In the latest offering from New York Times bestselling author John Lescroart (The Motive, Rasputin’s Revenge, Nothing But The Truth, The First Law, The Second Chair), readers get to know a fresh set of characters. In a departure from his Abe Glitsky/Dismas Harding series (though they do make an appearance in this book), Lescroart offers the duo of former Child Welfare Services agent-turned-private investigator Wyatt Hunt and homicide detective Devin Juhle as the stars of The Hunt Club. The book opens up with lots - and lots - of backstory, from 1992 through the present.
At this point, the actual story begins. George Palmer, a United States federal judge, is shot to death along with his mistress, Staci Rosalier, a waitress he met in a San Francisco restaurant named Momo’s. Juhle and his partner for two months, Shiu, show up on the scene after Jeannette Palmer, George’s wife, makes the call to 911:
“The bodies lay, as advertised, on the floor, mostly hidden from the door behind the desk. The judge was dressed in pale brown slacks, a white dress shirt and darker brown pullover sweater. The chair, a big, comfortable-looking leather swivel, lay on its side next to the body. There was a small hole in the judge’s right cheek and a congealed pool of black blood coming out from under the judge’s head onto the clear plastic that protected his rug from the wheels of his chair. The room’s lights were on overhead, as was a reading lamp on the desk, which looked pretty much undisturbed.”
Soon after, Andrea Parisi, an up-and-coming television personality and lawyer, disappears without a trace. Hunt, who had a short relationship with Parisi, suspects that the two murders are connected some way and sets out to unravel the mystery and find Andrea.
Overall, The Hunt Club is a flawed but solid mystery that will satisfy Lescroart fans until the next Glitsky/Harding novel comes out.
Originally published on Curled Up With A Good Book at www.curledup.com. © Bobby Blades, 2006
|