The King of Lies - Hardcover

Hart, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 031234161X ISBN 13: 9780312341619

Publisher: Minotaur Books, 2006

Synopsis

John Hart creates a literary thriller that is as suspenseful as it is poignant, a riveting murder mystery layered beneath the southern drawl of a humble North Carolina lawyer. When Work Pickens finds his father murdered, the investigation pushes a repressed family history to the surface and he sees his own carefully constructed façade begin to crack.

Work's troubled sister, her combative girlfriend, his gold digging socialite wife, and an unrequited lifelong love join a cast of small town characters that create no shortage of drama in this extraordinary, fast-paced suspense novel.
Hart's mastery of prose and plot belie his newcomer status as he explores the true heart of a man. An illuminating anatomy of a murder and the ripple effect it produces within a family and a community, The King of Lies is a stunning debut.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

  "A STRIKING NEW TALENT."
--ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
Jackson Workman Pickens--known to most as "Work"--mindlessly holds together his disintegrating life: a failing law practice left to him when his father, Ezra, mysteriously disappeared, a distant wife who shares their loveless marriage, and an estranged sister who bore the brunt of their childhood trauma.
 
And then Ezra's body is discovered.
 
"READS LIKE A BOOK ON FIRE."--PAT CONROY
Set to inherit his father's fortune, Work becomes a prime suspect.  But so does his sister, Jean.  As much as Work's life was overshadowed by his domineering father, Jean's life was nearly destroyed by him. But does that make her capable of a vicious murder?  Fearing the worst, Work launches his own investigation, crossing paths with a power-hungry detective, a string of damning evidence, and the ugly rumors that swirl within his small, moneyed Southern town.
 
"AN EXCEPTIONALLY DEEP AND COMPLEX MYSTERY THRILLER."
--PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (STARRED REVIEW)
Desperate for the redemption that has eluded him for so many years and stripped of everything he once valued, he fights to save his sister and clear his name--in this poignant and thrilling anatomy of a murder and its ripple effect within a family and a community.
 
www.johnhartfiction.com

About the Author:

John Hart is the New York Times bestselling author of Down River and The Last Child. The only author in history to win the best novel Edgar Award for consecutive novels, John has also won the Barry Award and England's Steel Dagger Award for best thriller of the year. He was born and raised in North Carolina. For a time he practiced criminal defense law, but left to focus on his writing.

About this edition

• Publisher: Minotaur Books
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 031234161X
• ISBN 13: 9780312341619
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320