Dead Irish (Dismas Hardy, Book 1) - Softcover

Lescroart, John

3.81

7,604 ratings by Goodreads

9780440207832: Dead Irish (Dismas Hardy, Book 1)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0440207835 ISBN 13: 9780440207832

Publisher: Island Books, 1996

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

A ex-cop names his poison. For former San Francisco cop Dismas Hardy, Guinness Stout with Bass Ale is the drink of choice, but a straight Irish whiskey will do anytime. The news of young Eddie Cochran's death calls for a double. The cops think it's suicide, but even to a lapsed Catholic like Hardy, it sounds wrong. Doubts lead him back into the heart of the Little Shamrock, into memories of warm kitchens, cold churches, and sins unforgetten. Blood ties still bind Eddie's family--his beautiful mother, his pregnant widow, his hot-tempered brothers, his compassionate priest. But old secrets and raw angers gnaw at the fabric of their lives. And Hardy's insticts warn him-someone else is going to die.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

From the Back Cover:

"An intricate mystery that is so on-target in its portrayal of Irish Catholics in America in general and in San Francisco in particular that it transcends the genre."--Dick Lochte, author of Running Dog.

"Polished and fast-paced . . . keep you riveted until the convincing but supersede finale."--Nikolae Gerstner, author of Dark Veil and co-author of Finders Keepers

About the Author:

Weekday mornings John Lescroart (less'-kwah) drives to his Davis, California office. There, on the top floor of a wood frame building sandwiched between two rambling fraternity houses, he devotes seven concentrated hours to his novel-in-progress. At 5 p.m., the 50-year-old father of two heads home for family pursuits. An evening with his wife and their two children, a dinner he enjoys cooking. Later the Lescroarts pile in the car for their children's many activities. Weekends find Lescroart entertaining friends and sometimes playing baseball, softball, golf, perhaps fishing.

The balanced lifestyle Lescroart resolutely maintains while directing his career as an internationally bestselling author would be the envy of the characters in his compelling novels--novels such as A Certain Justice, The 13th Juror, and The Mercy Rule. For while Lescroart delivers page-turning suspenseful action that has drawn starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and praise from Larry King, People magazine, the Wall Street Journal and many others, what distinguishes the author's engrossing reads is something more difficult to create. That something is a study of characters under pressure, characters who haven't achieved the balance John maintains in his life. They are characters whose value systems find them fighting an ongoing battle between demands of the job as they seek justice in the courtroom and in the station house and the insistent needs of their families.

And, as in his gourmet cooking, Lescroart adds the seasoning that makes his stories so memorable that once readers get a taste, they acquire an appetite for all his books. That seasoning is the thought-provoking backdrop of front page issues such as domestic violence, racial conflict and assisted suicide. But don't expect a difficult read in a John Lescroart book. He has an easy-going style, with a talent for pacing and crisp dialogue.

John has won the prestigious Joseph Henry Jackson Award for Best Novel by a California author for his first book, Sunburn; a Shamus Award nomination for Best Novel for Dead Irish, and an Anthony Award Nomination for Best Novel for The 13th Juror. Most recently, his short story "The Adventure of the Giant Rat of Sumatra" was chosen as one of Houghton-Mifflin's Twenty Best Mystery Short Stories of 1997.

An entertaining, humorous speaker with as much to say at the microphone as on the printed page, the New York Times bestselling author can occasionally be persuaded to leave his northern California digs for such engagements.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.