THE MERCY RULE
New York Times Bestseller
Did the prodigal son love his father to death?
The Mercy Rule is a brilliant and moving human drama set against a backdrop of relentless suspense, legal complexity and moral ambiguity. Dismas Hardy, the former bartender, loving husband and father, and reluctant defense attorney of The 13th Juror, returns here in his most challenging case.
Vowing to spend more time with his family, Dismas is hesitant to represent Graham Russo, a could-have-been-great baseball player-turned-lawyer who is indicted for the murder of his father, Sal. Everyone close to the Russos knew that Sal was dying and that he needed morphine injections to ease his suffering. Graham admits to administering these injections, but insists he wasn’t there the night of Sal’s overdose.
Was it suicide, mercy, or murder?
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Praise for THE MERCY RULE
“Carefully wrapped in a stylish whodunit, The Mercy Rule is a morality play about assisted suicide that finds Lescroart in his best form yet. Bottom Line: A master’s take on a troubling social issue.”
—People (“Beach Book of the Week”)
“A story textured like the San Francisco cityscape—its fogs, views, hills, glitz, and grit. Lescroart has the technical clues of the plot perfectly arranged, locking in the attention of mystery mavens until the connections are revealed, but it’s his credible characters who cement this entertaining, front-rank whodunit.”
—Booklist
“Gripping”
—Kirkus Reviews
“John Lescroart has another winner. Lescroart knows North Beach inside and out, knows the avenues like a deliveryman, has an astute take on . . . politics. A taut read.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“This satisfying legal thriller will surely please. Recommended for all.”
—Library Journal
“A topical thriller from an established talent . . . the courtroom scenes are little masterpieces of battlefield maneuvering.”
—Publishers Weekly
“[A] terrific new novel from John Lescroart, who never wrote a bad page. You won’t put it down.”
—Larry King, USA Today
“As usual in a Lescroart novel, character dominates plot as the author proves, yet again, that resonant drama can be found in family: the talented but deeply troubled Russos. Lescroart also walks the fictional high wire without a net below in having Homicide Inspector Sarah Evans get involved with Graham. Usually a tiresome gimmick to add romance to the mix, the relationships reveals both of them as richly complex people. Readers of The 13th Juror will already be off reading this book, not this review. Join them.”
—The Philadelphia Inquirer
“Author John Lescroart manages to find time to keep several subplots cooking in the background of The Mercy Rule, and the result is a large and emotionally sprawling novel—a big circus of a story, and a very entertaining one at that.”
—Chicago Tribune
Delacorte Hardcover, 1998; Island Paperback, 1999
