From the acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of Guilt and The 13th Juror comes an electrifying new thriller--a novel in which San Francisco defense attorney Dismas Hardy faces the case of his career. This time his family is involved--and for Hardy, a devoted husband and father, the stakes have never been higher. Dismas knows his wife, Frannie, is the most reliable of mothers. When she fails to pick up their children from school one afternoon, he's convinced something terrible has happened. It has: Frannie Hardy is in jail. Called before the grand jury in a murder investigation, she refused to reveal a secret entrusted to her by a man whose children attend the same school as hers, a friend who is accused of killing his wife. But now he has disappeared. Hardy knows there's only one way to get Frannie out of jail: clear her friend of murder. That is, if he can be found. As he moves through a labyrinthine world of big business and San Francisco politics, looking for a man he half hopes never to find, a furious and frustrated Hardy is struggling to understand why his impeccably faithful wife is being so loyal to another man. What kind of truth could keep a wife from her husband, a mother from her children--could hold Hardy so powerless before the wrath of the law?With an unparalleled ability to illuminate the complexities of relationships while weaving a story of breathtaking suspense, Lescroart has never been in finer form. And Nothing But the Truth is his finest hour.
On Spain's Costa Brava, passion and intrigue are everywhere - especially in the hearts of those who dwell there. As the dictator Franco teeters on the edge of death - a death that will completely overturn the political structure of Spain - two couples are entwined. One, a husband and wife bored with the existence they have drifted into. The other, a passionate, combative pair who relish every moment of life. Into this potent mix a young American arrives, seeking his missing lover - bringing a shadow of danger into the machinations already at work. Soon the political tension in the country reaches the breaking point, and that danger becomes an all-too-stark reality...as a heartrending misunderstanding unravels the fragile bonds of love and loyalty, and leads to a tragedy that will forever change the lives of everyone it touches. "A terrific yarn spinner." - Chicago Sun-Times "Lescroart's a pro." - Jonathan Kellerman
At last recovered from a near-fatal gunshot wound, Lieutenant Abe Glitsky is back at work. But instead of returning to his old job as chief of homicide detail, he's assigned a desk job in the payroll department, where he has no business investigating murders - until his father's closest friend is shot dead in a downtown pawn shop. Glitsky asks the new homicide lieutenant about the case, but the brass tells him to stay out of it. Guided by the Patrol Special - a private police force supervised by the SFPD that is a holdover from San Francisco's vigilante past - the police have already targeted their prime suspect: John Holiday, proprietor of a run-down local bar, and a friend and client of Dismas Hardy. Hardy has ample reason to doubt both his client's guilt and the evidence conveniently stacked against him. Hardy turns to Glitsky for help, but when Holiday is implicated in the grisly killings of two more men, their pleas fall on hostile ears. To avoid arrest, Holiday turns fugitive, and the police believe three things: that Hardy's a liar protecting Holiday, that Holiday is a cold-blooded killer, and that Glitsky's a bad cop on the wrong side of the law. And as the deadly pursuit for a murderer intensifies, Hardy, Glitsky, and even their families are directly threatened by the forces that want to see Holiday brought down. Cut off from the system that they both served, denied justice from the corridors of power, and increasingly isolated at every turn, Hardy and Glitsky face their darkest hour. For when the law that is meant to shield and protect those closest to them fails, they must look to another, more primal law in order to survive...
When Dr. Caryn Dryden is found floating dead in her hot tub, homicide inspector Devin Juhle targets a suspect close to home: her husband, Stuart Gorman. After all, Stuart recently asked for a divorce...and he stands to gain millions in insurance. His alibi - that he was at his cabin on Echo Lake that weekend - doesn't keep him out of hot water. But maybe a shrewd attorney will. Gina Roake, a partner in Dismas Hardy's firm, is eager to take on such a high-profile case, especially when the client's innocence seems so easy to prove. Yet the more time she spends with Stuart, the more complicated her feelings become; she feels strangely drawn to him at first, then has to confront the possibility of a dark history lurking in his past. Desperate to know the truth, Gina calls in Wyatt Hunt to investigate. Before the facts are in, her client is on the lam; he's already been tried in the press, and so he's certain the courtroom won't bring him any mercy either. Racing to a stunning conclusion as Gina uncovers disturbing answers, John Lescroart spins a chilling story of secrets, love, and lies.
In a multiple murder case plagued by lies and deception, there is one terrible secret that defense attorney Dismas Hardy is duty-bound to protect. Even if the price is his client's life. When Dylan Vogler, the charming manager of the popular Bay Beans West coffee shop in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district, is gunned down near the store, inspectors are shocked to discover that his knapsack is overflowing with high-grade marijuana. It soon becomes clear that San Francisco's A-list flocked to Bay Beans West for more than a pricy caffeine fix. Maya Townshend is the absentee owner of the shop-and the beautiful and extremely wealthy socialite niece of the city's mayor. When she becomes Dismas Hardy's client, he thinks it will be a simple hand-holding exercise until the police identify a suspect. But then another of Maya's past acquaintances turns up murdered, and the newspapers begin to reveal the names of the coffee shop's celebrity, political, and even law-enforcement clientele. Hardy begins to question how much his client knew about what was actually going on inside her business-and whether she was also Vogler's lover. All the while Hardy's best friend, homicide lieutenant Abe Glitsky, sick with worry over his severely injured youngest child, barely functions at his job. Without his supervision, his inspectors are prey to the machinations of the many power brokers with interests in the case. Ambitious prosecutors close in on Maya, and as her trial gets under way, Hardy discovers that his client harbors an explosive secret. A secret that Dismas Hardy is privilege-bound to protect. Perceptive, fast-paced, and masterfully plotted, A Plague of Secrets represents John Lescroart working at the absolute top of his game.
The Mercy Rule is a brilliant and moving human drama set against a backdrop of relentless suspense, legal complexity and moral ambiguity. Dismas Hardy, the former bartender, loving husband and father, and reluctant defense attorney of The 13th Juror, returns here in his most challenging case. Vowing to spend more time with his family, Dismas is hesitant to represent Graham Russo, a could-have-been-great baseball player-turned-lawyer who is indicted for the murder of his father, Sal. Everyone close to the Russos knew that Sal was dying and that he needed morphine injections to ease his suffering. Graham admits to administering these injections, but insists he wasn't there the night of Sal's overdose. Was it suicide, mercy, or murder?
Mickey Dade hates deskwork, but that's all he's been doing at Wyatt Hunt's private investigative service, The Hunt Club. His itch to be active is answered when a body is discovered: It's Dominic Como, one of San Francisco's most high profile activists - a charismatic man known as much for his expensive suits as his work on a half-dozen nonprofit boards. One "person of interest" in the case is Como's business associate, Alicia Thorpe - young, gorgeous, and the sister of one of Mickey's friends. As Mickey and Hunt are pulled into the case, they soon learn that the city's golden fundraiser was involved in some highly suspect deals. And the lovely Alicia knows more about this - and more about Como - than she's letting on. Treasure Hunt is both a nail-biting thriller and a coming-of-age story, filled with Lescroart's trademark San Francisco flavors. Mickey Dade, its young protagonist, gradually learns the hard lessons Hunt knows only too well, as the world he thought he knew unravels around him.
When San Francisco attorney Dismas Hardy gets a call saying his wife never picked the kids up from school, he's worried. Frannie's a great mother. Turns out there's a good explanation: She's in jail. Unbeknownst to her husband, Frannie has just appeared before a grand jury - and refused to share a crucial piece of information about her friend Ron, who's accused of killing his wife. Now it's up to Dismas to race the clock and find a culprit, all the while wondering: Why would his wife go to jail to protect another man? Who really killed Bree Beaumont - and why? He's looking for the truth. But he's not quite sure he wants to find it...
In The 13th Juror, Dismas Hardy, lawyer/investigator, undertakes the defense of Jennifer Witt, accused of murdering her husband and their eight-year-old son as well as her first husband, who had died nine years earlier from an apparent drug overdose. While preparing his case, Hardy learns that both of Jennifer's husbands had physically abused her. But Jennifer refuses to allow a defense that presumes her guilt. She is not guilty, she claims. Hardy is now driven to seek an alternative truth a jury can believe. As the trial progresses, the complex truth itself begins to change, to bend, to fade in and out of focus as the clock keeps ticking on Jennifer's fate, until there seems only one person left to convince, and she is "the 13th juror" - the judge.
In his new life as a bartender at the Little Shamrock, Dismas Hardy is just hoping for a little peace. He's left both the police force and his law career behind. Unfortunately it's not as easy to leave behind the memory of a shattering personal loss - but for the time being, he can always take the edge off with a stiff drink and a round of darts. But when the news of Eddie Cochran's death reaches him, Hardy is propelled back into all the things he was trying to escape - and forced to untangle a web of old secrets and raw passions, for the sake of Eddie's pregnant widow, Frannie, and for the others whose lives may still be at risk...
When the bullet-ridden body of a Silicon Valley billionaire washes up on shore, assistant D.A. Dismas Hardy finds himself the prosecutor in San Francisco's murder trial of the century. The suspect: a Japanese call girl with a long list of prominent clients. But when a bizarre series of events blows the case wide open, Hardy finds himself on the other side of the law - as a lawyer for the defense.... "A compelling combination of courtroom drama and whodunit....Sparked with crackling dialogue and vivid scenes of its San Francisco setting....Lescroart is a fine writer." - Richmond Times-Dispatch "Sensational....Compares favorably with...Scott Turow and John Grisham." - Newport News Daily Press
Mark Dooher is a prosperous San Francisco attorney and a prominent Catholic, the last person anyone would suspect of a brutal crime. But Dooher, a paragon of success and a master of all he touches, is about to be indicted for murder. Charged with savagely killing his own wife, Dooher is fighting for his reputation and his life in a high-profile case that is drawing dozens of lives into its wake - from former spouses to former friends, from a beautiful, naïve young attorney to a defense lawyer whose own salvation depends on getting his client off. Now, as the trial builds to a crescendo, as evidence is sifted and witnesses discredited, as a good cop tries to pick up the pieces of his shattered life and a D.A. risks her career, the truth about Mark Dooher is about to explode. For in a trial that will change the lives of everyone it touches, there is one thing that no one knows - until it is much too late...
