Appearance
The Hearing
Dismas Hardy is not going to get drawn into representing the accused killer of Elaine Wager (Cole Burgess). Well, only because his sister asks, he will make sure that the man who was found standing over the dead body of Ms. Wagner with the murder weapon in his hand and her jewelry in his pockets, gets proper tratment in the lockup as he deals with his drug addiction. But that's all.As he looks into the matter he discovers his good friend, Police Lt. Abe Glitsky taking unusually questionable contitutional liberties with Mr. Burgess's interrogation and incarceration. Then the San Francisco District Attorney, Sharon Pratt, who's administration has been known for it's inability to get convictions (all the good prosecutors resigned) and it's "humane" treatment of criminals it considers to be victims of society decides to ask for the death penalty. Of course, it is an election year and Ms. Pratt's re-election chances are tenuous at best.We learn early on that the murder victim is in fact, Abe Glitsky's daughter (her mother married another man while pregant by Glitsky). The helps explain his uncharacteristic behavior.After viewing a "confession" that the police sweat out of Cole, Glitsky starts to wonder if they have the real killer and from that concern, the story unwinds toward "The Hearing". Hardy signs on for the duration and picks up considerable help along the way. Lescroart is at his best during the trial scenes and the reader somewhat impatiently waits for the story to unravel, which it surely does in a most satisfying way when court is in session. Lecroart has never failed to please his readers.
The Hearing
Fast-paced, with interesting and well-developed characters, The Hearing works on every level. The pace and flow of the buildup is deftly handled - we're along for a measured and suspenseful ride. A little thing which I liked a lot was Lescroart's choices of his character's names. By choosing uncommon, slightly quirky names or names with unusual spellings - Sharron Pratt, Dismas Hardy, Abe Glitsky, Dash Logan are examples - we're able to more easily keep track of the rich cast of characters. The Hearing is worth a look.
The Hearing
Love it when a plot keeps me going until the end. Good characters. Good pace. My first read with this author. Am definitely going to check out his other titles.
The Hearing
I like the author; he writes an interesting and compelling story with all the right ingredients to keep one coming back for more.
The Hearing
I just finished The Hearing and it is clearly the best of the three Dismas Hardy legal thrillers I've read. It is an exciting and complex tale for the more cerebral of crime novel aficionados. As a lawyer and former law enforcement officer in the Bay Area I really appreciated how the author really got the courtroom and police procedure right. The local color in good old Left Coast San Francisco rings totally true, too. It's all the more impressive since Lescroart has never been either a lawyer or in law enforcement. He must have very good advisors. The characters are colorful, distinctly limned, and like any good novel, slightly too extreme to be entirely believable, but they sure are fun to watch. Hardy eventually assembles a disparate and eclectic group of allies to bring about a suspenseful and imaginative ending.
The Hearing
A young black woman, a rising star in San Francisco's legal arena is found dead at midnight. I white male junkie, brother-in-law of a newspaper writer, is found nearby with the woman's jewelry and the gun that shot her. But two shots were fired and the woman was only shot once.Bi-racial homicide lieutenant Abe Glitsky is called to the scene and what nobody else there knows is, the dead young woman is his daughter via youthful affair with a deceased African American congresswoman from California. Enraged, he roughs up the junkie, and demands his underlings get a confession, whch they do. Later he begins to believe the junkie didn't commit the murder, but they've got a confession he is responsible for.The city's embattled DA, who has a history of going easy on criminals, is low in the polls and an election is coming up. She decides to go for the death penalty in this case. Defense attorney Dismas Hardy isn't even sure his clinet is innocent, still he crusades to find the truth and finds a shady lawyer might be involved in this murder, as well as a corrupt retired cop. What he ultimately finds is even more devious than that.The book has some very well written family scenes. Abe Glitsy with his college age sons and his religious Jewish father after he suffers a heart attack which makes him slow in his investigation, allowing the bad guys to have the edge until the end. There are touching scenes of married affection in the city's night spots on the Hardy's weekly "date night." There is an almost horrifying scene where Dismas Hardy comes home to find his emotionally sensistive preteen daughter strewn across the bed sobbing hysterically and his wife distraught. The daughter had never even thought about suicide until the public school held an indebth student assembly on the subject, it's causes and prevention