Poison

A Dismas Hardy Novel

By: John Lescroart

Narrated by: Jacques Roy

Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

From the "master of the legal thriller" (Chicago Sun-Times) John Lescroart comes a dramatic family drama in which attorney Dismas Hardy is called on to defend a former client against the accusation of murder.

Dismas Hardy is looking forward to cutting back his work hours and easing into retirement after recovering from two gunshot wounds. He is determined to spend more time with his family and even reconnect with his distant son, Vincent. But Dismas just can't stay away from the courtroom for long, and soon he is pulled into an intense family drama with fatal consequences.

Grant Carver, the vigorous patriarch of the Carver family and its four-generations-owned family business, has been murdered. His bookkeeper, Abby Jarvis, whom Hardy had defended on a DUI charge 11 years prior, is the prime suspect after police discover she's been embezzling funds from the company - but she insists she did not kill her boss.

As he prepares to defend her, Dismas investigates the Carver clan and discovers the dark, twisted secrets within the family. It seems that Abby was not the only one who stood to profit from the company's $25 million market value. From jealous children to gold-digging girlfriends, Dismas has his work cut out for him in sifting through mud flinging, backstabbing, and accusations of blackmail.

But Dismas has to save not only his client's life but his own, as it soon becomes clear that someone has a painted a target on his back, too. With Lescroart's signature "smart, riveting, and utterly compelling" (Brad Thor, number one New York Times best-selling author) prose, this whip smart and nail-bitingly suspenseful thriller will keep you guessing until the very end.

©2018 John Lescroart (P)2018 Simon & Schuster

Performance helps move slow plot

Author made the characters sound kind of stupid: portrayed smart lawyers and police nevertheless rush in without evidence ? Lots of useless passages, and words and rethinking abs restating drags the book along. Smart
basic plot, but could have cut at least a quarter of the blah blah blah repetition

Poison

Good story, except for the ending. Well written and ok story, but it became obvious who did it too early. This is the first novel, that I have read by Lescroart, I like the Dismiss Hardy character so I would like to try another.

Excellent Story

Another great Dismiss Hardy story! Kept me guessing and I hope Hardy keeps on solving cases.

Pretty good overall, but a few bones to pick

I like the Dismas Hardy series because I was raised in San Francisco and I can put myself in the scenes. It galls me when the performer mispronounces a street or location name (in this case, CLEment instead of CleMENT). Someone should be doing the equivalent of copy editing to the performance.
This wasn’t one of the author’s best, but it was good enough and I enjoyed it. Some twists and turns but not an excessive amount. I’d rate many in this series 5 stars, but am very comfortable giving this one 4.

Classic Dismas Hardy

Lescroart delivers again! I have read (or listened to) every Dismas Hardy look by Lescroart. It has been a privilege & honor to follow him with all his quirks of character & wry sensibilities for his entire adult life. Is this the end? Hardy solves one final case. All the favorite characters _ now older too are featured, Franny, Abe Glitzkey. Wes Farrell, “ the (fully grown “Beck”, Facebook-employed Vincent. Such a satisfying read. While David Colache will remain my favorite narrator of the Hardy series, this new reader is also superb. Great plot, great writing, great performance. Please don’t let this be the end.

The Cast Iron Pan

Had to wait till the last 5 minutes for the appearance of my favorite character: The pan. Only quibble is cooking eggs in said pan. All around enjoyable listen.

Good story - poor narration

Enjoyed the story but the narration, not so much. Narrator sounded bored with the story.

interesting side plot

love these stories, always a few twists & turns. a quick read so worth doing.

How smart Desman is.

The twists and turns of the plot and the intertwining of relationships kept you guessing. Another great story in this series.

For fans of Dismas Hardy. Not a legal thriller.

You must already be invested in the Dismas Hardy series to really enjoy this book. If not, you very likely will rate this one- or two-stars only. (I believe this is my 11th of the series.) Unlike many others in the series, this is also not a legal mystery/thriller in the conventional sense. It is closer in form to a police procedural, but there is a great deal of time spent on Hardy's inner struggles as he becomes involved in defending another person accused of murder, even though he had sworn off such cases. As a result, a substantial portion of the dialogue (both inner and outer) involves reconciling his legal practice with his relationship with his second wife Franny. Some of the other familiar characters are back, including BFF Detective Abe Glitzky (now retired) and P.I. Wyatt Hunt. Unusually, his son Vincent has a significant role to play, but his daughter Rebecca (and current legal partner) is essentially invisible except by reference.

Lescroart is a master at building suspense, and this book is no exception. Related mostly but not entirely by following Dismas, I'm afraid the denouement was rather abrupt and in several ways, related second-hand. The villains were essentially revealed to the reader even before Dismas finally figured out who the persons were. After that, the story was wrapped up in just a few pages. I'm not sure why Lescroart had things play out like that, but I found the final chapters a bit of a letdown.

I found the narration by Jacques Roy was good, but all the previous ones to which I have listened were narrated by David Colacci, who is exceptional. So I couldn't help being slightly disappointed, most likely through no fault of Roy.