The Mercy Rule - Hardcover

Lescroart, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385316585 ISBN 13: 9780385316583

Publisher: Delacorte Press, 1998

Synopsis

In Dismas Hardy, New York Times bestselling author John Lescroart has created one of the most complex and engaging characters in contemporary fiction.  Hardy, the former bartender, loving husband and father, and reluctant defense attorney of Lescroart's blockbuster novel The 13th Juror, returns in The Mercy Rule to face his most challenging case yet.

Set apart from his contemporaries by virtue of his remarkable storytelling, John Lescroart gives readers the novel of his career in The Mercy Rule.  Vowing to spend more time with his wife and kids, Dismas Hardy is hesitant to take on the case of Graham Russo, a could-have-been-great baseball player turned lawyer indicted for the murder of his father, Sal.  Everyone close to the Russos knew Sal was dying, and that he needed morphine injections to ease his suffering.  Graham freely admits to administering those injections, but insists he wasn't there the night of Sal's overdose and resultant death.  Was it suicide, murder--or mercy?

With personal and professional tensions mounting, Hardy finds himself face-to-face with a terrifying truth: If this was a murder, he might well be the next person to die.

With his mastery of courtroom drama, and solid connection to the human element that makes his fiction so compelling, John Lescroart has created in The Mercy Rule an intelligent and richly satisfying thriller that will keep readers turning the pages far into the night.

About this title

Review:

Dismas Hardy, the dart-playing, saloon-keeping lawyer who is one of John Lescroart's most consistently interesting and appealing heroes, faces a dilemma: if he can prove to a jury that Graham Russo helped his father Sal kill himself because the sick old man asked him to, a liberal San Francisco jury will probably vote to acquit Graham of first-degree murder. Hardy would love to plead manslaughter to escape the wrath of the state's attorney general who wants to nail Graham. However, despite the evidence against him, Graham insists he didn't do it. What is a lawyer to do, and who can he believe?

Although Lescroart leads the reader up and down a few blind alleys before the truth comes out, the mystery's not the thing here. It's the characters and their back stories that make this such a good read. Foremost among them is Graham, who washed out of pro baseball and walked out of a promising law career before finding the father who once deserted him long ago. The core of the story is Graham's relationship with Sal, who's losing his mind to Alzheimer's but may still be a threat to a federal judge who was once his closest friend. Then there's Sarah Evans, the homicide cop who falls in love with her suspect. For good measure, there are some changes in the lives of those characters who are familiar to readers from other Dismas Hardy adventures--Abe Glitsky, the half Jewish, half black cop; Drysdale, the D.A. who's been beaten in court by Dismas in previous outings; Frannie, Dismas's wife; Moses, his brother-in-law; and Dismas himself, who becomes more interesting every time Lescroart brings him back. While the pacing is langorous and the denouement not as tight as it might be, The Mercy Rule provides a complex and satisfying reading experience. --Jane Adams

From the Publisher:

Advance praise for The Mercy Rule:

"John Lescroart has written a thought-provoking and important novel. Well written, well plotted, well done. A winner!"
--Nelson DeMille

"An edge-of-the-seat legal thriller that has it all--hot-button issues, deception, greed, corruption, and a labyrinthine plot that will keep you guessing until the very last page."
--Faye Kellerman

"The Mercy Rule is that rare book--a superb novel and a superb thriller. It's the best legal thriller I've read in this decade. I dare anyone to read twenty pages and not be absolutely taken with it. Absolutely superior work."
--T. Jefferson Parker

"A masterpiece. Stacked with powerful and unforgettable characters, taut and suspenseful, The Mercy Rule is a brilliant and compelling courtroom drama."
--Karen Kijewski

About this edition

• Publisher: Delacorte Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0385316585
• ISBN 13: 9780385316583
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 480