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Title: The Mercy Rule by John Lescroart ISBN: 0-440-22282-6 Publisher: Island Books Pub. Date: 10 August, 1999 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.53 (30 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Thoughtful and engrossing legal thriller
Comment: Lescroart is not an author I recommend to people seeking an easy,lightweight and disposable read.His San Francisco set legal tales tend to be quite complex,and multi-layered with an emphasis on issues and characterization as well as plot.
The Mercy Rule is no exception to the pattern.Its centre piece is the trial of Graham Russo,lawyer turned wanna be baseball player,who is accused of killing Salvatore ,his father and stealing his money and vintage baseball card collection.Salvatore was terminally ill with an inoperable brain tumour as well as in the grip of Alzheimer's.Some -including liberal SF District Attorney,Sharon Pratt,see it as a mercy killing-assissted suicide-and refuse to proseecute.The State of Califirnia takes a different view and put Graham on trial.
His defence is entrusted to Lescroart regular character,Dismas Hardy.The trial ,crisply and dranatically presented,is compelling reading but occupies only around 30%of the book and the verdict is delivered with around 60 pages of the book left.The coda sees Hardy digging into events leading up to Salvatore,s death
The build up to the trial is fascinating with the whole issue of assisted suicide and the conflicting views it gives rise to dealy with fairly and impartially.The investigation is complicated by the developinhg relationship between Graham and the homicide detective Sarah Lee who has been assigned to the case and we identify with Dismas Hardy in his desire to be a defence attorney when the main source of income is in borin but financially rewarding corporate law issues
The downside to the Lescroart method is a certain leisureliness of pace and the book ,nearer 500 than 400 pages,does have its longeurs but overall its rewarding and full of inside information on legal processes and political wheeling and dealing,something which seems to be an inevitable part of the legal process in America
Rating: 4
Summary: Good mystery; good characters
Comment: The good thing about a Lescroart mystery is not so much the mystery as the characters who intersect the mystery. Murder's the name but the players are the game. Here Lescroart touches on an emotionally charged issue, euthanasia or mercy killing. There's a nice analogy with the game of baseball, perhaps unintentional, which is that in the early levels of the game the adolescent players learn 'the slaughter rule,' allowing a team which has no chance of winning having fallen behind an insurmountable lead, to exit with some self respect intact.
Hence we have Sal Russo, years ago a bright guy married to his sweetheart, knowing all along she is from a different life, years later preparing to die alone, the target of an agonizing tumor complicated by the onset of alzeimers. He is reunited by his oldest son, Graham, who tried his own (and his father's) dream of playing in the big game, only to fall short. Sal dies under mysterious circumstances with a DNR (do not revive) warning in plain view.
That Graham is arrested, then released, then indicted for murder, reflects the indecision the politicians, their constituents and the police have on this painful topic. Do the terminally ill have control over the time that they cross the river, or do we let events rob them of their remaining dignity?
Dismas Hardy is again the reluctant guardian at the gate, not wanting murder as a crime he defends, all the while knowing it's where his true strength . . . and definition lies.
If there is an irritant, it is the tedious relationship he has with his wife, Frannie. So many alter egos of the novelist's heroes love their partner for what they do, yet make life difficult for them because they do it. Kudos as an aside to Lucy Chenier, Elvis Pike's lover, who got up and left.
But with that one comment, a multi-latered book for the reader who wants social issues, murder most foul, great complicated characters and unexpected twists. Not a fast read but a very good job.
Rating: 5
Summary: OPENING A LESCROAT BOOK IS LIKE MEETING OLD FRIENDS
Comment: Lescroat has that ability to make his primary characters believeable and earthy. In the "Dismas" books one feels like they are returning to old friends who have encountered some problems along the way. The only problem is that Dismas always seems to get involved in MURDER! And when that happens you can rest assured that Dismas looks under every stone until he finds the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
"The Mercy Rule" was a great 'who dunnit' with quite a few possibilities on the list of suspects but the author holds us in suspense until the enth degree - as we rule out each suspect and turn the pages faster and faster to learn the identity of the true killer.
Even with murder, mystery and mayhem, Lescroat instills a sense of duty, family loyalty and love in his novels and he shows no exception with The Mercy Rule. A great read.
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Title: Guilt by John Lescroart ISBN: 0440222818 Publisher: Bantam Books Pub. Date: 10 August, 1998 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The Vig by John Lescroart ISBN: 0440209862 Publisher: Dell Pub. Date: 12 January, 1998 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Nothing but the Truth by John T. Lescroart ISBN: 0451202856 Publisher: Signet Pub. Date: February, 2001 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: A Certain Justice by John Lescroart ISBN: 0440221048 Publisher: Island Books Pub. Date: 02 August, 1996 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The 13th Juror by John Lescroart ISBN: 0440220793 Publisher: Dell Pub. Date: 01 July, 1995 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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