John Lescroart has 26 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 11 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.3★ across 40 ratings. The most-rated is The Rule of Law.
The Rule of Law
Summary
John Lescroart - the “master of the legal thriller” (Chicago Sun-Times) - is back in action, marshaling his witty dialogue and airtight plotting in this electrifying thriller featuring attorney Dismas Hardy as he grapples with his longtime trusted assistant being charged as an accessory to murder. Dismas Hardy knows something is amiss with his trusted secretary, Phyllis. Always reliable and consistent, she’s been behaving out of character and disappearing without notice. Dismas becomes even more concerned when he discovers Phyllis has been reluctantly playing host to her convict brother, a man just released from San Quentin after serving a 25-year sentence for armed robbery and attempted murder. Things take a shocking turn with Phyllis is suddenly arrested at work, accused of being an accessory to the murder of Hector Valdez, a coyote who’d been smuggling women into the country from El Salvador and Mexico. That is, until recently, when he was shot to death - on the very same day Phyllis started disappearing from work. The connection between Phyllis, her brother, and Hector’s murder is not something Dismas can easily understand, but if his treasured colleague has any chance of going free, he needs to put all the pieces together - and fast. As “one of the best thriller writers to come down the pike” (USA Today), John Lescroart crafts yet another whip-smart and rousing novel filled with shocking twists and turns that will keep you guessing until the very end.
©2019 John Lescroart (P)2019 Simon & Schuster
Damage
Summary
The Curtlees are a powerful force in San Francisco, unscrupulous billionaires who’ve lined every important pocket in the Bay Area in pursuit of their own ascent. So when the family’s heir, Ro Curtlee, was convicted of rape and murder a decade ago, the fallout for those who helped to bring him to justice was swift and uncompromising. The jury foreman was fired from his job and blacklisted in his industry. The lead prosecutor was pushed off the fast track, her dreams of becoming district attorney dashed. And head homicide detective Abe Glitsky was reassigned to the police department’s payroll office. Eventually, all three were able to rebuild their lives. And then Ro Curtlee’s lawyers won him a retrial, and he was released from jail. Within twenty-four hours, a fire destroys the home of the original trial’s star witness, her abused remains discovered in the ruins. When a second fire claims a participant in the case, Abe is convinced: Ro is out for revenge. But with no hard evidence and an on-the-take media eager to vilify anyone who challenges Ro, can Abe stop the violence before he finds himself in its crosshairs? How much more can he sacrifice to put Ro back behind bars?
©2010 John Lescroart (P)2011 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
Dead Irish
Summary
In his new life as a bartender at the Little Shamrock, Dismas Hardy is just hoping for a little peace. He's left both the police force and his law career behind. Unfortunately it's not as easy to leave behind the memory of a shattering personal loss - but for the time being, he can always take the edge off with a stiff drink and a round of darts. But when the news of Eddie Cochran's death reaches him, Hardy is propelled back into all the things he was trying to escape - and forced to untangle a web of old secrets and raw passions, for the sake of Eddie's pregnant widow, Frannie, and for the others whose lives may still be at risk.
©2007 John Lescroart (P)2007 Brilliance Audio
The Hearing
Summary
The call comes at midnight. It looks like a tragic and petty murder - a rising star in San Francisco's legal firmament found shot in a dark alley. But for homicide lieutenant Abe Glitsky, the crime cuts horribly close to home - unknown to anyone, the victim was his daughter. Seething, Glitsky leans hard on his only suspect - a homeless heroin addict found lingering over his daughter's body, with her jewelry in his pocket and a smoking gun in his hand. The city's embattled, ambitious D.A. Sharron Pratt sees an opportunity to revive her troubled administration by publicly declaring war on the killer and vowing to deliver a death penalty, putting the case on the fast track to certain conviction. Unable to watch a man die for Pratt's political gain, Dismas Hardy warily takes on the defense. But as Hardy's crusade to secure his client a fair hearing ensues, a lethal web of political corruption, legal conspiracy, and cold-blooded murder begins to unravel. In a case that will send shock waves through San Francisco and echo in the private lives of its most prominent citizens, the hearing is just the beginning.
©2004 John Lescroart (P)2004 Brilliance Audio
The 13th Juror
Summary
In The 13th Juror, Dismas Hardy, lawyer/investigator, undertakes the defense of Jennifer Witt, accused of murdering her husband and their eight-year-old son as well as her first husband, who had died nine years earlier from an apparent drug overdose. While preparing his case, Hardy learns that both of Jennifer's husbands had physically abused her. But Jennifer refuses to allow a defense that presumes her guilt. She is not guilty, she claims. Hardy is now driven to seek an alternative truth a jury can believe. As the trial progresses, the complex truth itself begins to change, to bend, to fade in and out of focus as the clock keeps ticking on Jennifer's fate, until there seems only one person left to convince, and she is "the 13th juror" - the judge.
©2008 John Lescroart; 2008 Brilliance Audio
The Second Chair
Summary
Dismas Hardy is finally on top: as a managing partner at his thriving, newly reorganized law firm, he's a rainmaker and fix-it guy for clients leery of taking their chances in a courtroom. Now Hardy's up-and-coming associate, Amy Wu, brings him a high-profile case: Andrew Bartlett, the 17-year-old son of a prominent San Francisco family, has been arrested for the double slaying of his girlfriend and his English teacher. The D.A. wants to try him as an adult. Determined to get the case into juvenile court, and overwhelmed by the mounting evidence against her client, Wu asks Hardy to sit second chair for her in Bartlett's defense. As the Bartlett case moves swiftly to trial, another series of murders grips the city. An unseen killer seems to be shooting citizens wantonly, and as fear and anxiety build around the Executioner (as he is quickly dubbed in the ensuing media frenzy), Abe Glitsky, the newly promoted deputy chief of the Investigations Bureau, leads the desperate hunt to stop him. With the city on the verge of panic, Hardy and Glitsky are locked in a race against time - to save a client and to catch a murderer. But nothing is what it seems, and as both men's cases twist and turn to their shocking conclusions, the very foundations of San Francisco's legal system will be shaken to the core.
©2004 John Lescroart (P)2004 Brilliance Audio
A Certain Justice
Summary
In San Francisco - a city of tolerance and hope - everything came apart. One man died at the hands of another. The next victim was killed by a mob. Now fires burn in the night, helicopters throb through the air, and politicians, lawyers and cops vie for the remnants of power. Somewhere in the once-placid streets of San Francisco, a young man is on the run, charged by the media with a crime he didn't commit, hounded by demagogues, hunted by a desperate police department. One cop knows that Kevin Shea is innocent of a brutal racial murder. An ambitious politician will use Shea for her own ends. And a down-and-out lawyer is all that stands between Kevin Shea and an even more atrocious crime. For when there's no law left, justice is the only hope.
©2006 John Lescroart (P)2008 Brilliance
The Vig
Summary
A beautiful woman paid it with her body. A seedy lawyer used somebody else's money. It's the vig - the exorbitant interest mob loan sharks take on their money. Now, in the city by the Bay, everyone has to pay. Down-and-out-lawyer Rusty Ingraham left behind a murdered woman and a houseboat splattered with blood. All the evidence said Ingraham was in San Francisco Bay. Dead. But a friend of Ingraham's, former cop and prosecutor Dismas Hardy, isn't so sure. And Hardy has to find out, because a stone-cold killer, now paroled, once threatened to kill Ingraham and Dismas Hardy both. Now, to save his own skin, Dismas must face down liars and killers on both sides of the law. From mob foot soldiers to brokenhearted lovers to renegade cops, a dozen lives are tied to the fate of Rusty Ingraham - and the payback has only just begun.
©2006 John Lescroart (P)2006 Brilliance Audio
Poison
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
A Plague of Secrets
Summary
The first victim is Dylan Vogler, a charming ex-convict who manages the Bay Beans West coffee shop in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district. When his body is found, inspectors discover that his knapsack is filled with high-grade marijuana. It soon becomes clear that San Francisco's A-list flocked to Bay Beans West not only for their caffeine fix. But how much did Maya Townshend - the beautiful socialite niece of the city's mayor, and the absentee owner of the shop - know about what was going on inside her business? And how intimate had she really been with Dylan, her old college friend? As another of Maya's acquaintances falls victim to murder, and as the names of the dead men's celebrity, political, and even law-enforcement customers come to light, tabloid-fueled controversy takes the investigation into the realms of conspiracy and cover-up. Prosecutors close in on Maya, who has a deep secret of her own - a secret she needs to protect at all costs during her very public trial, where not only her future but the entire political landscape of San Francisco hangs in the balance, hostage to an explosive secret that Dismas Hardy is privilegebound to protect.
©2009 John Lescroart (P)2009 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
The Keeper
Summary
From New York Times best-selling author John Lescroart, a riveting novel featuring Dismas Hardy and Abe Glitsky on the hunt for clues about a woman who has gone missing. On the evening before Thanksgiving, Hal Chase, a guard in the San Francisco County Jail, drives to the airport to pick up his step-brother for the weekend. When they return, Hal’s wife, Katie, has disappeared without a clue. By the time Dismas Hardy hears about this, Katie has been missing for five days. The case strikes close to home because Katie had been seeing Hardy’s wife, a marriage counselor. By this time, the original Missing Persons case has become a suspected homicide, and Hal is the prime suspect. And the lawyer he wants for his defense is none other than Hardy himself. Hardy calls on his friend, former homicide detective Abe Glitsky, to look into the case. At first it seems like the police might have it right; the Chases’ marriage was fraught with problems; Hal’s alibi is suspect; the life insurance policy on Katie was huge. But Glitsky’s mission is to identify other possible suspects, and there proves to be no shortage of them: Patti Orosco - rich, beautiful, dangerous, and Hal’s former lover; the still-unknown person who had a recent affair with Katie; even Hal’s own step-mother, Ruth, resentful of Katie’s gatekeeping against her grandchildren. And as Glitsky probes further, he learns of an incident at the San Francisco jail, where Hal works - only one of many questionable inmate deaths that have taken place there. Then, when Katie’s body is found not three blocks from the Chase home, Homicide arrests Hal and he finds himself an inmate in the very jail where he used to work, a place full of secrets he knows all too well. Against this backdrop of conspiracy and corruption, ambiguous motives and suspicious alibis, an obsessed Glitsky closes in on the elusive truth. As other deaths begin to pile up he realizes, perhaps too late, that the next victim might be himself.
©2014 The Lescroart Corporation (P)2014 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.
The Fall
Summary
From New York Times bestselling author John Lescroart, a riveting new novel of legal suspense featuring Dismas Hardy and his daughter, Rebecca, now grown up and an associate in Hardy's law firm. Late one night, a teenage African American foster child named Tanya Morgan plummets to her death from the overpass above San Francisco's Stockton tunnel. But did she fall...or was she pushed? Rushing to produce a convictable suspect in the glare of the media spotlight, homicide inspectors focus their attention on a naïve young man named Greg Treadway. Greg is a middle school teacher and he volunteers as a Special Advocate for foster children. At first, the only thing connecting him to Tanya's death is the fact that they shared a meal earlier that night. But soon enough, elements of that story seem to fall apart...and Hardy's daughter, Rebecca, finds herself drawn into the young man's defense. By the time Greg's murder trial gets underway, Dismas and Rebecca have unearthed several other theories about the crime: a missing stepfather who'd sexually assaulted her; a roommate who ran a call girl service; a psychologically unstable birth mother; and a mysterious homeless man who may have had dealings with Tanya. Or Greg Treadway himself, who is perhaps not all that he first appeared. But how will they get these theories in front of a jury? And if they can, what price will they have to pay? With signature suspense and intricate plotting, The Fall puts Dismas Hardy and his only daughter in the middle of one of John Lescroart's most complex and thrilling cases yet.
©2015 The Lescroart Corporation (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.
The Mercy Rule
Summary
The Mercy Rule is a brilliant and moving human drama set against a backdrop of relentless suspense, legal complexity and moral ambiguity. Dismas Hardy, the former bartender, loving husband and father, and reluctant defense attorney of The 13th Juror, returns here in his most challenging case. Vowing to spend more time with his family, Dismas is hesitant to represent Graham Russo, a could-have-been-great baseball player turned lawyer who is indicted for the murder of his father, Sal. Everyone close to the Russos knew that Sal was dying and that he needed morphine injections to ease his suffering. Graham admits to administering these injections, but insists he wasn't there the night of Sal's overdose. Was it suicide, mercy, or murder?
©2009 John Lescroart (P)2009 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
Hard Evidence: A Dismas Hardy Novel
Summary
When the bullet-ridden body of a Silicon Valley billionaire washes up on shore, assistant D.A. Dismas Hardy finds himself the prosecutor in San Francisco's murder trial of the century. The suspect: a Japanese call girl with a long list of prominent clients. But when a bizarre series of events blows the case wide open, Hardy finds himself on the other side of the law - as a lawyer for the defense.
©2007 John Lescroart (P)2007 Brilliance Audio
Nothing but the Truth
Summary
When San Francisco attorney Dismas Hardy gets a call saying his wife never picked the kids up from school, he's worried. Frannie's a great mother. Turns out there's a good explanation: She's in jail. Unbeknownst to her husband, Frannie has just appeared before a grand jury - and refused to share a crucial piece of information about her friend Ron, who's accused of killing his wife. Now it's up to Dismas to race the clock and find a culprit, all the while wondering: Why would his wife go to jail to protect another man? Who really killed Bree Beaumont - and why? He's looking for the truth. But he's not quite sure he wants to find it....
©2009 John Lescroart (P)2009 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
The Hunt Club: A Novel
Summary
A federal judge is murdered, found shot to death in his home - together with the body of his mistress. The crime grips San Francisco. To homicide inspector Devin Juhle, it first looks like a simple case of a wife's jealousy and rage. But Juhle's investigation reveals that the judge had powerful enemies...some of whom may have been willing to kill to prevent him from meddling in their affairs.
Meanwhile, private investigator Wyatt Hunt, Juhle's best friend, finds himself smitten with the beautiful and enigmatic Andrea Parisi. A lawyer who recently has become a celebrity as a commentator on Trial TV, Andrea has star power in spades, and seems bound for a national anchor job in New York City. Until Juhle discovers that Andrea, too, had a connection to the judge, along with a client that had everything to gain from the judge's death.
And then she suddenly disappears...
Andrea becomes Juhle's prime suspect. Wyatt Hunt thinks she may be a kidnap victim, or worse...another murder victim. And far more than that, she's someone with whom he believes he may have a future.
As the search for Andrea intensifies, Hunt gathers a loose band of friends and associates willing to bend and even break the rules, leading to a chilling confrontation from which none of them might escape.
©2006 John Lescroart (P)2006 Brilliance Audio
The First Law
Summary
At last recovered from a near-fatal gunshot wound, Lieutenant Abe Glitsky is back at work. But instead of returning to his old job as chief of homicide detail, he's assigned a desk job in the payroll department, where he has no business investigating murders -until his father's closest friend is shot dead in a downtown pawn shop. Glitsky asks the new homicide lieutenant about the case, but the brass tells him to stay out of it. Guided by the Patrol Special - a private police force supervised by the SFPD that is a holdover from San Francisco's vigilante past - the police have already targeted their prime suspect: John Holiday, proprietor of a run-down local bar, and a friend and client of Dismas Hardy. Hardy has ample reason to doubt both his client's guilt and the evidence conveniently stacked against him. Hardy turns to Glitsky for help, but when Holiday is implicated in the grisly killings of two more men, their pleas fall on hostile ears. To avoid arrest, Holiday turns fugitive, and the police believe three things: that Hardy's a liar protecting Holiday, that Holiday is a cold-blooded killer, and that Glitsky's a bad cop on the wrong side of the law. And as the deadly pursuit for a murderer intensifies, Hardy, Glitsky, and even their families are directly threatened by the forces that want to see Holiday brought down. Cut off from the system that they both served, denied justice from the corridors of power, and increasingly isolated at every turn, Hardy and Glitsky face their darkest hour. For when the law that is meant to shield and protect those closest to them fails, they must look to another, more primal law in order to survive.
©2004 John Lescroart (P)2004 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
The Suspect
Summary
When Dr. Caryn Dryden is found floating dead in her hot tub, homicide inspector Devin Juhle targets a suspect close to home: her husband, Stuart Gorman. After all, Stuart recently asked for a divorce...and he stands to gain millions in insurance. His alibi - that he was at his cabin on Echo Lake that weekend - doesn't keep him out of hot water. But maybe a shrewd attorney will. Gina Roake, a partner in Dismas Hardy's firm, is eager to take on such a high-profile case, especially when the client's innocence seems so easy to prove. Yet the more time she spends with Stuart, the more complicated her feelings become; she feels strangely drawn to him at first, then has to confront the possibility of a dark history lurking in his past. Desperate to know the truth, Gina calls in Wyatt Hunt to investigate. Before the facts are in, her client is on the lam; he's already been tried in the press, and so he's certain the courtroom won't bring him any mercy either. Racing to a stunning conclusion as Gina uncovers disturbing answers, John Lescroart spins a chilling story of secrets, love, and lies.
©2007 John Lescroart (P)2007 Brilliance Audio
Treasure Hunt
Summary
Mickey Dade hates deskwork, but that's all he's been doing at Wyatt Hunt's private investigative service, The Hunt Club. His itch to be active is answered when a body is discovered: It's Dominic Como, one of San Francisco's most high-profile activists - a charismatic man known as much for his expensive suits as his work on a half dozen nonprofit boards. One "person of interest" in the case is Como's business associate, Alicia Thorpe - young, gorgeous, and the sister of one of Mickey's friends.
As Mickey and Hunt are pulled into the case, they soon learn that the city's golden fundraiser was involved in some highly suspect deals. And the lovely Alicia knows more about this - and more about Como - than she's letting on.
Treasure Hunt is both a nail-biting thriller and a coming-of-age story, filled with Lescroart's trademark San Francisco flavors. Mickey Dade, its young protagonist, gradually learns the hard lessons Hunt knows only too well, as the world he thought he knew unravels around him.
©2010 John Lescroart (P)2010 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
The Motive
Summary
It starts with a double homicide. Because of the high profiles of the victims - a politically connected socialite and his glamorous fiancée - the mayor of San Francisco herself demands that a high-ranking detective be put on the case. And so Abe Glitsky is thrust into the controversial investigation. Dan Cuneo, the officer already working the case, is immediately wary of Glitsky and doesn't hide his distrust. Matters are made worse when Cuneo starts to focus on his primary suspect - who also happens to be an old girlfriend of Dismas Hardy. For Hardy and Glitsky, this is an awkward and uncomfortable coincidence. But for Cuneo, it's proof positive of collusion, and yet another instance of Glitsky cheating with his insider friends and cronies. Convinced that Hardy's client is the wrong suspect, Glitsky breaks ranks within the police department to continue his own investigation. As Hardy's murder trial builds to its stunning conclusion, Glitsky's search for the truth does more than fuel suspicion against the two men. It reveals a trail of deception that leads beyond San Francisco, where exposing desperate secrets can be the most deadly offense.
©2004 John Lescroart (P)2004 Brilliance Audio