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A review by caitlinxmartin
The Hunter by John Lescroart
4.0
A lot of people weren't pleased when John Lescroart started writing a series about Wyatt Hunt, a San Francisco private investigator. After all, his Dismas Hardy/Abe Glitzsky books are so imminently satisfying who else could we want to know about?
I like Wyatt Hunt. I like the interconnections between the characters in both series. I like the acknowledgement that Dismas and Abe are aging, their lives are changing and settling down, and it might be time to tell some new stories. Since this is one of my all-time favorite series, I was happy to see that rather than letting the series wander off into insignificance and no fun, Lescroart expanded his world a bit, reached out into other characters with other stories. This keeps all of the characters and their stories fresh and prevents Lescroart of going the way of so many series writers who run out of ideas and turn their characters into caricatures (once again, Patricia Cornwell, I'm looking at you).
The Hunter is the third book in the Wyatt Hunt series and Mr. Lescroart is hitting his stride with these characters. He's always been one of the most talented of the writers of crime fiction combined with courtroom drama and has always been one of my personal favorite writers so I tend to like everything he writes, but can also acknowledge ups and downs. The Hunter is one of the best books he's written lately. Great characters, complicated and interesting plot that weaves together the protagonist's attempt to understand what happened to his mother and some 35-40 years of other interconnected murders. Once he throws Jonestown into the mix he's off to the races with you right along with him.
I recently read A Thousand Lives by Julia Scheeres. Ms. Scheeres got access to all of the newly released documents on Jonestown and wrote a book that fundamentally changed my thinking about not just Jonestown, but about other similar gatherings of people of different kinds of faith. She elevated her subjects from the dregs of gullible ignorance to real breathing people with fundamental values and beliefs and hopes to make a better world. It was pretty breathtaking. It also gave me a look into how much The People's Temple was woven into the world of San Francisco and its politics during the brief part of the seventies before the trips to Guyana became permanent and the end became a forgone conclusion. Lescroart's inclusion of this bit of San Francisco history interlaced with the more expected crime fiction makes this book. As always Lescroart's San Francisco is real, palpable, and set within its rich historic context.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and recommended highly to fans of crime fiction. Read this. You won't be disappointed.
I like Wyatt Hunt. I like the interconnections between the characters in both series. I like the acknowledgement that Dismas and Abe are aging, their lives are changing and settling down, and it might be time to tell some new stories. Since this is one of my all-time favorite series, I was happy to see that rather than letting the series wander off into insignificance and no fun, Lescroart expanded his world a bit, reached out into other characters with other stories. This keeps all of the characters and their stories fresh and prevents Lescroart of going the way of so many series writers who run out of ideas and turn their characters into caricatures (once again, Patricia Cornwell, I'm looking at you).
The Hunter is the third book in the Wyatt Hunt series and Mr. Lescroart is hitting his stride with these characters. He's always been one of the most talented of the writers of crime fiction combined with courtroom drama and has always been one of my personal favorite writers so I tend to like everything he writes, but can also acknowledge ups and downs. The Hunter is one of the best books he's written lately. Great characters, complicated and interesting plot that weaves together the protagonist's attempt to understand what happened to his mother and some 35-40 years of other interconnected murders. Once he throws Jonestown into the mix he's off to the races with you right along with him.
I recently read A Thousand Lives by Julia Scheeres. Ms. Scheeres got access to all of the newly released documents on Jonestown and wrote a book that fundamentally changed my thinking about not just Jonestown, but about other similar gatherings of people of different kinds of faith. She elevated her subjects from the dregs of gullible ignorance to real breathing people with fundamental values and beliefs and hopes to make a better world. It was pretty breathtaking. It also gave me a look into how much The People's Temple was woven into the world of San Francisco and its politics during the brief part of the seventies before the trips to Guyana became permanent and the end became a forgone conclusion. Lescroart's inclusion of this bit of San Francisco history interlaced with the more expected crime fiction makes this book. As always Lescroart's San Francisco is real, palpable, and set within its rich historic context.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and recommended highly to fans of crime fiction. Read this. You won't be disappointed.