Finished Th 6/7/18
This is one of my ancient paperbacks- no entry when bought or read.
The first third of the book is riveting, but the rest was kind of a let down.
PREMISE-
A black, professional is lynched on the streets of contemporary (pub. date- 1995) San Francisco.
Late one afternoon a white man is driving home in a fairly decent area of the city, and he is accosted by a black male who shoots him dead and takes his car. However, witnesses cannot 100% agree that the man apprehended is the man who committed this crime, so he's let go.
A few days later at a bar where a wake for the murdered white man is underway, a black man locks his keys inside his car and inadvertently triggers his car alarm. Drunken men from the wake pour out of the tavern, and convince themselves that he is stealing a car and they must 'string him up- there's no justice for law-abiding whites anymore'.
A white man who is swept up in the mob attempts to save the black man. He has a knife and slashes his way to the hanging the black man, and he even tries to hand his knife up to the man so that he can cut himself free.
A photographer snaps a picture, however this is interpreted as a white mob leader grappling with and attempting to stab an innocent black man as he is being lynched.
At this point I thought that the book would evolve into an interesting legal thriller about how the man who risked his life to save a lynching victim would defend himself.
Not the case: The book is one long, long chronicle of his attempts to stay free of the authorities and the city's angry population- black and white. In the end, he is able to surrender to police (a subplot has the FBI bent on killing him as he surrenders) and cleared of all wrong doing.
Dimas Hardy is a minor character in this novel and I remember the name and I must have read something else by the author since this character is lead in several of his books. Abe Glitsky is the head of detectives in the book who tries to make sure that the protagonist is able to safely surrender to police.
From the author's page at wikipedia-
" John Lescroart (born January 14, 1948) is a New York Times bestselling author known for his series of legal and crime thriller novels featuring the characters Dismas Hardy, Abe Glitsky, and Wyatt Hunt. His novels have sold more than 10 million copies, have been translated into 22 languages in more than 75 countries, and 18 of his books have been on the New York Times bestseller list. "
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