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Dismas Hardy #19
The beloved New York Times bestselling Dismas Hardy series returns with this relentlessly twisty murder thriller.
No one mourned when San Francisco DA Wes Farrell put Paul Riley in prison eleven years ago for the rape and murder of his girlfriend. And no one is particularly happy to see him again when he's released after The Exoneration Initiative uncovered evidence that pinned the crime on someone else. In fact, Riley soon turns up murdered, surrounded by the loot from his latest scam. But if Riley was really innocent all along, who would want him dead?
To the cops, it's straightforward: the still-grieving father of Riley's dead girlfriend killed the former prisoner. Farrell, now out of politics and practicing law with master attorney Dismas Hardy, agrees to represent the defendant, Doug Rush—and is left in the dust when Rush suddenly vanishes. At a loss, Farrell and Hardy ask PI Abe Glitsky to track down the potentially lethal defendant. The search takes Glitsky through an investigative hall of mirrors populated by wounded parents, crooked cops, cheating spouses, and single-minded vigilantes. As Glitsky embraces and then discards one enticing theory of the crime after another, the truth seems to recede ever farther. So far that he begins to question his own moral compass, allowing author John Lescroart to explore what the Washington Post calls "the genuine humanism that [is] central to his writing."
Masterful misdirection, Lescroart's signature "enthralling…sharp dialogue" (Publishers Weekly) and a shockingly satisfying climax make The Missing Piece a first-rate thriller you'll savor to the last word.
"Calling on his trademark eye for the big picture and his sensitivity to changing trends in the perception of the legal system, Lescroart crafts his most searing anatomy of that system since A Certain Justice (1995)." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"[E]xcellent...Lescroart delves into the concepts of the presumptions of both guilt or innocence while maintaining a fast pace and delivering a finale full of surprises. This long-running series remains as fresh as ever." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"What sets Lescroart apart from many of his fellow legal-thriller writers is his focus on complex themes like morality, conscience, and personal responsibility...Fans of the long-running series will be lining up to read this one." - Booklist
"Another perfect piece of entertainment from a master storyteller." - Steve Berry, New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author of the Cotton Malone series
"Believe the hype: John Lescroart has earned his seat in the canon of great legal thriller writers." - Karin Slaughter, New York Times and internationally bestselling author
"A superb thriller from a veteran crime writer! Lescroart brings all his many talents to bear in The Missing Piece: stellar plotting, his distinctive, punchy writing style and characters so real you feel you've met them before (though ideally not all of them, considering the author's masterful depiction of villains!). And the city of San Francisco—in all its glory and seediness—truly comes alive under Lescroart's pen. Bravo!" - Jeffery Deaver, author of The Midnight Lock
This information about The Missing Piece was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
© Will Mosgrove
John Lescroart is the author of twenty-nine novels (his thirtieth, The Missing Piece, will be published by Atria in March of 2022), nineteen of which have been New York Times Bestsellers. Libraries Unlimited has named John among "The 100 Most Popular Thriller and Suspense Authors." With sales of over twelve million copies, his books have been translated into twenty-two languages in more than seventy-five countries, and his short stories appear in many anthologies. His short story "The Adventure of the Giant Rat of Sumatra" was selected for the 1998 edition of Houghton Mifflin's The Best American Mystery Stories, edited by Sue Grafton. Additionally, his short story "Dunkirk" appeared in the 2015 Anthony and Silver Falchion Award winning anthology, In the Company of Sherlock Holmes.
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