4 stars out of 5
As this one opens, Wes Farrell, former San Francisco District Attorney who now on the defense side at Hardy's firm, is thinking about quitting - he's tired, he says, of defending people he thinks are guilty. One of those he helped put in jail as a prosecutor, Paul Riley, has just been released from jail after being found guilty of murder - one of many cases taken up by a group called the Exoneration Initiative. The group works to find legal snafus that indicate their clients were wrongfully convicted.
Riley, though, doesn't waste much time trying to keep his nose clean; perhaps as a result, not long after his release, somebody shoots him dead. The culprit, the investigating officers are certain after hearing from a witness to the crime, is the father of the girl Riley was convicted of raping and killing - a man who many times threatened to kill Riley if he ever got the chance. Back at the law office, Farrell agrees to defend the father, Doug Rush, whom he thinks did, in fact, do the deed. Not long thereafter, Rush skips bail and runs - and Farrell asks Abe Glitsky, Hardy's former police partner who's now a private detective mostly working for Hardy's firm, to track him down.
From that point on, the trail becomes a winding road with several turnoffs, at least one of which becomes a dead end (pun intended). Throw in a timely issue like police brutality, and you've got another well-written book in this entertaining series. My only complaint? The series namesake is noticeably absent throughout most of this story, so I'm hoping he gets to play a bigger role next time out. Many thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for allowing me to read and review a pre-release copy.
The Missing Piece by John Lescroart (Atria Books, November 2021); 304 pp.
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