Customer Reviews

Treasure Hunt (Wyatt Hunt Series)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

The Hunt Club, a private detective firm in San Francisco headed by Wyatt Hunt is holding on to solvency by a thread. In fact it's a stretch to call it a firm. The employee roster consists of Wyatt a licensed detective... Mickey Dade who does office work and "go-fer" assignments while pursuing his real dream of becoming a chef... and an empty chair that used to be inhabited by Mickey's sister Tamara... who is M.I.A. and "shell- shocked" in the aftermath of her former boyfriend being a murderer in a prior episode by this author. After Wyatt tells Mickey that he's going to have to shut down The Hunt Club in the near future... Mickey decides he'll attempt to take fate into his own hands and find the soon to be defunct detective firm some new business. The following amalgamation of serendipitous circumstances may be a little too convenient for some readers to accept. Mickey while walking by a lagoon comes across the dead body of Dominic Como who "had either founded or sat on the boards of no fewer than six major charities in San Francisco". It turns out that Dominic who was taking in exorbitant sums of money from government agencies... public donations... protection rackets... moving companies... rehab facilities... and more... was murdered. It so happens that Mickey who shares a small apartment with his aforementioned "shell-shocked" sister along with their grandfather Jim Parr... who lo and behold used to be a personal driver for Dominic. After stumbling across the body Mickey is interviewed by local reporters and when he says he works for The Hunt Club a detective agency they think he's a detective and his face... name... and company... are plastered on the evening news. So the moribund detective agency gets free publicity which creates a bevy of potential client activity. Mickey a hertofore cooking class student and office "go-fer" comes up with a plan to have Dominic's charitable and business foundations help create a reward "kitty" that would channel leads from people who wouldn't want to talk to the police to The Hunt Club... and the foundations would pay The Hunt Club for its services. The person that must give final approval on this proposal is Len Turner "a lawyer, pretty much at the top of the charity food chain."

Len approves the proposal based on the understanding that all evidence and info uncovered will be cleared with him and he'll decide what goes public. Wyatt Hunt desperate for financial survival agrees to the semi-ludicrous arrangement. What follows is the equivalent of a "MURDER SHE WROTE" or "MATLOCK" episode. The rest of the book is investigative foot work with the usual suspects... drivers... department heads... scorned lovers... temperamental wife... and loony tipsters such as "the balloon lady" who says she saw Dominic's body dropped from a blimp into the lagoon... all hoping for a large reward.

There is very little physical action and unless you're a hard core fan of Julia Child or Wolfgang Puck... you may be stymied at times by too many intricacies regarding the simple task of making and eating a meal.

This novel is written in Lescroarts trademark writing style: crisp, clear, and fun to read. the glimpses into the life of San Francisco the book offers are priceless. However, the author offers a cast of characters that it's impossible to care about. Wyatt Hunt is a cartoonish superman-type detetcive agency owner. His smugness is extremely annoying. Mickey is his bumbling protegee who falls in love with a very nasty woman. It seems like Lescroart wanted Mickey's love interest to be a positive character but she is in truth nothing other than disgusting. Mickey's drama queen sister Tamara completes the cast of extremely annoying characters that populate this book.

I will not read another Wyatt Hunt novel. They are a waste of time. Lescroart should go back to his Hardy/Glitsky series.

In San Francisco private investigator Wyatt Hunt is feeling the economic down turn as clients are almost nonexistent. His receptionist Tamara Dade quit leaving Wyatt with one employee her brother, Mickey, who is bored and wants field work, but no clients hire the firm.

Mickey has his chance when he finds the body of activist Dominic Como, who was on the board of over a dozen charities. He persuades his boss to let him investigate, which should bring in fame and money. Several suspects surface with strong motives from money to jealousy, but the prime person that Hunt and Dade focus on is Alicia Thorpe; and not just because she is beautiful, but due to her acting as if she is concealing something from the cops and the sleuths.

The latest Wyatt Hunt private investigator case (see The Hunt Club) is a fast-paced thriller that seems to go nowhere until a final gala with cops and suspects so that the hero can pull a dead rabbit out of the hat. Still Treasure Hunt is fun to follow as Wyatt and Mickey work the city streets to solve the case of the charity mogul murder.

Harriet Klausner

Any writer could have written this one. The characters are one-dimensional, and let's face it, who cares about them. The Diz-Abe books are chock full of real characters who we have come to know and support in their trials and tribulations. That is why we remember them from one novel to the next, and most of us had trouble remembering these folks in Treasure Hunt. Please, John, go back to the style that we expect and for which you are so admired.

Lescroart is an excellent writer, especially with his Diz/Abe series, and his writing saves this book from being atrocious.

First off, the characters are not likable. It may be because Hunt and his office staff are not contemporaries. A lot of the time it seems like Hunt is a babysitter rather than the boss. If Lescroart wants to keep this series going, I think he needs associates more his own age, and he most definitely needs to add the wonderful characterization that we see in his Diz/Abe series.

I would have rated this book with three stars, but the ending was just not believable. There is no cop in the world - friend or not - who would have gone along with the scenario Hunt cooked up.

If you're a Lescroart fan, you should read this book. If you're new to Lescroart, please don't let this be your first Lescroart book. Instead, go read one of the Diz/Abe books and get hooked like the rest of us.

Having read and enjoyed "The Hunt Club," I was anxious to tackle the next installment in the series featuring investigator Wyatt Hunt. Having some familiarity with San Francisco, I welcomed a second series from Lescroart that offered the local flavor of the city. Perhaps, though, I had set my expectations too high for "Treasure Hunt" because in the end I was left hoping for more. It was a quick read but still not completely satisfying. The plot itself was not bad, although it seemed to drift in spots and stretched the bounds of believability in others. I still find myself struggling to get to know the characters. I will give this series a chance to evolve more fully but at this point I definitely prefer the Lescroart series with Hardy & Glitsky

John Lescroart is one of my favorite authors. I always look forward to his books. It is rare that I don't finish a book but this one was so boring I quit about halfway thru. Too many characters to keep up with and I didn't care about any of them. I really enjoy his Dismas Hardy books but I doubt I buy another book in this series.

Wyatt Hunt is just about to shut down the Hunt Club, which has not garnered any business is some months, the result of the severe recession and a negative reaction by clients to perceived past transgressions by Hunt. And then the murder of a much-loved San Francisco mover and shaker in the non-profit sector gives rise to a brainstorm: solicit donations to go towards a reward for information about the man's murder for which the Hunt Club could act as a clearinghouse. And lo and behold a bonanza is born, breathing temporary life into the investigative agency.

The plot gives the author the platform to take a look at the workings of the City by the Bay's elite, warts and all. And it isn't very flattering. Corruption, fraud, influence peddling and murder are just some of the blemishes portrayed. Along the way, the story is somewhat of a potboiler, with a young Hunt associate protecting a beautiful potential suspect merely on the basis of his physical attraction to her.

The prose is tight, the plotting precise, but somehow the story just seems to plod along, never really rising to the heights of prior Lescroart novels, and appeared, at least to this reader, to have been constructed mechanically; it is, nonetheless, both interesting and moving.

I read all of John Lescroart's books (which I knew how to pronounce it), but this one, in fact, any of the Hunt Club books he has written, are not very good. I think I'll just go with the Dismus Hardy, Abe Glitsgy (sp) books when they come out. It's almost like an entirely different author.

Having read all of Mr. Lescroart's novel in order and this being the last until his latest novel is out, it is like seeing a favorite relative leave from vacation and going back home. It took me a while to read all the novels but they books are all excellent. This new character, Wyatt Hunt, may not be as interesting as Dismas Hardy and his group, but I have high hopes in Mr. Lescroart being able to bring out the highlights in Wyatt's personality and his group. I especially like the way Mr. Lescroart weaves his characters in an around each other, Wyatt Hunt working for Dismas Hardy's law firm and the mentioning of Dismas and his group in Wyatt's novels. Excellent writing as it keeps you familiar with the background of the novels and kinda makes you feel like you are comfortable and familiar with all the novels.