Also recommended: THE FIRM by Grisham, McCrae's BARK OF THE DOGWOOD, and SPLIT SECOND


A must-read legal thriller   February 10, 2004
 14 out of 16 found this review helpful

Dismas Hardy is the new managing partner of his reorganized law firm after his former partner was gunned down. A new associate to the firm, Amy Wu, is grieving over the recent loss of her father. She brings the firm a high-profile case in which Andrew Barlett, the seventeen-year-old son of a prominent family is charged with the murder of his pregnant girlfriend and drama coach. Wu tries to keep Andrew in juvenile court where his maximum sentence is eight years as opposed to adult court where it would be life without parole. At first Wu is convinced that Andrew is quilty and pushes him to accept the plea bargain offered by the D.A. in which is admits to his guilt in order to stay in the juvenile system. The problem is he adamantly protests his innocence despite all the evidence against him. With the firm's reputation is on the line, Dismas agrees to sit second chair at the trial.

John Lescroart writes one of the best legal thriller series if not the best. His characters are fully realized, emotionally complex people that grow with each book. If you have never read this series, it is not a bad idea to start from the beginning. It would be worth it because most of the books in the series are excellent.

Lescroart is able to draw on the reader's emotions regarding his characters. I strongly disliked the Wu character in the beginning of the story. She had this boy's life in her hands and she was just trying to ramrod him through the system because she thought he was guilty. She was busy feeling sorry for herself: drinking, picking up men, overall irresponsible behavior. She was just not a very sympathetic character. In the course of the story, you really get to see her evolution. By the end you can understand why she was acting the way she did and even sympathize with her.

Abe Glitsky, another mainstay from the series is also present in a parallel storyline. There is not quite as much interaction between Dismas and Abe this time out, but the storylines do tie together in the end.

John Lescroart fans will enjoy this entry in the series and new readers will become fans.


great legal thriller   January 28, 2004
 9 out of 9 found this review helpful

In San Francisco, Laura Wright and her drama teacher Mr. Mooney are killed in his apartment. Laura's lover, Andrew Bartlett, the father of her unborn child is arrested two months after the double homicide and charged with special circumstances murder. Amy Wu, an associate in the law firm in which Dismas Hardy is the managing partner, takes the case even though she believes her client is guilty.

With his parents' permission, Amy plea bargains for her seventeen year old client so that he will plead guilty if he's charged as a minor. She explains to Andrew that he will be remanded to a juvenile youth facility for eight years and then would be a free man. Andrew agrees to Amy's suggestion since the evidence against him is so overwhelming, but at the last minute he declares his innocence. Dismas takes a more active role in the case, seeking evidence, interviewing witnesses and acting as THE SECOND CHAIR in Andrew's upcoming hearing.

No doubt about it, Dismas Hardy is the twenty-first century's Perry Mason only more personable since the audience sees his interactions with his employees, friends, wife and children. THE SECOND CHAIR is a great legal thriller with a cast of characters easy to like. The intrinsic workings of the California judicial system especially when it comes to the rights of a juvenile is fascinating to observe. John Lescroart's latest work, THE FIRST CHAIR is definitely heading to the New York Times bestseller list.

Harriet Klausner


Are you people crazy? This was horrible!   March 11, 2005
 8 out of 10 found this review helpful

Correct me if I am wrong, but a mystery is suppose to be a "mystery". It is suppose to be hard to figure out for the reader, not impossible, but hard. This was not hard to figure out. Even the good reviews admit, there was not much mystery in this book. If you like MYSTERY, do not touch this book!!

He is a good writer, and most of the characters were developed well. (Except for Wu, who was a shallow stereotype.)
Halfway thru the book, i am thinking "Are these characters stupid?" A blind man could see the connections. It was an insult.

Wu is suppose to have an IQ of 150, so she is trusted with her FIRST murder trial with no help? That would NEVER happen!!! NEVER EVER!
And she makes stupid comments to Hardy, asking him why would the judge not let their client go free? it is the right thing to do. Hardy, then lectures her on how the system works. LOL. It was laughable.

Andrew's story? "i made it all up!" Give me a break!! And the cowel that he wore, just happened to be the same. LOL. And the eye witnessess could not tell the difference between a black guy and a white guy!?!

Did anybody notice. That all the victims just happened to be the one who answered the door, even when others were at home.

The ending had ONE small surprise. But most of Part 3, was a waste of time. Brandt just happened to guess who the executioner was??? What a stretch!
His ability to write good prose and give details, and create a degree of confusion by overloading the story with too many characters is what helps him. But you have to suspend any rational thinking to think this was a good mystery.


The Second Chair is First Rate!!!   February 19, 2004
 7 out of 8 found this review helpful

Those of us who have reveled in the discovery of this author and his Dismas Hardy/Abe Glitsky novels have been with these two old friends for a long time and through some hair raising and heart breaking times. Hardy, who once was a San Francisco cop is now the managing partner of his San Francisco law firm. Glitsky who was a homicide detective for the SFPD is now a Deputy Chief. Yet, for all their lofty current positions, they are dragged into a compelling drama by the events that are going on around them.

Amy Wu is an associate in Hardy's firm. She is dealing the the four month old death of her father by looking for love in all the wrong places when she receives a call from a wealthy couple who's son she has represented in a minor juvenile matter to inform her that "Andrew is in trouble again." That, it turns out, is an understatement.

It seems that Andrew was rehearsing for the school play with the teacher who was directing the play and with his girlfriend. The play is "Who is Afraid of Virginia Woolf." Andrew and his girlfriend have the leads. While taking a break from rehearsing, Andrew takes a break to go for a walk to work on his lines. When he returns he finds them both shot to death.

Two months later the police have decided to charge him with murder. His parents (actually Mom and Step-Dad) are horrified. "He said he didn't do it," says Mom. "I know he didn't do it." ..."Andrew is not that type of person."

After reviewing the police evidence Amy Wu is not so sure. It turns out that in the past Andrew expressed jealosy of Mr. Mooney, the teacher and his relationship with his girlfriend. He even wrote a short story entitled "Perfect Killer" in which he details how a young man who is jealous of his girlfriend and a teacher plots to murder them and how he does it in such a way as to avoid guilt. He shares the story with his best friend at school. He even starts to bring his step father's gun to school with him in a knapsack. Then there is the yelling and arguing that those living over Mr. Mooney's apartment hear along with crashing and banging down below. When they look out of the window to see what is happening, the husband sees a person he later idetifies as Andrew fleeing the apartment. He then goes down and discovers the vitims. Doesn't look so good for Andrew.

Especially after the police find a spent 9mm shell in his car. Especially after he admits to throwing the gun he had been carrying around off the Golden Gate Bridge.

In fact, it looks so bad to Amy that she tries to get him to plead guilty to the offense as a juvenile. He will be in jail for only eight years under California law if convicted as a juvenile. She convinces the parents that this is the best way to go and she convinces herself. The one little detail that she fails to cover is convincing her client. Her next error is to tell the Assistant DA that he will plead before she has gotten that nailed down. It all becomes unraveled in juvenile court as the client maintains his innocense and Ms. Wu quickly finds herself in the cross hairs of an angry judge and a furious district attorney. The matter is quickly calendared for a hearing on whether he should be tried as a juvenile or an adult and the outcome looks forgone. Her client, instead of facing eight years will likely be facing life.

Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Glitsky is having his own problems with his new job and is embroiled with a high profile decision not to take a known murderer off a bus, but to wait until the passengers disembark and arrest him then. Quick and easy. Except the target smells the police and takes the passengers hostage, killing several before his demands for a helicopter and transportaion are met. He is killed by a sniper on the way to the copter, but the media is merciless in pursuing the matter.

As a part of his job, Glitsky becomes aware of a murder where a woman without an enemy in the world is gunned down as she answers her front door. The husband is the only possible suspect, but that is going nowhere. Glitsky decides to talk to him and is also convinced that the husband is innocent. The only thing out of the ordinary that the woman ever did in her life was be a part of a jury many years ago who had convicted a person for murder.

Shortly thereafter, the District Attorney is found murdered in the parking lot outside of his office.

Dismas Hardy feels that he is responsible for the mess that Amy Wu has created by failing to mentor her properly and decides to sit "second chair" in the deternmination hearing that has been ordered to go forward in five days.

To tell more about the story line would be to spoil the fun of reading a master story teller at the top of his game. Suffice it to say that the stories converge and the ending is all that a reader of this type of novel could ask for. I look forward to Lescroat's novels and if you have not discovered him yet, it is high time you did.