Table of Contents
FAST-PACED... sustains interest to the very end.
The Wall Street Journal
Dismas Hardy returns in a riveting legal thriller (Greensboro News-Record[NC]) from theNew York Timesbestselling author ofThe Second ChairandThe Motive....
Jennifer Witt tried to make everything perfect for her doctor husband. Her appearance. The house. Everything down to the place settings on the table. But perfect never seemed to be good enough....
Now Dr. Larry Witt has been shot deadalong with the couples seven-year-old son. Jennifer says she wasnt home, that she didnt do itbut even the members of her own defense team dont believe herexcept one: Dismas Hardy.
Hardys faith alone will not be enough to save her. But as evidence mounts against Jennifer Witt, and the death penalty becomes all but certain, he is determined to take one terrifying risk to keep her alive....
POWERFUL... COMPELLING.
San Francisco Chronicle
A RIVETING PLOT that fans of Scott Turow and John Grisham will love.
Library Journal
TAUT... an intricate story and satisfying courtroom scenes.
Publishers Weekly
TERRIFIC.
Jonathan Kellerman
Praise for the Novels
of John Lescroart
The Second Chair
[A] spellbinder.
Library Journal
Lescroart plays out clues with the patience and cunning of a master fly fisherman.
The Orlando Sentinel
Entertaining.
Entertainment Weekly
Under Lescroarts assured hand, this perfectly paced tale of legal procedure and big-city politics keeps us turning pages, even when its time to turn in at night.
Booklist
The First Law
With his latest, Lescroart again lands in the top tier of crime fiction.
Publishers Weekly
The Oath
APeoplePage-Turner
TERRIFIC.
People
The Hearing
A SPINE-TINGLING LEGAL THRILLER.
Larry King, USA Today
EXCELLENT STUFF.
San Jose Mercury News
Nothing but the Truth
RIVETING.
Chicago Tribune
A rousing courtroom showdown.
Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
The Mercy Rule
WELL-WRITTEN, WELL-PLOTTED, WELL-DONE.
Nelson DeMille
Guilt
BEGIN GUILT OVER A WEEKEND.... If you start during the workweek, you will be up very, very late, and your pleasure will be tainted with, well, guilt.
The Philadelphia Inquirer
A well-paced legal thriller... one of the best in this flourishing genre to come along in a while.
The Washington Post Book World
A Certain Justice
A West Coast take on The Bonfire of the Vanities... richly satisfying.
Kirkus Reviews
A gifted writer with a distinctive voice. I read him with great pleasure.
Richard North Patterson
Hard Evidence
ENGROSSING... compulsively readable, a dense and involving saga of big-city crime and punishment.
San Francisco Chronicle
Dead Irish
UNUSUAL AND POWERFUL.
Booklist
The killer proves to be as fascinating a personality as Hardy himself.
Publishers Weekly
With John Lescroarts polished writing, Dead Irish becomes more than a mystery novel with a bartender as detective. With razored precision, characters stand out, flawed and human.... Chilling in its intensity, this is an ingenious tale of many different kinds of people.
Pasadena Star-News
ALSO BY JOHN LESCROART
Betrayal
The Suspect
The Hunt Club
The Motive
The Second Chair
The First Law
The Oath
The Hearing
Nothing but the Truth
The Mercy Rule
Guilt
A Certain Justice
Hard Evidence
The Vig
Dead Irish
Rasputins Revenge
Son of Holmes
Sunburn
To my brothers,
Michael and Emmett
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Many people have contributed their support and knowledge to this book. First among them is my wifethe rock of my lifeLisa Sawyer. Once again, Al Giannini has been a true friend and guide. Also in the San Francisco District Attorneys office, my gratitude to Laura Meyer, Mercedes Moreno, Candace Heisler and Diane Knoles, whose comments on battered women were insightful and ultimately inspiring.
Id also like to thank San Francisco Coroner Dr. Boyd Stephens; bailiff Bruce McMurtry; Jim Costello; Frank at Zukas, the real Lou the Greeks; Mike Hamilburg and Joanie Socola; Maureena Moore with Federal Express; Kelly Talbot; Steve Martini; Dick Herman; Kathryn and Mark Detzer; Peter Diedrich; Peter Bransten; my piscatorial pal Jackie Cantor for her unfailing sense of humor and support in all areas; and Arthur Ginsburg.
My editor (and publisher), Don Fine, has done a yeomans job nipping, tucking and tightening the sprawling manuscript into its final form, and I am extremely grateful for his unflagging efforts and support.
Finally, to some regular dinner partnersyou know who you arewho have seriously lightened the load, and oh yes, to Don Matheson. Thanks.
We would give her more consideration, when we judge a woman, if we knew how difficult it is to be a woman.
P. GERALDY
The fickleness of the women I love is only equaled by the infernal constancy of the women who love me.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW
PART ONE
Jennifer Witt rechecked the table. It looked perfect, but when you never knew what perfect was, it was hard to be sure. There were two new red candlesLarry had a problem with half-burnt candles, with guttered wicksin gleaming silver candlesticks.
She had considered having one red candle and one green candle since it was getting to be Christmastime. But Larry didnt like a jumble of colors. The living room was done all in champagnewhich wasnt the easiest to keep clean, especially with a seven-year-oldbut she wasnt going to change it. She remembered when shed bought the Van Gogh print (A PRINT, FOR CHRISTS SAKE! YOUD HANG A PRINT IN MY LIVING ROOM?) and the colors had really bothered Larry.
He liked things ordered, exact. He was a doctor. Lives depended on his judgment. He couldnt get clouded up with junk in his own home, he told her.
So she went with the red candles.
And the china. He liked the china, but then hed get upset that things were so formal in their own home. Couldnt she just relax and serve them something plain on the white Pottery Barn stuff? Maybe just hot dogs and beans? They didnt have to eat gourmet every night. She tried hard to please, but with Larry, you never knew.
One time he wasnt in the mood for hot dogs and beans, hed had an especially hard day, he said, and felt like some adult food. And Matt had had a bad day at school and was whining, and one of the plates had a chip in the side.
