Guilt

Having recently found and enjoyed Lescroart, I was delighted to find this very fat one of his that I had not read. If you're interested in trying him, start with GUILT. It is an excellent example of my favorite kind of novel. In an organized, well paced plot, he fully develops more than a handful of really interesting characters. A powerful, well respected San Franciso attorney is arrested for a particularly grizzly murder and is suspected by the homicide detective and his team of being responsible for other equally horrible murders. But, there is a camp of also credible people who know that it is impossible for him to have done anything even remotely like this. This one is going to have to go on my best of the year list.

I really went through this one quickly. I enjoyed it a lot, and look forward to reading more of John Lescroart's books. This was the 2nd in the Abe Glitsky series, and kind of wrapped around the first one, including time before and after it. This was kind of the opposite of the first one, in that in this one, it shows how the guilty can go free as easily as the innocent can be screwed. Overall, his books make me think that I don't want to get involved with the police or judicial system at all, which isn't really surprising.

A long book, but most of it is necessary to tell the story. I was turned off by the first 20% or so, which seemed to focus on how to make lawyers seem as unappealing and annoying as possible. But I liked how complexly drawn the characters were, and the scope of the book is surprisingly broad even for its length. There are dark hints throughout of what could possibly be a nasty surprise ending, but in spite of that everything comes out rather predictably, with no particularly surprising twists. I also found the final scenes rather overly full of action, like the author decided to throw some graphic excitement in at the end in case someone decided to make a movie out of it, but then maybe I'm just jaded. The middle of the book is where it show more shines. show less

Defense attorneys Wes Farrell and Christina Carrera, are certain Mark Dooher is being framed. I thought Christina was a fool. It was obvious that Mark was pursuing her. She had been burned by a married man before, she should have run.

One of the better books from the Abe Glitsky/Dismas Hardy series; but another character (attorney Wes Farrell) is the focus while Hardy is barely mentioned.

Good, but not quite 4 stars.

good!