The King of Lies


When Ezra Pickens disappears, the town of Salisbury, NC loses one of its shrewdest - and richest - lawyers. His son, Jackson Workman "Work" Pickens tries to continue running his father's practice, but his heart isn't really in it. The practice is failing, his marriage is failing, and his relationship with his sister is failing. In short, Work's life is on the ropes. When Ezra's body turns up 18 months later with two bullet holes in it, Work garners initial sympathy, but when it turns out his father has left him $15 million, Work finds himself as the prime suspect in his father's death. He's left with few friends and a legal establishment that once welcomed him as one of its own trying to crucify him. For a first novel, this was very well plotted, well paced, and well written with just enough twists to keep it interesting right to the end, but not so many twists that you felt you were being manipulated. I actually thought I had figured out who the killer was about a third of the way into the book, and Hart let me feel quite sure of myself until the last few chapters, at which point he threw things for a loop and the real killer's identity was revealed. Hart's use of language is rich and descriptive and he develops his characters, particularly our protagonist, quite well. In spite of Work's failings (and there are many) we grow to like him, and by the end of the book we even admire him in spite of those failings. Hart resolves the book nicely in the epilogue, so we don't leave with any dangling threads. There's even a little zinger he leaves until the final page (literally) that give the whole story an ironic and satisfying conclusion. From the first few pages, I thought the King of Lies must surely be Ezra Pickens. But by the end of the book, I felt there were perhaps two Kings: father and son. One for telling lies, and one for believing lies. I have no doubt there will be other book's from Mr. Hart after such an outstanding debut.

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