Disclaimer

Amazon.com Review

Even though the excellent thrillers by John Lescroart--The 13th Juror, A Certain Justice, Dead Irish, and Hard Evidence are out in paperback--usually feature stirring courtroom scenes, where they really shine is out in the real world. His latest is no exception, as Mark Dooher, a high-profile attorney with links to the Catholic hierarchy of San Francisco, is charged with the brutal murder of the wife he had come to hate. Did Dooher do her? Lt. Abe Glitsky, whose own beloved wife is dying of cancer, is sure of it, but defense attorneys Wes Farrell and Christina Carrera--for different but equally hidden reasons--are certain he's being framed. You'll enjoy the tension and appreciate the intricate plotting.

From Library Journal

Mark Dooher has a successful legal career, a long-lasting marriage, charm, good looks, and money; but when he meets young, beautiful law student Christina Carrera, he wants her, too. The author of A Certain Justice (LJ 7/95) has Mark manage, through a series of devious manipulations, to rid Christina of her fiance, get her a job at his firm, and make her fall in love with him. But there is the troublesome matter of his wife, whom he cannot divorce because of his important professional relationship with the city's archbishop. Then his wife turns up conveniently murdered, and the resulting trial could turn out to be Mark's greatest challenge yet. This original, well-crafted page-turner is blockbuster material. Highly recommended.
-?Melissa Kuzma Rokicki, NYPL
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Amazon.com Review

British actor and comedian Hugh Laurie's first book is a spot-on spy spoof about hapless ex-soldier Thomas Lang, who is drawn unwittingly and unwillingly into the center of a dangerous James Bond-like plot of international terrorists, arms dealing, high-tech weapons, and CIA spooks. You may recall having seen Laurie in the English television series Jeeves and Wooster; Laurie played Bertie Wooster, the clutzy hero of the P.G. Wodehouse comic novels that originated those characters. The lineage from Wodehouse's Wooster to Laurie's Lang is clear, and, if you like Wodehouse, you'll probably love The Gun Seller.

From School Library Journal

YA. A delightful first novel by the British actor, comedian, and author of the television series "A Bit of Fry and Laurie." In this spoof (of sorts) of the spy genre, Laurie's appealing turns of phrase will grab readers from the first paragraph. Thomas Lang, formerly of the Scots Guard and currently a freelance bodyguard/man for hire, is offered an assassination job. He indignantly refuses, attempts to warn the victim, and is soon embroiled in undercover work for the British government, CIA operatives, arms dealers, and terrorists. Those who enjoy action or spy novels will be swept along in the events. Although somewhat convoluted, the plot is so punctuated with bursts of sly humor that readers won't mind a bit of confusion. The author pokes gentle, good-natured fun at the foibles and characteristics of British and Americans alike, as well as his hero, bureaucrats, terrorists, diplomats, and just about everyone else. In a tone reminiscent of Lawrence Sanders's "McNally" series (Putnam), the light, frothy humor is infectious. A quick read, with an engaging, capable hero and lots of plot twists, for YAs looking for something pleasantly different.?Carol DeAngelo, formerly at Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

t was a beautiful winter's day. Anders, his wife and their feisty six-year-old, Maja, set out across the ice of the Swedish archipelago to visit the lighthouse on Gavasten. There was no one around, so they let her go on ahead. And she disappeared, seemingly into thin air, and was never found. Two years later, Anders is a broken alcoholic, his life ruined. He returns to the archipelago, the home of his childhood and his family. But all he finds are Maja's toys and through the haze of memory, loss and alcohol, he realizes that someone or something is trying to communicate with him. Soon enough, his return sets in motion a series of horrifying events which exposes a mysterious and troubling relationship between the inhabitants of the remote island and the sea.<

From Publishers Weekly

In his third appearance, San Francisco bartender Dismas Hardy returns to the practice of law to star in a gripping courtroom drama that may well be Lescroart's breakthrough novel. After the severed hand of a murdered billionaire is discovered in a dead shark's stomach, Hardy ends up on the DA's team prosecuting the victim's Japanese mistress. She produces an airtight alibi just as the trial begins; Diz loses his job, and, in a bizarre twist, is hired to defend the second person accused of the crime, Andrew Fowler--who is not only his ex-father-in-law but was also the judge in the first trial. Diz's involvement with his beautiful ex-wife and the needs of his very pregnant current wife complicate his life, while doubts about his client's innocence and the antagonism demonstrated toward Fowler from both the prosecution and the bench put him at a disadvantage in court. A seemingly unimportant bit of testimony provides the clue that reveals the killer's identity and motivation. As always, Lescroart ( Dead Irish ; The Vig ) creates compelling, credible characters and, despite one or two unlikely coincidences, holds reader's attention through every step of the plot. 50,000 first printing; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club selections.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

YA-- From the moment a severed hand wearing a serpentine jade ring is found in the belly of a white shark, this murder case is emotionally, politically, and judicially tainted. Even after junior Assistant D. A. Dismas Hardy is forced into relinquishing the case to his superior, the ambitious Elizabeth Pullios, he finds himself in progressively more complex relationships with a seemingly unlimited string of murder suspects. First, the high-class Japanese mistress of the wealthy victim is caught trying to sneak out of the country with a note in her dead lover's handwriting promising her a million dollars. Then the powerful judge with the impeccable reputation hearing the case is found to be footing the bill for the mistress's defense. Finally, it is revealed that the possessive daughter of the victim had had a very unusual relationship with her father. YAs will devour this hefty book with its short chapters that fluidly move from pointed courtroom dialogue to ongoing investigation to complex personal intrigues, all driven by Hardy's idealism.
- Jessica Lahr, Edison High School, Fairfax County, VA
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

SUMMARY: A dramatization of the novel in which an anthropologist conducts an unusual research project in a reputedly haunted house.<

From Publishers Weekly

In this experimental California improv, Lutz (The Spellman Files) writes odd-numbered chapters and footnoted barbs directed at her coauthor and ex-boyfriend, poet Hayward, whose even-numbered chapters and stiletto-sharp ripostes add a freaky dimension to the collaboration. Grown siblings Lacey and Paul Hansen are scratching out a precarious living from a Northern California clandestine marijuana operation when a reeking headless human body turns up in their backyard, eventually identified as Hart Drexel, detecting barista Lacey's former lover. Because Lutz and Hayward agreed not to discuss or to undo a plot development the other had produced, they create a jittery black-comic narrative complicated by inter-author tensions unveiled in memos exchanged at the end of each chapter. Shifty secondary characters, some charming, some odious, pop in and out of the resulting dizzying plot that comes off like a trendy Left Coast restaurant mélange—daringly composed, exotic to contemplate. Author tour. (Apr.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Lisa Lutz is the New York Times-bestselling author of the Spellman comedic crime novels. Since 2007, the Spellman series has received Edgar, Anthony, and Macavity nominations, and each title has been a selection of the Indie Next List. Lutz lives in San Francisco.

David Hayward is a writer and editor in Northern California. His poetry has won a Pushcart Prize and has appeared in Harper's and other magazines. Hayward has an MFA in poetry from the University of California at Irvine. This is his first novel.

SUMMARY: If Night falls, all fall . . . In the far north of the world of Haarth lies the bitter mountain range known as the Wall of Night. Garrisoned by the Nine Houses of the Derai, the Wall is the final bastion between the peoples of Haarth and the Swarm of Dark—which the Derai have been fighting across worlds and time. Malian, Heir to the House of Night, knows the history of her people: the unending war with the Darkswarm; the legendary heroes, blazing with long-lost power; the internal strife that has fractured the Derai's former strength. But now the Darkswarm is rising again, and Malian's destiny as Heir of Night is bound inextricably to both ancient legend and any future the Derai—or Haarth—may have.<

From Publishers Weekly

Lusciously set in alternative-history 16th-century Venice, Corfu and sinister points northeast, this huge sequel to the authors' equally massive and magnetic Shadow of the Lion will appeal to adolescents of all ages. In this world, broken off from ours in A.D. 349 (when St. Hypatia saved the Alexandrian Library), Christian magic battles blackest sorcery, with a wild card-the old, old Mother Goddess still worshipped in Corfu's mountain caves-eventually entering the fray. On the human front, young Benito Valdosta, a roistering rascal and irresistible scamp, derring-dos into modern-man maturity, even snatching Maria, his early love, from the arms of Death himself. The convincing characters range from stalwart Vinland Vikings and conniving courtiers to sex-crazed jealous wives and a fatally shape-shifting shaman, not to mention sadistic King Emeric of Hungary and Emeric's lethal great-great-aunt Elizabeth, Countess Bartholdy, who's bathed into eternal youth by gallons of virgins' blood. All express themselves in stripped-down modern American idiom and whirl through breathless action, making for hours of old-fashioned reading fun. Who needs depth, when Lackey, Flint and Freer, as mixmasters of nearly every heard-of myth, hurtle through as compelling a romp as this?
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

The continuation of the alternate-history fantasy begun in The Shadow of the Lion (2001) is just as vast and absorbing. The Valdosta brothers are now ensconced in the Venetian nobility, but young Benito is not adjusting well. He is exiled to the island of Corfu, where his beloved Maria has gone with her elderly husband and new baby. Meanwhile, the demon Chernobog, who is possessing the grand duke of Lithuania, has allied with the witch-king Emeric of Hungary and the Byzantine Empire to descend on Corfu, a notable site of ancient magic. The ensuing siege of Corfu takes up two-thirds of the book, and it is almost impossible to put it down while the tension remains high. Benito redeems himself, material and magical treachery nearly overthrows the islanders' resistance, characters who have become real to readers suffer and die (some of them richly deserving it), and Lackey and associates' areas of expertise, including naval history and classical mythology, are smoothly blended. Too long to be read in one sitting, but with few other "faults." Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved