The publicity would lead you to believe that this publication heralded the return of Dismas Hardy and Abe Glitsky, the dynamic duo of the Irish-Catholic Lawyer and the Black-Jewish police inspector. Contraire! 70-75% of the book was taken up with the back story of Evan Scholler and his struggles with betrayal, brain damage, unrequited love and eventually a murder conviction, all growing out of his service in Iraq.

It was a good story but not the story I expected. It dragged in spots and there were some plot holes that I'm not used to seeing in Lescroart's stories. The characters, other than Scholler and of course Hardy and Glitsky, were somewhat stereotyped, something else I'm not used to seeing in Lescroart's efforts. The suspense was well drawn out, though, and I ended up reading well into the wee hours to find out what happened.

While the denouement was not a total surprise, it did have the benefit of tying up loose ends and somehow providing justice for all. Not a bad way to end a book.

I'm looking forward to reading his next effort, "A Plague of Secrets" which appears to be a complete return to the Hardy/Glitsky days.