The Hunt Club

Author: John Lescroart
Published: December 26, 2006 (Signet)
Category: Fiction
Rating: 8/10

This is my first John Lescroart read, and I was surprised at how much I liked The Hunt Club. It starts in the past, when one of our main characters, Wyatt Hunt, used to work in the Child Protection Services in San Francisco. He's one of the few good guys, fighting the good fight despite corruption in the department, particularly in his boss. After he was set up for failure, he left and because a private investigator, collecting an interesting crew in the Hunt Club, ranging from children he'd saved in the CPS to high-powered attorneys.

Homicide inspector Devin Juhle has just caught a major case: the shooting death of a sixty-three-year-old federal judge and his twentysomething mistress. While Juhle works, Hunt plays, hooking up with TV star and legal analyst Andrea Parisi - once he escorts her safely home and sobers her up, that is.

But before Hunt knows it, Juhle's case will be of great interest to the members of The Hunt Club. Especially to Hunt himself. Not just because Andrea's card was found in the wallet of one of the victims, but because just hours after their first romantic encounter, she disappears...

The story is compelling and and the descriptions of San Fran have just the right amount of detail. The pace is well set, without being nonstop, but still riveting at the same time. And when it came time to reveal the murderer? I was totally surprised, which is rare, as I sometimes flip to the last few pages to find out because I get impatient. The ending appealed strongly to my need for a-holes getting what they deserve.

The hint of romance between Hunt and Andrea isn't awkward, unlike the last manly book I read was. I didn't pick up this book to get a romance; I wanted a change from my usual reading! I don't want to read a thinly-constructed romance that's been shoehorned into the storyline.