, Alexandria, was convicted of killing her own abusive father, and he begins to fear for his sister's safety as well as his own. Hart has crafted a mystery with fully developed characters and a fast-paced and intelligent plot. He not only gives readers plenty of action and suspense, but also delves unflinchingly into the dynamics of family relationships. Teens who enjoy Grisham and Turow will want to be among the first to read this exciting new voice in the mystery genre.–Kim Dare, Fairfax County Public Schools, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Recorded Books (May 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1419396129
• ISBN-13: 978-1419396120
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 5.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (158 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #305,377 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John Hart is the author of three New York Times bestsellers, The King of Lies, Down River and The Last Child. The only author in history to win the best novel Edgar Award for consecutive novels, John has also won the Barry Award and England's Steel Dagger Award for best thriller of the year. His books have been translated into twenty-nine languages and can be found in over fifty countries. A former criminal defense attorney, John has also worked as a banker, stockbroker, and apprentice helicopter mechanic. A husband and father of two, he spends his time in North Carolina and Virginia.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good Whodunnit with high literary value, good characters, May 16, 2006

By 

TaxVictim (Cary, NC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The King of Lies (Hardcover)

A small-town lawyer's midlife crisis is sparked by the discovery of the dead body of his overbearing father. Although told in the first person, the tale gives good background and many interesting stories about other characters. In his search for his father's killer, the narrator uncovers a lot of dirt, human suffering, and neglect in his small town, all while trying to juggle his own affairs and keep himself out of jail as the prime suspect. Our first-person narrator has a good literary style while not sounding too cute about it (unlike some other famous authors' attempts at first-person writing).

It would seem very difficult to write a good first-person thriller, giving the reader all of the necessary clues to solve the case while still making us go "D'oh, I should have known!" at the end. Kudos to the author for pulling it off.

88 of 105 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Grisham Buried in Pop Psychology, July 26, 2006

By 

Gary Griffiths (Los Altos Hills, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The King of Lies (Hardcover)

Ezra Pickens, North Carolina backwoods lawyer extraordinaire and hardass of Olympian proportions, has been missing for eighteen months and feared dead. When his skeletal reamins are finally found in an abandoned mall, there is no doubt he was murdered. Lawyer son Jackson Workman Pickens, or "Work", stumbles around in some feeble attempt to protect sister Jean, who he believes the perp, and soon finds himself the prime suspect.

John Hart's debut reads like two different novels. In the first half of the novel, I found "Work" simply annoying. I doubt that Hart wanted to make his protagonist such a wimp, but about 100 pages of Work's whining about his childhood, his mean rich daddy, and his pathetic life in general was just grinding me down. OK, so he's not had the model life, and as a result his drinking, adultery, and general shiftlessness is justified. We got all that - let's move on.

And remarkably, Hart does just that. Once past the bitch wife, the gay sister and her wacko girlfriend, and the cop with a grudge, Hart spins a genuinely suspenseful mystery and legal drama, reminiscent of Scott Turow in his early days. The plot thickens, unfolds, takes a couple of entertainingly ugly diversions, and finishes with a John Grisham flourish. Hart has literary skills, no doubt about it, and he spices up his drama with tales of child abuse and murder definitely not for the feint of heart. While off to a slow start, Hart finishes strong, and is definitely a name to watch.

61 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exciting debut!, June 7, 2006

By 

N. Gargano "nokegchris" (Waynesville NC and Bradenton, Fl) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The King of Lies (Hardcover)

I enjoyed this book so much. The main character, a man as flawed as the rest of us, had me enthralled from the first page. By the middle of the book, I found myself unable to put it down, reading page after page as fast as I could. I have to admit, I kind of had the whole thing figured out, but that didn't take away the pleasure of reading this book to the end. A little twist here, a liitle twist there, great reading.
I look forward to your next book Mr. Hart.