The Mercy Rule (Thorndike Core) [Large Print] [Hardcover]

John T. Lescroart (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1998 | Series: Thorndike Core

In Dismas Hardy, New York Times bestselling author John Lescroart has created one of the most complex and engaging characters in contemporary fiction.  Hardy, the former bartender, loving husband and father, and reluctant defense attorney of Lescroart's blockbuster novel The 13th Juror, returns in The Mercy Rule to face his most challenging case yet.

Set apart from his contemporaries by virtue of his remarkable storytelling, John Lescroart gives readers the novel of his career in The Mercy Rule.  Vowing to spend more time with his wife and kids, Dismas Hardy is hesitant to take on the case of Graham Russo, a could-have-been-great baseball player turned lawyer indicted for the murder of his father, Sal.  Everyone close to the Russos knew Sal was dying, and that he needed morphine injections to ease his suffering.  Graham freely admits to administering those injections, but insists he wasn't there the night of Sal's overdose and resultant death.  Was it suicide, murder--or mercy?

With personal and professional tensions mounting, Hardy finds himself face-to-face with a terrifying truth: If this was a murder, he might well be the next person to die.

With his mastery of courtroom drama, and solid connection to the human element that makes his fiction so compelling, John Lescroart has created in The Mercy Rule an intelligent and richly satisfying thriller that will keep readers turning the pages far into the night.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Dismas Hardy, the dart-playing, saloon-keeping lawyer who is one of John Lescroart's most consistently interesting and appealing heroes, faces a dilemma: if he can prove to a jury that Graham Russo helped his father Sal kill himself because the sick old man asked him to, a liberal San Francisco jury will probably vote to acquit Graham of first-degree murder. Hardy would love to plead manslaughter to escape the wrath of the state's attorney general who wants to nail Graham. However, despite the evidence against him, Graham insists he didn't do it. What is a lawyer to do, and who can he believe?

Although Lescroart leads the reader up and down a few blind alleys before the truth comes out, the mystery's not the thing here. It's the characters and their back stories that make this such a good read. Foremost among them is Graham, who washed out of pro baseball and walked out of a promising law career before finding the father who once deserted him long ago. The core of the story is Graham's relationship with Sal, who's losing his mind to Alzheimer's but may still be a threat to a federal judge who was once his closest friend. Then there's Sarah Evans, the homicide cop who falls in love with her suspect. For good measure, there are some changes in the lives of those characters who are familiar to readers from other Dismas Hardy adventures--Abe Glitsky, the half Jewish, half black cop; Drysdale, the D.A. who's been beaten in court by Dismas in previous outings; Frannie, Dismas's wife; Moses, his brother-in-law; and Dismas himself, who becomes more interesting every time Lescroart brings him back. While the pacing is langorous and the denouement not as tight as it might be, The Mercy Rule provides a complex and satisfying reading experience. --Jane Adams --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Lescroart's multilayered 1999 novel, the fifth to feature San Francisco bartender-turned-barrister Dismas Hardy, is a heady brew of courtroom drama, hot topics (assisted suicide), and family dynamics among richly drawn characters. David Colacci, the primary narrator of the series, brings back his renditions of Hardy's easygoing but always intelligent voice and his police lieutenant Abe Glitsky's hoarse delivery, along with introducing a cast of new characters. New interpretations include a gruff, halting speech pattern for fishmonger Salvatore Russo, an Alzheimer's sufferer whose death triggers the plot; the calm, almost beatific voice of Sal's son, Graham, who's charged with Salvatore's murder; and the fluty, aristocratic murmurs of Sal's socially prominent, long-since-remarried ex-wife. Though the author may go a little too far in placing the heroic Hardy in final jeopardy, Colacci maintains the perfect pace throughout, moving us through the thrills to a smooth and satisfying conclusion. A Dell paperback. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 764 pages
• Publisher: MacMillan Publishing Company. (December 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0783803443
• ISBN-13: 978-0783803449
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,794,469 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good mystery; good characters, October 19, 2003

By 

Larry Scantlebury (Ypsilanti, MI United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Mercy Rule (Dismas Hardy) (Mass Market Paperback)

The good thing about a Lescroart mystery is not so much the mystery as the characters who intersect the mystery. Murder's the name but the players are the game. Here Lescroart touches on an emotionally charged issue, euthanasia or mercy killing. There's a nice analogy with the game of baseball, perhaps unintentional, which is that in the early levels of the game the adolescent players learn 'the slaughter rule,' allowing a team which has no chance of winning having fallen behind an insurmountable lead, to exit with some self respect intact.

Hence we have Sal Russo, years ago a bright guy married to his sweetheart, knowing all along she is from a different life, years later preparing to die alone, the target of an agonizing tumor complicated by the onset of alzeimers. He is reunited by his oldest son, Graham, who tried his own (and his father's) dream of playing in the big game, only to fall short. Sal dies under mysterious circumstances with a DNR (do not revive) warning in plain view.

That Graham is arrested, then released, then indicted for murder, reflects the indecision the politicians, their constituents and the police have on this painful topic. Do the terminally ill have control over the time that they cross the river, or do we let events rob them of their remaining dignity?

Dismas Hardy is again the reluctant guardian at the gate, not wanting murder as a crime he defends, all the while knowing it's where his true strength . . . and definition lies.

If there is an irritant, it is the tedious relationship he has with his wife, Frannie. So many alter egos of the novelist's heroes love their partner for what they do, yet make life difficult for them because they do it. Kudos as an aside to Lucy Chenier, Elvis Pike's lover, who got up and left.

But with that one comment, a multi-latered book for the reader who wants social issues, murder most foul, great complicated characters and unexpected twists. Not a fast read but a very good job.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stay with the series - it builds, April 23, 2009

By 

Domestic Gnome (Cornwall, CT USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Mercy Rule (Dismas Hardy) (Mass Market Paperback)

This review has more to do with the series than specifically with The Mercy Rule. Working my way through the Dismas Hardy novels. Unlike many current detective writers, Lescroart eschews the charismatic psychotic serial killer and his/her elaborate, shocking crimes - burned, hanged, flayed, dismembered, et al. - and offers rather average folks - cops, secretaries, lawyers, etc. - caught up in difficult and unusual circumstances but trying to deal with the challenges of everyday life - work, family, friends.

His characters' reflections on these challenges are simple, poignant, thoughtful evocations of the issues that we all face, and Lescroart does a superb job of coalescing the vapors, giving voice to our ruminations and fears.

His work reminds me of the writing of James Gould Cozzens who won a Pulitzer Prize and was considered for the Nobel Prize. Writing during the middle decades of the 20th century, Cozzens was attacked by critics for being hopelessly out of date. His heroes are quite ordinary men, living quite ordinary lives and find themselves in the midst of a crisis that tests their moral and ethical beliefs. Like Cozzens' characters, Lescroart's heroes stand near us, offering the opportunity to reflect on our own lives.

The plots have the requisite twists and turns and tensions to keep them moving briskly, but it is the thoughts and feelings of the characters that lift these books well above the general run of detective/thriller/mystery novels. The layers build as the series progresses so stay the course and enjoy the books - it's definitely worth it.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars OPENING A LESCROAT BOOK IS LIKE MEETING OLD FRIENDS, October 29, 2002

By 

Dorothy L. Irwin (Brewerton, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Mercy Rule (Dismas Hardy) (Mass Market Paperback)

Lescroat has that ability to make his primary characters believeable and earthy. In the "Dismas" books one feels like they are returning to old friends who have encountered some problems along the way. The only problem is that Dismas always seems to get involved in MURDER! And when that happens you can rest assured that Dismas looks under every stone until he finds the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

"The Mercy Rule" was a great 'who dunnit' with quite a few possibilities on the list of suspects but the author holds us in suspense until the enth degree - as we rule out each suspect and turn the pages faster and faster to learn the identity of the true killer.

Even with murder, mystery and mayhem, Lescroat instills a sense of duty, family loyalty and love in his novels and he shows no exception with The Mercy Rule. A great read.