Table of Contents
Praise for the Novels of John Lescroart
Stylish. People
A taut read. San Francisco Chronicle
The superior element of Lescroarts writing is his creation of lifelike characters ... a plot so compelling that even at four hundred pages plus, the book seems much too short. Houston Daily Sun
Dismas Hardy is such a likable main character that his very presence keeps the story grounded ... very entertaining. Chicago Tribune
Excellent. The Philadelphia Inquirer
Lescroart is a master of courtroom fiction.
South Carolina Herald
Terrific... [Lescroart] never wrote a bad page.
USA Today
[An] original, well-crafted page-turner... blockbuster material. Library Journal
Crackling legal action... robust and intelligent entertainment. Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Raymond Chandler once wrote that the test of a first-rate murder mystery is whether you would keep reading it if the last chapterand the revelation of whodunit were missing. In the matter of John Lescroart, I would keep reading any of his books, even without that last chapter. Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Nothing but the Truth
The novels pacing is reminiscent of classic Ross Macdonald, where a weeks worth of events are condensed into a few hours... [a] winning thriller.
Publishers Weekly (starred review)
San Francisco attorney Dismas Hardy [is] at his most engaging here... a true star in the lawyer-hero firmament. Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
The Mercy Rule
A thought-provoking and important novel.... Well written, well plotted, well done. A winner!
Nelson DeMille, author of The Lions Game
A masters take on a troubling social issue. People
Readers of The 13th Juror will already be off reading this book, not this review. Join them.
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Very entertaining... a large and emotionally sprawling novel. Chicago Tribune
Guilt
A great thriller: breakneck pacing, electrifying courtroom scenes, and a cast of richly crafted characters.
People
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 gifted writer with a distinctive voice. I read him with great pleasure.
Richard North Patterson, author of Degree of Guilt
Electric ... Lescroart swings for the fences with a West Coast take on The Bonfire of the Vanities.... A richly satisfying thriller, and a breakthrough book for Lescroart.
Kirkus Reviews
Engrossing. San Francisco Examiner
The 13th Juror
I double-dare you to begin reading John Lescroarts new suspense trial novel The 13th Juror and put it down. The man is one of the best thriller writers to come down the pike, and this one is on the money.
Larry King, USA Today
A fast-paced test that sustains interest to the very end.
The Wall Street Journal
Hard Evidence
Hard Evidence is a hefty, engrossing legal thriller... compulsively readable, a dense and involving saga of big-city crime and punishment. San Francisco Chronicle
Gripping. This author is a master of details... one never doubts the world he has created.
West Coast Review of Books
Also by John Lescroart
Betrayal
The Suspect
The Motive
The Second Chair
The Hunt Club
The First Law
The Oath
The Hearing
The Mercy Rule
Guilt
A Certain Justice
The 13th Juror
Hard Evidence
The Vig
Dead Irish
Rasputins Revenge
Son of Holmes
Sunburn
To the Big Cactus and the little Gambas
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The research experience involved in this project has been singular. Although I interviewed close to twenty sources in the oil and ethanol industries, including lobbyists, engineers, lawyers, consultants, environmental toxicologists, and other professionals, not one individual consented to have his or her name mentioned in connection with this book. I thank these anonymous donors for their generosity and time.
Many other fine people were no less helpful, and I owe them a debt of gratitude. These include, first and foremost, my friend and agent Barney Karpfinger and my pals Al Giannini and Don Matheson, who are continual stalwarts; Peter Dietrich, MD, MPH, Davis (California); Fire Marshal Bill Greene; Mark Detzer, PhD, and his wife (my sister), Kathy.
A really terrific group of friends helps more than they know: Karen Kijewski and Tom Jessen; Dick and Sheila Herman; Bill Wood; Dennis and Gayle Lynds; Max Byrd. Im also grateful for the generosity of Nelson DeMille, T. Jefferson Parker, Jon and Faye Kellerman, Richard North Patterson, Debbie Macomber, and Dixie Reid.
Anita Boone is a wonderful assistant and great person. Nancy Berlands tireless enthusiasm keeps the spark alive. Jackie Cantor and Anne Williams are great friends as well as the best editors a writer could have.
Finally, JR & JS, you guys are, like, totally awesome.
No mask like open truth to cover lies, As to go naked is the best disguise.
William Congreve
PART ONE
At the tail end of a dog of a morning, Dismas Hardy was beginning to fear that he would also be spending the whole stiflingly dull afternoon in municipal court on the second floor of the Hall of Justice in San Francisco.
He was waitinginterminably since nine a.m.for his client to be admitted into the courtroom. This would not have been his first choice for how to celebrate his forty-eighth birthday.
Now again the clerk called out someone not his clientthis time a young man who looked as though hed been drinking since hed turned twenty-one and possibly two or three years before that. Maybe he was still drunkcertainly he looked wasted.
The judge was Peter Li, a former assistant district attorney with whom Hardy was reasonably friendly. The prosecuting attorney was Randy Huang, who sat at his table inside the bar rail as the defendant went shuffling past. The public defender was a ten-year veteran named Donna Wong.
Judge Lis longtime clerk, another Asian named Manny See, read the charge against the young man as he stood, swaying, eyes opening and closing, at the center podium. The judge addressed him. Mr. Reynolds, youve been in custody now for two full days, trying to get to sober, and your attorney tells me youve gotten there. Is that true?
Yes, Your Honor, Donna Wong declared quickly.
Judge Li nodded patiently, but spoke in a firm tone. Id like to hear it from Mr. Reynolds himself, Counsellor. Sir?
Reynolds looked up, swayed for a beat, let out a long breath, shook his head.
