Hard EvidenceWhat is the novel Hard Evidence like? ... Imagine combining, say, Elmore Leonard/Ross McDonald with Scott Turow/Philip Friedman and one begins to get a sense of the flavor, the local color - San Francisco, in this case - the courtroom authenticity and a narrative that is altogether original, fresh and surprising at a hundred twists and turns. Assistant D.A. Dismas Hardy opens the belly of a dying shark and discovers the severed hand of a man wearing a jade ring. When the rest of the body of a Silicon Valley billionaire washes up on a beach it becomes clear that he was shot to death by someone he knew. Hardy soon finds himself the prosecutor in San Francisco's biggest murder trial. The defendant is a Japanese call girl with a long list of prominent clients, including the victim. But office politics intervene and Hardy is demoted to assisting the ambitious D.A. who wants the case for its headlines. In a bizarre series of developments, the case has to be dropped and Hardy, whom the D.A. has set up to look like a loose cannon, is summarily fired. Suddenly a second suspect - a man Hardy knows, respects and admires - is charged with the same murder, and hires Hardy who is more familiar with the case than anyone, as defense counsel. Now all Hardy has to contend with is an uncooperative client, the victim's strange and seductive daughter, a prejudiced judge and a vengeful, hostile prosecutor. Within the microcosm of not one but two murder trials, the author creates a brilliant mosaic of character and conflict, a world of real people wrestling with issues of love and betrayal, ambition and selflessness, justice and retribution. |
