Fatal

October 24, 2016
Bestseller Lescroart (The Fall and 18 other Ditmas Hardy novels) successfully blends a police procedural with a whodunit in this absorbing standalone. A few days after meeting at a dinner party in San Francisco, Kate Jameson, who’s married, phones lawyer Peter Ash about a private legal matter and suggests they rendezvous at a downtown hotel, where she has a room. After they end up having sex, Kate doesn’t want a repeat, but Peter becomes obsessed with her. Soon afterward, Kate and her best friend, Beth Tully, a San Francisco homicide inspector, survive a terrorist attack. Six months later, Beth and her partner, Ike McCaffrey, are called to a beach where Peter’s body has washed up. The corpse, which was in the water for over a day, has a bullet hole in the chest, but the bullet is missing. With so little to work with and alibis abounding, Beth and Ike make slow progress. The challenges for the protagonists lend verisimilitude to the story and give it a satisfying rhythm. Lescroart keeps readers guessing until the very end. Agent: Barney Karpfinger, Karpfinger Agency.

San Francisco police detective Beth Tully, a single mom, tackles a complicated murder case in Lescroart's latest thriller. Narrator Jacques Roy's clear voice and expert pacing will keep listeners engaged with the serpentine mystery. The murder victim is Peter Ash, a successful attorney who recently left his family after a series of affairs. Also entangled in the case is Beth's best friend, Kate Jameson, who is happily married, aside from a brief dalliance with Ash a few months earlier. Could she be a suspect? Roy's subtle approach and impressive vocal range make for seamless listening as the story jumps between the police investigation, domestic betrayal, and forays into Beth's personal life. A.T.N. � AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

February 27, 2017
Lescroart’s new San Francisco–set standalone thriller is pretty much the ultimate literary exploration of the domino effect. Kate Jameson, who’s married, seduces Peter Ash, whom she just met at a dinner party. To her their nooner was a momentary amusement, but it unleashes a long-subdued satyriasis in Peter. A few months later, when his bullet-ridden body washes up on a beach, a police investigation ensues, led by SFPD Sgt. Beth Tully, who also happens to be Kate’s best friend. Theater actor Roy spins the combination of police procedural and modern-day morality tale smoothly, effectively dramatizing Lescroart’s highly charged passages—among them an unexpected terrorist shooting spree in a lunchroom where Beth and Kate are chatting. It’s a while before Beth and her investigation take command of the novel. Until then, Roy uses a coolly objective approach to the unpleasantly self-involved Jameson and Ash families. His approach is much warmer and more natural once Beth takes center stage, along with her equally likable partner Ike and her potential paramour Alan. Roy understands the other characters are there to serve the plot, but Beth and her people are the book’s heart and soul. An Atria hardcover.