Review by Booklist Review
After a fizzled career as a prosecutor (lately chronicled in the author's 1992 Hard Evidence), Dismas Hardy works the other side of the street as a defense attorney. His first case seems hopeless: Jennifer Witt is accused of killing her husband and son, and plenty of witnesses place her near the bloody scene. The woman denies all, but it seems obvious it's all over except for the gas chamber. So Diz works "other dude" theories--finding who else could have pulled the trigger. Fruitful avenues of inquiry open up that Diz pursues with a diligence bordering on obsession, exasperating his wife and frustrating himself as the leads peter out. But he discovers that the victim was far from perfect, a wife-beater in fact, who also may have been entangled in some financial shenanigans at his medical practice. So what was the motive? Jennifer acting in self-defense? A Mob hit? Perhaps Jennifer's violent father popped the doc, and there's something fishy about her psychiatrist, too. All questions stay alive in the author's skillful hands, as his alter ego presents his theories to a tough-but-fair type of judge (the juror of the title). The suspense meets the minimum demands of mystery addicts: the domestic violence motif, the San Francisco locale, and the publisher's big promotional plans may increase Lescroart's modest following. ~--Gilbert Taylor
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Further evidence that Lescroart ( Hard Evidence ) can hold his own among legal-thriller writers comes with this taut novel about an abused San Francisco housewife who is arrested for shooting both her seven-year-old son and her physician husband, a control freak. Narrator Dismas Hardy, defense attorney and hero of four previous Lescroart novels, has plenty of suspects and issues to grapple with. First there's his icy, recalcitrant client, Jennifer Witt, who refuses to go with a battered-wife defense; Jennifer's aloof psychiatrist, who may or may not be her lover; some financial shenanigans concerning the victim's business that provide plenty of motive for high-stakes murder. Then there's the problem of Dismas's grandstanding boss, whose flamboyant, hit-or-miss style leaves Dismas constantly scrambling for higher legal ground. Finally, there's Dismas's wife, who resents the time her husband spends on the case but who insists on striking up a friendship with the accused without telling her husband. The story gets off to a slow start, and sometimes Lescroart belabors the obvious. He also comes close to telegraphing the solution to the mystery, and much of his writing about the characters' personal lives is hamfisted. Despite these flaws, however, an intricate story and satisfying courtroom scenes carry the day. Fans of the genre should find the second half of the book, which covers the trial, especially engaging. 60,000 first printing; major ad/promo; paperback rights to Dell; audio rights to Bantam Doubleday Dell; large print rights to Thorndike; Literary Guild and Dou ble day Book Club featured alternates. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Jennifer's fairytale life as the wife of Dr. Larry Witt seems perfect. When Larry and their seven-year-old son are murdered while Jennifer is out jogging, the newspapers have a field day weeping with the photogenic young widow. After she is arrested for the crime, a full-fledged tabloid feeding frenzy erupts. Into this fray steps Dismas Hardy, a fortysomething former district attorney's office hotshot and an ex-bartender who is 43 days into his new job with a prestigious law firm. Dismas, new to the role of defense lawyer, is uncomfortable with his growing belief in Jennifer's innocence, especially since she is reluctant to take her one chance at a "Not Guilty" verdict: acknowledging Larry's years of abuse. A very readable novel with engaging characters and a riveting plot that fans of Scott Turow and John Grisham will love; recommended for most libraries.-Dan Bogey, Clearfield Cty. P.L. Federation, Curwensville, Pa. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Appearing as defense counsel for Jennifer Witt in the sentencing phase of her trial for killing her husband and son, San Francisco attorney Dismas Hardy finds himself inching slowly, slowly from the back bench into the hot seat. Both Diz and David Freeman, his colleague, mentor, and landlord, who's defending Jennifer, know she's not the ideal client. She alternately postures and freezes up; she says nothing about a $300,000 bank account she'd kept hidden from her husband; when she's deined bail, she escapes from prison and holes up in Costa Rica for three months; and she refuses to let David submit evidence that she was a battered wife and abused daughter--even though the prosecutor, who's running for California attorney general, plans to paint her as an insurance-money killer who also shot her seven-year-old son, Matt, when he got in the way. To top it off, the prosecutor announces new evidence that Jennifer killed her first husband nine years ago for his insurance. During the trial to determine Jennifer's guilt or innocence, the balance of power seesaws between the prosecution and the defense, but, inevitably, Jennifer's found guilty. Then, during the penalty phase, Diz is left alone at the defense table, praying that one of his unlikely leads--the slim hope of persuading Jennifer's mother or psychiatrist to testify about the abuse she denies; or a possible scam linking Larry Witt's death to another murder--will turn into a defense he can smuggle into the penalty hearings over the judge's frigid warnings. Diz's defense is so hamstrung by his own client that after a slow start and painstaking, but uninspired, courtroom scenes, his case builds a ton of pressure as it goes down to the wire--though it never becomes the barn-burning equal of Diz's last, Hard Evidence (1993). (First printing of 60,000; Literary Guild featured selection)
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