John Hart King of Lies

King of Lies

John Hart

St. Martin's, May 2006, $22.95

ISBN: 031234161X

North Carolina criminal defense attorney Jackson Workman "Work" Pickens has emotionally been a wreck since his mom died and hid dad Ezra vanished over a year ago. Though he has since made terrible emotional choices such as the bad marriage he is in, Work knows that he is mentally in better shape than his psychologically unable to cope sister. He buries himself in his work though he is not half as successful as an attorney as his father was.

Still when he has time, which seems rare, Work makes inquiries to what happened to his dad not seen in over a year. When Ezra's corpse surface the police consider Work as the prime suspect. However, Work knows his father bent the ethics rules of their profession and many enemies exist from his late dad's law practice; Work plans to find who would actually commit the murder not understanding what his inquiries will bring to him and his sibling.

The whodunit investigation takes a back seat to the profound psychological character study of a bone tired despondent Southern attorney. Work makes the tale work as the audience follows the pressure on him from the cops, at work, his sister, the ghosts of his parents, but mostly caused by himself. The action stars slowly as the reader becomes very acquainted with the hero, but begins to accelerate once Ezra's body surfaces. No lie, THE KING OF LIES is a thoughtful thriller that readers will fully appreciate.

Harriet Klausner