The Second Chair

I really enjoy all of John Lescroart's books, especially the ones with Dismas Hardy and Abe Glitsky. Glitsky has about the driest sense of humor I know of; many would say he has none at all, so he's a good straight man for Hardy's jokes and pranks, which are fairly constant.

This book, like most of them, starts off with some poor, undeserving soul getting into deep trouble, where things look very bleak to impossible. Sometimes Hardy's clients are so apparently guilty that even his friend Glitsky won't believe that he's not simply trying to get a guilty client off. In this story, the client is a 17 year old boy charged with a double homicide. He's been carrying a gun around for weeks, he was writing a book that described the crime almost show more exactly, etc. He's looking at life without parole, and facing a best case of 8 years incarceration. Even his lawyer is sure he's guilty. Sad, but no problem - Dismas Hardy comes to the rescue, as usual. show less

This is an important book. The genre is what they call "legal thriller": there is a defense lawyer and a kid accused of murder. Can the lawyer save the kid? Did the kid commit the crime? The setting is very classic.
What is worthwhile is that every character has flaws, and the flaws impact the story: the lawyer drinks too much and it makes her overconfident. The judge is pissed off, so he tends to punish the accused, not the lawyer. The accused kid is like all teenagers; a bad liar, and it has consequences.
It makes of this an original book and a pleasure to read. I also like that the subject of how we define justice is at the heart of the story. Is justice about working within "the system" or about the truth? Does the truth matter? show more Should it matter to a lawyer? Can a lawyer who has heard hundreds of clients say "I am innocent" while they were all guilty keep an open mind? Is that even possible? It is a real question. I visited people in jail many times, and the most discouraging aspect of it is that every prisoner has a good explanation and a good excuse. It is not just that these prisoners have no sense of responsibility, it is OUR human nature: we are not all going to jail, but all have good excuses for what we do wrong.
There are a few minor choices in the plot construction that I disagree with, but no matter: I enjoy this. show less

I really enjoyed this one. It is a mystery with enough clues to allow the reader to guess the villain without being terribly disappointed by the ending. I've read most of the books in the Dismas Hardy series, and this is one of the more believable, action-packed stories, with substantial character development of Amy Wu and others besides the usual insights and foibles of Hardy and Glitsky.

Hardy & Glitsky age throughout the series so this would not be the best place to start. I recommend going back at least as far as book 3, Hard Evidence

Well paced - enough to have me stay up late to finish it.

Suffering from some disillusion since the death of his friend and mentor and the illegal shoot-out he and his friends became involved in order to protect their families, Hardy is just going through the motions at his law firm. One of his young lawyers messes up a case by assuming her client is guilty. Hardy agrees to serve as second chair and revives his passion in the law by helping their innocent client win his case. Glitsky, too, is having some problems since the shoot-out and his promotion that requires PR skills that he doesn’t have instead of his investigative skills. As usually Hardy and Glitsky find their cases intersecting. Nice entry into the series with a fast paced ending resulting in the capture of a serial killer.

Listening to the audio made it a little difficult to figure out who was who in the character list but as soon as I figured it out the story moved right along and now I will be looking for more of his older books, like this one, with these particular main characters.

Es handelt sich um einen klassischen amerikanischen Anwalts-Gerichts-Krimi. Eigentlich ist das Buch Teil einer Serie und vermutlich wäre es besser, die anderen Teile zu kennen. Aber man kann es auch so lesen. Die junge Anwältin Amy Wu wird zu ihrem ersten Mordfall engagiert. Ein siebzehnjähriger Junge hat vermutlich seinen Lehrer und seine Freundin erschossen. Die Beweislast ist erdrückend, der Staatsanwalt gerecht, aber unerbittlich. Amy versucht, den Jungen dazu zu bringen, dass er gesteht, dann könnte er wenigstens nach Jugendstrafrecht verurteilt werden. Aber der Junge gesteht nicht, sondern beteuert seine Unschuld. Langsam räumt Amy ein, dass er vielleicht tatsächlich unschuldig sein könnte.
Anfangs zieht sich das Buch show more etwas, aber ab dem Moment, an dem man Andrew näher kennen lernt, springt der Funke über. Die Personen sind nämlich für mich erstaunlich plastisch und greifbar. Also ist mein Fazit, dass es sich hier um einen soliden Gerichtsthriller handelt. Ob ich von dem Autor aber mehr lesen möchte, kann ich noch nicht sagen. show less