Author John Lescroart does it again with his latest legal thriller/mystery "The Suspect". The multi-talented Lescroart has given readers another literary treasure to feast on; certainly fans of his (And he has legions of them) will find this latest offering simply brilliant!

The plot is strong but it is the characters that once again give his stories that something special. The courtroom scenes are what you would expect from the author but this story takes you to places that are unexpected. The suspense will hook you and you will not be able to put this book down until you finally read that last page.

The American Authors Association (AAA) has made this book their top award winning choice for their 2007 book awards. I personally recommend this book for book lovers of mystery thrillers or for those who just want to read a great book.

Getting only better and better, with "The Suspect" John Lescroart has written a legal thriller which has it all. Brilliant story/case. Brilliant characters. Brilliant setting. Brilliant dialogue. Brilliant courtroom scenes. Brilliant! Brilliant! Brilliant!

Lescroart is staying within the legal circle in San Francisco, created around the hero from his first books, attorney Dismas Hardy. This time there is a heroine, Hardy's colleague Gina Roake, who takes on her first murder case ever, with all the challenges this entails.

Besides being the perfect legal thriller - you never guess who did it, at least not until the very end - "The Suspect" has a lot of humour in it. Lawyers and police have their own language in order to cope with the grim reality they daily face in their work. Lescroart has invented characters like lawyer colleague Wes Farrell. Fashion ikon bizarre/eccentricc with his unique! style and unbelievable collection of T-shirts (One reading: "I'm out of my mind...please leave a message!"). Farrell's beloved dogs also belong in the limelight. Late boxer Bart and labrador puppy Gert. The latter daily present at the premises of law firm "Freeman, Farrell, Hardy & Roake". Smuggled in behind the back of spinster Chief Commandeer par excellance, receptionist Phyllis, who leads her troops with iron will and no nonsense.

And then there is "Lou The Greek's", whose restaurant is favoured among San Francisco's legal elite. Not for the food though, only choice on the menu per day being "The Special". A curious Greek/Chinese concoction created by Lou's Chinese wife Chui, and often leading guests to the nearest burger joint afterwards...

Is there so room for serious legal business in all this? Oh yes. You bet. Lescroart has more than done his homework. The investigation is thorough and diverse, leading to ever new possibilities and surprises. The detailed courtroom dialogue, written with perfect professional accuracy, is very much alive, not missing a beat.

As all Lescroart's novels. "The Suspect" is a highly human book. The people are real. Chliché it may be, but they really feel like friends you don't want to leave.

Thanks to all the wonderfully entertaining details and unique sense of humour which make you stop and read passages several times over - and laugh - this page-turner luckily lasts a little bit longer than it otherwise would.

But still. It's awful when it ends. May there soon be more from my favourite author. Please!

A MUST read for fans of the legal thriller and likely to convert those who have yet to discover this genre - and John Lescroart. A master author not to be missed!!!

Husband & wife in dead or dying marriage, have fight. Hubby takes off to his lake cabin to get away. Gets drunk, violently destroys the contents of the cabin, decides to come home early, finds his wife dead in the hot tub.

He is stunned! when he realizes the police consider him a suspect (person of interest). Is also stunned when he hears that they are going to do an autopsy. "You mean he's going to cut her up?" "Jesus christ, this is unbelievable. She's just now dead. It's only been a few hours. Don't you understand that? You don't have to cut her up. It won't make any difference." Nobody is going to stand there and say such dumb things to the police. I'd bet you that 99.9% of people in that situation are not going to be saying too much of anything because they know that it is out of their hands. A death has occurred and the whys and wherefores must be found.

Lots of money involved of course! (7 to 10 million!) and of course 99% of it is the dead wifes. Life insurance is 3 million.

As the investigation deepens more and more not so nice things come crawling out of the closet tainting the husbands character. Possible relationship between husband and his wifes sister....

All the characters in this story are the ideal. All the women are perfect beauties in mind, body and soul. The men are manly men (Hubby = "the developed torso could have been that of a man half his age. ...strong jaw, nearly surgical cleft in his chin, good head of hair, blue eyes"...)

Lescroart goes into great detail describing everyones clothes and how each person looks in them. Ya know all that unnecessary bs padding.

Unoriginal, cliché and formulaic best discribes this book.