AARP: The Magazine has recently asked me to contribute reviews for a couple of books, and I’m thrilled about the opportunity. The first of these pieces was published today: a review of John Lescroart’s new mystery novel, Treasure Hunt, a follow-up to his earlier book The Hunt Club. Both novels feature private investigator Wyatt Hunt (a frequent character in Lescroart’s latest Dismas Hardy-Abe Glitsky novels), but the new title turns its attention on another character, Mickey Dade, an associate of Hunt’s who stumbles upon…. Well, let’s just sample the article itself:
Things go from ducky to deadly in the opening pages of John Lescroart’s latest mystery, his 21st since 1982. First, Mickey Dade—aspiring chef and part-time driver for an investigative firm—stumbles upon a group of protestors fighting the removal of ducks from a lagoon being drained on the grounds of the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. Then Mickey discovers a corpse in the receding water: “Its head broke the water’s surface and the dead man’s eyeless face stared up at him, caught and silenced in midscream.”
Needless to say, just as that corpse rises up, so too do more troubles — both for the characters and (ultimately, unfortunately) for the book itself. Read the rest of the review here. And be sure to check out a couple of other recent pieces of interest at AARP‘s books page: Daniel Stashower’s insightful comments on Sue Grafton’s U Is For Undertow (a novel on my own reading list right now!) and Allan Fallow’s engaging interview with Daniel Menaker, author of A Good Talk: The Story and Skill of Conversation. As you’ll see from these pieces, both writers are fine craftsmen and keen critics, and I’m honored to be in such company.