This is the 15th in a very successful suspense/mystery series centered on two characters, Dismas Hardy, a San Francisco lawyer, and his long-time friend, Abe Glitzky, a policeman who has advanced over forty years to progressively more important positions in the San Francisco Police Department.
In this installment, Abe is the central character. He has abruptly retired from his job as head of the Homicide Division of the Department as the result of a trivial political argument and is completely at loose ends. Meanwhile, Dismas has acquired a client, Hal Chase, whose wife has disappeared and is already being accused by her family of somehow doing away with her. Because this man is a deputy sheriff, and the Sheriff’s office has long carried an odor of corruption, Dismas feels there may be a connection. He thus needs an investigator with connections inside the SFPD. Abe is the obvious candidate. He reluctantly agrees to come aboard, but he feels he is crossing over to the dark side. Lawyers are a policeman’s natural enemy.
Shortly afterward, the body of Katie Chase, Hal’s wife, is indeed found in a patch of woods near their house. She has been shot, and the bullet has come from a standard-issue police revolver. Hal is swiftly indicted and jailed. His mother, Ruth, assumes the task of caring for his and Katie’s two children.
It is here that a reader can have doubts that he is still reading a book written by John Lescroart. Not only is Dismas, after fourteen outings, no longer the central character, but Abe and Dismas approach the question of Hal’s innocence in diametrically opposite ways. To Dismas’ dismay, Abe uses the weapon of frontal assault on the corruption at the jail, rather than helping Dismas construct a reasoned defense for the courtroom. Abe’s technique is to kick the hornet’s nest repeatedly and observe what crawls/flies out each time. Proceeding from a series of questionable, and little-investigated, deaths of inmates, he uncovers an amazing network of relationships, legal and illegal, which entangle the Chief Deputy, Adam Foster, if not the Sheriff himself, in a web of lies. Unfortunately, none of this is of much value to Hal. Finally, after pulling back in exhaustion and frustration, Abe sees an inconsistency he missed in the preliminary investigations. This reorients the whole case, and everything now locks together. Hal walks free.
A happy ending, but I feel that the relationship between Abe and Dismas has changed forever. We shall see.
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Top reviews from other countries
Wayne F
Good well written thriller
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 22, 2020Tony Pethen
Lescroart back to his best!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 27, 2014
Kindle Customer
A Good Dismas Hardy Story
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 14, 2014Richard Trevor
All the twists we've come to expect on a good Lescroart story
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 12, 2014
