( 51 reviews )
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Posted: Aug 1 2009
Joining Joseph Finder and Brian Freeman, John Hart is among my top three favorite authors. Like his book "Down River," "The King of Lies" is brought to life with this well-written and believable story. The author grabs you from the very beginning, holds you tight and does not release you until the last sentence of the book has been read. Told through the character of his son, Jackson "Work" Pickens, this is a story about the poisonous impact Ezra Pickens had on his family. From meager beginnings, Ezra rose to power as a modern day North Carolina lawyer after winning a million dollar case. With that came fame, power and manipulation that led to him being murdered and on the steps of hell and those around him broken psychological prisoners to his selfish motives. If you are looking for a compelling murder mystery thriller--this is it! I could not put this book down and am looking forward to reading his book "The Last Child."
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Posted: Jun 18 2009
I'm always on the prowl for new genre fiction, but I tend to like the punk rock of crime -- James Ellroy, Dennis Lehane, George Pelecanos, Robert Parker, Ian Rankin -- I'm not just in it for the whodunit aspect. I read a lot of great reviews of this novel (and novelist) and I'm shocked. I just didn't find anything to grab onto here. It's not the mystery I had a problem with here -- Hart has his moments in that regard -- it's the actual writing I found problematic. No pinache or vivid insight or surprises in form or content. This seemed cliche to me and the actual prose amateurish. If you like mainstream thrillers, you might like this, but if you like genre fiction with a literary sophistication (for the life of me, I can't figure out why anyone refers to this as "literary" -- seriously), as you might find with David Benioff, Don Lee or Colson Whitehead, you certainly aren't going to find it here. My suggestion is that you read the excerpt here on Amazon. If it's your thing, go for it; but the critical and user reviews were misleading to me.
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Posted: Jun 1 2009
I really enjoyed this mystery. It kept me guessing until almost the very end! The writing was engrossing and I am certainly looking forward to reading his next book. I liked the setting, and Max's character in particular.
