Dead Irish

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Authors: John Lescroart

BOOK: Dead Irish
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The first novel in the Dismas Hardy series—by the
New York Times
bestselling author of
The Oath, The First Law,
and
The Second Chair.

 

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. . . .

 

“Possessed of a singular writer’s instinct, Lescroart . . . produces a full-bodied, substantive, and stylistic effort of the first order.”


Library Journal

“Full of the things I like. . . . Lescroart’s a pro.”

—Jonathan Kellerman

 

“A beautifully written San Francisco murder story with perfect-pitch dialogue.”


Playboy

“The killer proves to be as fascinating a personality as Hardy himself.”


Publishers Weekly

“With John Lescroart’s polished writing,
Dead Irish
becomes more than a mystery novel with a bartender as detective. With razored precision, characters stand out, flawed and human. . . . Chilling in its intensity, this is an ingenious tale of many different kinds of people.”


Pasadena Star-News

Praise for the Novels of John Lescroart

The Second Chair

 

“Lescroart gives his ever-growing readership another spellbinder to savor.”


Library Journal

“Lescroart plays out clues with the patience and cunning of a master fly fisherman.”


The Orlando Sentinel

“Entertaining.”


Entertainment Weekly

“A sociological take on the justice system—every motive is carefully nuanced, every player rooted in social reality.”


Kirkus Reviews

“Under Lescroart’s assured hand, this perfectly paced tale of legal procedure and big-city politics keeps us turning pages, even when it’s time to turn in at night.”


Booklist

 

The First Law

“With his latest, Lescroart again lands in the top tier of crime fiction.”


Publishers Weekly

 

The Oath

A
People
Page-Turner

 

“TERRIFIC.”


People

 

The Hearing

“A SPINE-TINGLING LEGAL THRILLER.”

—Larry King,
USA Today

“EXCELLENT STUFF.”


San Jose Mercury News

 

Nothing but the Truth

“RIVETING.”


Chicago Tribune

“A rousing courtroom showdown.”


Kirkus Reviews
(starred review)

 

The Mercy Rule

“WELL-WRITTEN, WELL-PLOTTED, WELL-DONE.”

—Nelson DeMille

 

“Readers of
The 13th Juror
will already be off reading this book, not this review. Join them.”


The Philadelphia Inquirer

 

Guilt

“BEGIN
GUILT
OVER A WEEKEND. . . . If you start during the workweek, you will be up very, very late, and your pleasure will be tainted with, well, guilt.”


The Philadelphia Inquirer

“A well-paced legal thriller . . . one of the best in this flourishing genre to come along in a while.”


The Washington Post Book World

 

A Certain Justice

“A West Coast take on
The Bonfire of the Vanities
. . . richly satisfying.”


Kirkus Reviews

“A gifted writer with a distinctive voice. I read him with great pleasure.”

—Richard North Patterson

 

The 13th Juror

“FAST-PACED . . . sustains interest to the very end.”


The Wall Street Journal

 

Hard Evidence

“ENGROSSING . . . compulsively readable, a dense and involving saga of big-city crime and punishment.”


San Francisco Chronicle

Also by John Lescroart

Betrayal
The Suspect
The Hunt Club
The Motive
The Second Chair
The First Law
The Oath
The Hearing
Nothing but the Truth
The Mercy Rule
Guilt
A Certain Justice
The 13th Juror
Hard Evidence
The Vig
Rasputin’s Revenge
Son of Holmes
Sunburn

SIGNET

Published by New American Library, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)

Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

Penguin Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.)

Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.)

Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi - 110 017, India

Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.)

Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

 

Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices:
80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

 

Published by Signet, an imprint of New American Library, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Published by arrangement with the author. Previously published in Donald I. Fine, Dell, and Island editions.

 

First Signet Printing, February 2005

eISBN : 978-1-101-53195-2

Copyright © John Lescroart, 1989

Excerpt from
Betrayal
copyright © The Lescroart Corporation, 2008

All rights reserved

 

REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA

 

 

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

 

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.

 

 

The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

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