Read the previous Book of the Month: A Certain Justice post here!
A Certain Justice is the book that began to expand the Dismas Hardy series into something else that was not at all what I envisioned when I started writing it. First of all, it brought in both Wes Farrell and Abe Glitsky as main characters in their own right. Once these two had been established, there was no way that I could go back and pretend that they didn’t belong in a co-equal status with Dismas himself.
Secondly, this became the first of what I would call the political books. Whereas before I had mostly built my plots around personal stories, this was the first time that I tried to deal with some of society’s problems. To me, this leant such a sense of gravitas to the books that it would become a mainstay of much of my work for the coming decade, with books such as The Mercy Rule, Nothing But The Truth, The Oath, and, most recently, Betrayal.
By now, I was starting to feel comfortable with my “voice” as an author, and beginning to stretch myself to see what cool stuff I could put in books to make them readable and even, dare I say it, meaningful. A Certain Justice marked the first time that I got starred reviews in both Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews – a happy moment.
A Certain Justice – Purchase on Amazon
Read an excerpt from A Certain Justice
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I am one of the avid readers of John Lecroart’s novels. My wife and I have lived with our daughter and son-in-law in San Jose and have visited San Fransisco several times and we share the great love
of the author for the city of San Fransisco. It came as a great shock to me that there were racial
tensions in the City. I always believed that California was an idyllic State, a rare exception in a universe
full of racial biases and tensions.
As it happened, I bought both the books ” A Certain Justice” and
“Guilt” and both of them are vintage Lescroart. Very engrossing and exciting indeed.
But I do have a couple of bones to pick with the author. Why did he choose the name of “Mohandas”
for the black demagogue, who is trying to incite tensions and profit from the resulting fracas. Why does
he have a Hindu name? Mr. Lescroart must be aware that Gandhi’s full name was “Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi”. It’s rather ironical that a bad guy should have the same name as a man of peace, a man who preached tolerance and non-violence to solve problems.
As regards “Guilt” with its twists and turns of the plot, kept me up all night. But again, I have a couple of doubts. Why couldn’t Christina, an intelligent and smart girl, see through the hypocrisy of and the mask Mark Dooher is wearing, after all the trauma she had already suffered with a professor? And secondly, why nothing is mentioned about the suit to be filed by Trang against the Catholic Church for the sexual shenanigans of a priest and the offer of compensation to the victims made by the Archbishop–the escalating demands and Mark Dooher’s anxiety to preserve his good name and reputation? This has not been mentioned anywhere during the course of investigations.
But then, we always have questions. I just wanted to share these thoughts and would like to mention that I am always searching for new books(and old books) by the author.
I thank the author for the wonderful books which have been source of great enjoyment to me, as to millions of others.
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Just finished reading “The Motive” for about the 3rd time. Love the characters, Dismas, Glitsky and love their relationship with each other and their families. This 3rd read was triggered by a desire to read more about San Francisco as my husband and I will be there in November for about 4 days. The city of San Francisco, the weather, the parking, the politics, plays an important role in the books of John Lescroart. I don’t think they would read the same way if the setting was in a different city. I’m anxious to see the city and hope it has the same feel as the book. I have so much enjoyed reading books by this author. Hope you don’t change your style or your characters, etc. They feel very familiar to me and I look forward to reading more about them. This author, to me is on par with Daniel Silva, Vince Flynn and Lee Child. They all make for excellent reads. I enjoy the fact the books are relatively clean and don’t get bogged down with gratuitous sex, foul language and excessive violence (although Lee Child flirts with the violence) but relies more on plot and character development to deliver spectacular reads.