BETRAYAL
John Lescroart
Dutton
Thriller
ISBN: 9780525950394

BETRAYAL, John Lescroart’s new novel, is being marketed as featuring the return (after three years) of San Francisco police detective Abe Glitsky and defense attorney Dismas Hardy. This is true but not quite accurate. Hardy and Glitsky do indeed make an appearance, and both men --- particularly Hardy --- play an important part. It’s just that the book reads more like a Hardy and Glitsky story wrapped around a military thriller. And how does that read? Extremely well, actually.
 
I’m totally serious about the military thriller part. Lescroart isn’t exactly known for treading into these waters, and I’m delighted to report that the move out of crime fiction leaves him with no flies on at all. Part of it is because of what he does here. BETRAYAL starts off as a straight Hardy and Glitsky novel. Hardy is at loose ends; his wife is successfully working, his children are grown and moved, and he’s feeling the stressors of what is known as “empty nest syndrome.” So when a local judge calls him with the offer of work, he jumps at the chance. It seems that a San Francisco attorney named Charlie Bowen has disappeared, leaving behind a very busy practice with boxes and boxes of files containing the names of clients in need of representation. Hardy readily agrees to assist in the court-appointed filling of the void. One of those clients is a National Guard reservist named Evan Scholler, whose murder conviction is on appeal.
 
A great deal of BETRAYAL is given over to Scholler’s backstory, recounting how a war hero and police officer came to be convicted of murder. Scholler is an Iraqi war veteran who found himself in a serious firefight that could have been avoided but for the reckless actions of Ron Nolan, an ex-Navy SEAL employed by a private contractor tasked with rebuilding the war zone. Scholler sustains heavy physical injuries in the firefight, but the emotional damage is even worse when he learns that Nolan has been courting Scholler’s girlfriend.
 
Following a lengthy recovery, Scholler returns to his hometown and his job, where he discovers that Nolan had been manipulating his relationship with his sweetheart from both ends. After a night of heavy drinking, Scholler makes the decision to confront Nolan --- and by night’s end, Nolan is brutally murdered, with Scholler having no memory of what happened. A conviction was obtained, and Scholler’s liberty is left hanging in the balance when Bowen, his attorney on appeal, suddenly disappears.
 
Enter Dismas Hardy, who finds a factual thread in Scholler’s file that he pulls just enough to start the entire case unraveling. There are too many deaths and disappearances surrounding Nolan for everything to be as neat and tidy as Scholler’s conviction seems to be, and when Hardy begins kicking over rocks --- with Glitsky knocking over some of his own --- it begins to appear that a miscarriage of justice has occurred. Someone though wants everything to stay the same, and Hardy comes to realize that he has put himself and his loved ones --- not to mention his new client --- in danger. Hardy, however, is well-steeped in resources, intellectual and otherwise, and with Glitsky’s assistance pulls off a surprising and satisfying climax.
 
Despite the absence of Hardy and Glitsky from significant portions of BETRAYAL, their return, and Hardy’s ability to twist things so neatly (if inadvertently) at the conclusion, should leave Lescroart’s fans more than satisfied. If anything, this book should enlarge his fan base, as readers of military fiction will find plenty to feast on in this unforgettable and difficult-to-put-down novel.

   --- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

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