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In his new life as a bartender at the Little Shamrock, Dismas Hardy is just hoping for a little peace. He's left both the police force and his law career behind. Unfortunately it's not as easy to leave behind the memory of a shattering personal loss - but for the time being, he can always take the edge off with a stiff drink and a round of darts.
Somewhere in the once-placid streets of San Francisco, a young man is on the run, charged by the media with a crime he didn't commit, hounded by demagogues, hunted by a desperate police department. One cop knows that Kevin Shea is innocent of a brutal racial murder. An ambitious politician will use Shea for her own ends. And a down-and-out lawyer is all that stands between Kevin Shea and an even more atrocious crime. For when there's no law left, justice is the only hope.
A federal judge is murdered, found shot to death in his home - together with the body of his mistress. The crime grips San Francisco. To homicide inspector Devin Juhle, it first looks like a simple case of a wife's jealousy and rage. But Juhle's investigation reveals that the judge had powerful enemies...some of whom may have been willing to kill to prevent him from meddling in their affairs.
When Dr. Caryn Dryden is found floating dead in her hot tub, homicide inspector Devin Juhle targets a suspect close to home: her husband, Stuart Gorman. After all, Stuart recently asked for a divorce...and he stands to gain millions in insurance. His alibi - that he was at his cabin on Echo Lake that weekend - doesn't keep him out of hot water. But maybe a shrewd attorney will.
Kate loves her life. At 44 she's happily married to her kind husband, Ron, blessed with two wonderful children, and has a beautiful home in San Francisco. Everything changes, however, when she and Ron attend a dinner party and meet another couple, Peter and Jill. Kate and Peter exchange only a few pleasant words, but that night, in bed with her husband, Kate is suddenly overcome with a burning desire for Peter. What begins as an innocent crush soon develops into a dangerous obsession.
In the ninth installment of New York Times best-selling author Sheldon Siegel's iconic San Francisco series, ex-spouses Mike Daley and Rosie Fernandez have come a long way from their days as small-time defense attorneys. No longer working in a converted martial arts studio on the earthy side of Mission Street. Rosie is now San Francisco's Public Defender, and Mike is the head of the Felony Division. Their daughter is in college. Their son is in middle school. For the first time in years, there is a semblance of order in their lives. It doesn't last long.
In his new life as a bartender at the Little Shamrock, Dismas Hardy is just hoping for a little peace. He's left both the police force and his law career behind. Unfortunately it's not as easy to leave behind the memory of a shattering personal loss - but for the time being, he can always take the edge off with a stiff drink and a round of darts.
Somewhere in the once-placid streets of San Francisco, a young man is on the run, charged by the media with a crime he didn't commit, hounded by demagogues, hunted by a desperate police department. One cop knows that Kevin Shea is innocent of a brutal racial murder. An ambitious politician will use Shea for her own ends. And a down-and-out lawyer is all that stands between Kevin Shea and an even more atrocious crime. For when there's no law left, justice is the only hope.
A federal judge is murdered, found shot to death in his home - together with the body of his mistress. The crime grips San Francisco. To homicide inspector Devin Juhle, it first looks like a simple case of a wife's jealousy and rage. But Juhle's investigation reveals that the judge had powerful enemies...some of whom may have been willing to kill to prevent him from meddling in their affairs.
When Dr. Caryn Dryden is found floating dead in her hot tub, homicide inspector Devin Juhle targets a suspect close to home: her husband, Stuart Gorman. After all, Stuart recently asked for a divorce...and he stands to gain millions in insurance. His alibi - that he was at his cabin on Echo Lake that weekend - doesn't keep him out of hot water. But maybe a shrewd attorney will.
Kate loves her life. At 44 she's happily married to her kind husband, Ron, blessed with two wonderful children, and has a beautiful home in San Francisco. Everything changes, however, when she and Ron attend a dinner party and meet another couple, Peter and Jill. Kate and Peter exchange only a few pleasant words, but that night, in bed with her husband, Kate is suddenly overcome with a burning desire for Peter. What begins as an innocent crush soon develops into a dangerous obsession.
In the ninth installment of New York Times best-selling author Sheldon Siegel's iconic San Francisco series, ex-spouses Mike Daley and Rosie Fernandez have come a long way from their days as small-time defense attorneys. No longer working in a converted martial arts studio on the earthy side of Mission Street. Rosie is now San Francisco's Public Defender, and Mike is the head of the Felony Division. Their daughter is in college. Their son is in middle school. For the first time in years, there is a semblance of order in their lives. It doesn't last long.
For LAPD homicide cop Harry Bosch - hero, maverick, nighthawk - the body in the drainpipe at Mulholland Dam is more than another anonymous statistic. This one is personal. The dead man, Billy Meadows, was a fellow Vietnam "tunnel rat" who fought side by side with him in a nightmare underground war that brought them to the depths of hell.
Amos Decker's life changed forever - twice. The first time was on the gridiron. A big, towering athlete, he was the only person from his hometown of Burlington ever to go pro. But his career ended before it had a chance to begin. On his very first play, a violent helmet-to-helmet collision knocked him off the field for good and left him with an improbable side effect - he can never forget anything.
Who is Nola Brown? Nola is a mystery. Nola is trouble. And Nola is supposed to be dead. Her body was found on a plane that mysteriously fell from the sky as it left a secret military base in the Alaskan wilderness. Her commanding officer verifies she's dead. The US government confirms it. But Jim "Zig" Zigarowski has just found out the truth: Nola is still alive. And on the run.
Renée Ballard works the night shift in Hollywood, beginning many investigations but finishing none, as each morning she turns her cases over to day shift detectives. A once up-and-coming detective, she's been given this beat as punishment after filing a sexual harassment complaint against a supervisor. But one night she catches two cases she doesn't want to part with: the brutal beating of a prostitute left for dead in a parking lot and the killing of a young woman in a nightclub shooting. Ballard is determined not to give up at dawn.
Stone Barrington is back in action - and back in the line of fire - in the newest thriller from perennial fan favorite and number-one New York Times best-selling author Stuart Woods.
Meet Mike Daley. Ex-priest. Ex-public defender. And as of yesterday, ex-partner in one of San Francisco's most prominent law firms. Today he's out on his own, setting up practice on the wrong side of town. Then his best friend and former colleague is charged with a brutal double murder, and Daley is instantly catapulted into a high-profile investigation involving the prestigious law firm that just booted him. As he prepares his case, Daley uncovers the firm's dirtiest secrets.
Attorney Dani Rollins is bullish in the courtroom - pushing judges and prosecutors to their limits in defense of the innocent. So when she meets Teddy Thorne, a mentally challenged teen accused of selling drugs, Dani knows she’s got this in the bag. She can easily settle the case with a couple of court appearances. But when prosecutors move for an adult felony conviction, Dani suspects Teddy’s being used as a pawn in a sinister game. As the case moves forward, Dani is certain the judge and district attorney’s office have motivations beyond the crime.
Joe Pickett is the new game warden in Twelve Sleep, Wyoming, a town where nearly everyone hunts and the game warden—especially one like Joe who won't take bribes or look the other way—is far from popular. When he finds a local hunting outfitter dead, splayed out on the woodpile behind his state-owned home, he takes it personally. There had to be a reason that the outfitter, with whom he's had run-ins before, chose his backyard, his woodpile to die in.
Virgil Flowers kicked around for a while before joining the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. First it was the army and the military police, then the police in St. Paul, and finally Lucas Davenport brought him into the BCA, promising him, "We'll only give you the hard stuff." He's been doing the hard stuff for three years now, but never anything like this.
When a group of neighborhood women gathers, wine in hand, around a fire pit where their backyards meet one Saturday night, most of them are just ecstatic to have discovered that their baby monitors reach that far. It's a rare kid-free night, and they're giddy with it. They drink too much, and the conversation turns personal. By Monday morning, one of them is gone. Everyone knows something about everyone else in the quirky small Ohio town of Yellow Springs, but no one can make sense of the disappearance.
Two years ago, Darren Street made a name for himself as the man who rooted out corruption in the district attorney's office. Now the hotheaded young lawyer is in the public eye yet again - this time, accused of murder. Jalen Jordan retained Street for what seemed to be a minor traffic violation, but when evidence turned up linking Jordan to the death of two boys, Street wanted out of the case.
Court Gentry is known as The Gray Man - a legend in the covert realm, moving silently from job to job, accomplishing the impossible, and then fading away. And he always hits his target. But there are forces more lethal than Gentry in the world. And in their eyes, Gentry has just outlived his usefulness. Now, he is going to prove that for him, there's no gray area between killing for a living-and killing to stay alive.
Dan Cuneo, the officer already working the case, is immediately wary of Glitsky and doesn't hide his distrust. Matters are made worse when Cuneo starts to focus on his primary suspect - who also happens to be an old girlfriend of Dismas Hardy. For Hardy and Glitsky, this is an awkward and uncomfortable coincidence. But for Cuneo, it's proof positive of collusion, and yet another instance of Glitsky cheating with his insider friends and cronies.
Convinced that Hardy's client is the wrong suspect, Glitsky breaks ranks within the police department to continue his own investigation. As Hardy's murder trial builds to its stunning conclusion, Glitsky's search for the truth does more than fuel suspicion against the two men. It reveals a trail of deception that leads beyond San Francisco, where exposing desperate secrets can be the most deadly offense.
This is a great mystery story. Although there are enough hints to anticipate the big surprise, it didn't detract from wanting to find out who and why! Readers new to the series are likely to get bored with all the details of the Hardy and Glitsky families, but if, as I do, I find their relationships and histories interesting and realistic, you won't mind. Further, the characters age and change, so it is best to read most of this series in sequence.
Colacci does his usual excellent work as narrator. Highly recommended.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful
I came across this title in paperback and was intrigued by a Washington Post blurb on the back cover that read, "Surpasses anything Grisham ever wrote ... " I like Grisham so I checked the availability on Audible and ultimately downloaded it. The good news is that the listen was a good one. The bad news is that the Washington Post was wrong. This novel told a couple of stories that were skillfully linked. I truly enjoyed both the investigative pursuits and the courtroom dialogue. I correctly guessed "who done it" about halfway through the listen and was pleased when some of the assumptions I made were revealed. There is misdirection but Lescroart gives the reader enough information to deduce what might have happened. What disappointed me was the history behind the "culprit" and what drove him/her to commit the crime. I thought it was a tad far fetched. But don't let that stop you from giving a listen to this otherwise entertaining book. I'll try another in the Hardy series.
6 of 7 people found this review helpful
The story was engaging, the characters good, not great and not easily discernible. Too many look-alike women, cars, etc. Different format, with the book being broken into parts that feature Glitsky then Hardy. An odd thing happened near the end: Past tense changed to present tense during the high tension "solving" of the crime. Odd to me, disjointed in the hearing/reading.
I think I would have liked more integration of the various story lines rather than what felt like discrete parts. Glitsky played a stronger role, which I do like, and Franny fell into the same old "perfect wife" role that Trea also does.
Not my favorite, but not the least liked either.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
Lescroart wanders into areas he doesn't know well enough, to the story's detriment. He also displays a lot of the laziness he's prone to: bad grammar, often using the wrong word/s and not finding his end product important enough to warrant the effort of finding the right one. The worst failure is that he crams an entire sub-novel (and a lousy one) into the last moments of the book, rather than weaving it in or trimming it down in a competent way. I got the sense that, by the time he'd gotten that far, he just lost interest and wanted to be done with it. It shows.
AUDIO: Not a terrible reader, but not a good one. Too much overemphasis, and too many nits like mispronunciations and the bizarre decision to make life-long Bay Area residents speak with a New York City accent any time they're feeling macho.
4 of 5 people found this review helpful
Where does The Motive rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
its in my top 5 , maybe top 3 for the Dismas Hardy/Abe Glitzky series
What did you like best about this story?
The court room scenes are terrific. I enjoyed the corrupt police angle. Excellent pacing and it held my interest.
Have you listened to any of David Colacci’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
Another great job by Colacci
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
This is another series that I have ignored for too long, particularly knowing, as I did, how much I like and get fulfillment from the books!
This particular book is divided into three parts. The first part, as I recall it, is more of an introduction to the characters and situation than anything else. The second part is a trial, and the third part sort of ties up loose ends and gives motivation and the reason for the whole situation. It was done well, but original alliances and character likes and dislikes are muddied, and in the end, the reader's not sure whether or not to agree with the actions and outcomes around the main character of the third part!
Not wanting to spoil the book or the plot with this review, I really can't be more specific, but Lescroart weaves a complex and satisfying plot with several characters whose personalities are mixed. Excellent book!
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I'm a glutton for legal thrillers and the Dismas Hardy series is one of my favorites. This is one of my favorites in the series.
Mr. Lescroart's stories consistently deliver. I am grinding through them one after the other...now with just a few left I am worried what author to turn to next to fill the void? We'll see...
Departure from the regular story line. Twists and turns, could not stop listening. Great story. The characters keep maturing
Waiting to listen to the next in the series.
This is another murder mystery taking place in San Francisco. If you are familiar with Lescroart's previous works, you will find attorney Dismas Hardy and SF Deputy Chief of Inspectors Abe Glitsky working together on case involving two bodies found in a house fire. As in all Lescroart's works, his description and use of SF scenes is excellent and makes me want to go back and visit.
There are plenty of interacdtions between characters. The story pits Glitsky against the detective assigned to the case and the main suspect is one of Hardy's old girlfriends. Glitsky and Hardy are also worried about the spectre of their role in a police shooting that they were involved in many years ago. The courtroom scenes are good with Hardy doing an excellent and clever job of cross examining the prosecution witnesses.
The story is very entertaining but it lags in two areas. Unfortunately, it starts with a note all the interesting, VERY detailed of the burning of a house...although this is when the bodies are discovered, I was getting very impatient with the speed of the story. The other place was in some personal, non crime related, issues that came up for Glitsky...although I'm sure there are some fans who liked getting to know Glitsky in a deeper way, this side story had nothing to do with the main story (near as I could tell) other than to distract Glitsky. I estimate the book could have been 10% or more shorter if there was less detail about the fire and Glitsky's personal traumas without harming the story.
However, don't let that take away from the story. I loved it and would recommend it highly. Enjoy.
Decent plot spoiled by an ending that lacked credibility given what has gone before. Otherwise enjoyable
A new author to me and I find him exceptional the story itself is gripping an enjoying courtroom drama I found thus spellbound since purchasing this I have bought 3 other books by the same author
Gresham style but find Gresham getting Boring niw so it's Lescroart for my enjoyment
Excellent