By: John Lescroart
ISBN: 9781501115677
Publisher: Atria
Publication Date: 1/24/2017
Format: Other
My Rating: 4 Stars Featured Weekend Read From New York Times bestselling author John Lescroart, a riveting standalone novel about the unexpected, shattering, and lethal consequences of a one-night stand on a seemingly happily married couple. Kate loves her life. At forty-four, she’s happily married to her kind husband, Ron, blessed with two wonderful children, and has a beautiful home in San Francisco. Everything changes, however, when she and Ron attend a dinner party and meet another couple, Peter and Jill. Kate and Peter only exchange a few pleasant words but that night, in bed with her husband, Kate is suddenly overcome with a burning desire for Peter. What begins as an innocent crush soon develops into a dangerous obsession and Kate’s fixation on Peter results in one intense, passionate encounter between the two. Confident that her life can now go back to normal, Kate never considers that Peter may not be so willing to move on. Not long after their affair, a masked man barges into the café Kate is sitting in with her best friend, firing an assault weapon indiscriminately into the crowd. This tragedy is the first in a series of horrifying events that will show Kate just how grave the consequences of one mistake can be. An explosive story of infidelity, danger, and moral ambiguity, John Lescroart’s latest thriller will excite and satisfy both his current and new fans.
My Review
A special thank you to Atria and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
New York Times Bestselling author, John Lescroart returns following The Fall (2015) with a totally different type novel than his norm. FATAL, the unexpected, the deadly consequences of a one-night stand. As you begin reading you will think you are embarking on another “The Affair” American television series (currently catching up with the last season); however, minus all the continuous down and dirty sex scenes. Set in San Francisco, a gripping domestic suspense of a woman who chooses a burning desire--to commit adultery-- infidelity, leading to a dark and suspenseful journey. A dangerous web of deceit. Kate Jameson, age 44 is married to Ron (a lawyer) with two children. They attend a dinner party and Kate becomes obsessed with Peter, also married. Her best friend is a cop, Beth Tully. They had been friends since college and shared their thoughts. She had warned her not to act on her lustful feelings. However, Kate does not listen. A one-night stand turns into a nightmare. The lives it touches. Crossing lines. Harmful secrets. Could she go back to normal? Shattered lives. Deadly consequences. Murder. A gang of terrorists. A shooting. Kate and Beth are wounded, then six months later. Peter winds up dead, plus more. Be patient, a slow start; however, about 50% the intensity heats up. A cautionary tale--think twice before cheating. A shocking stand-alone tale (coming from this author), straying from the usual Dismas Hardy style---writing from a woman’s point of view, a strong driving force which navigates the novel. A different tone than the norm, character-driven, with more sensitivity and relationships between women and men. Give Fatal a whirl! Lescroart is welcome to lead us down a different path, as long as he leads us back with another Dismas Hardy (coming soon), can’t wait! A superb storyteller (no matter the genre) from the master. Perfect cover! Check out the Interview with John!
Review Links:
Amazon
Advance Praise
“On its own, this is a terrific stand-alone thriller that melds police procedural with plenty of suspense and action, and it should appeal to Harlan Coben or Gillian Flynn fans.” - Booklist (starred review)
“Absorbing… The challenges for the protagonists lend verisimilitude to the story and give it a satisfying rhythm. Lescroart keeps readers guessing until the very end.” - Publishers Weekly
"After dishing out 20-plus cases to San Francisco attorney Dismas Hardy and his friends and relations (The Fall, 2015, etc.), Lescroart pens a stand-alone whose Bay Area is just as tense and treacherous even if you’re not part of the justice system...Lescroart manages the first movement of this cautionary tale by mixing his pitches with exquisite control...he still has a few nifty surprises in store for fans who’d expect nothing less." - Kirkus Reviews
“After reading this one, you’ll wonder why author Lescroart’s picture is not printed beside the definition of ‘spellbinding’ in the dictionary. Fatal is all about surprises and the dangerous cost of a one-night-stand on a happily married couple.” - Suspense Magazine
“Edgy and character-driven (his trademark), with an ending that will surprise his fans.”- Sacramento Bee
The Fall
By John Lescroart ISBN: 9781476709215 Publisher: Atria Books Publication Date: 5/5/2015 Format: Hardcover My Rating: 5 Stars
Read My Review From New York Times bestselling author John Lescroart, a riveting new novel of legal suspense featuring Dismas Hardy and his daughter, Rebecca, now grown up and an associate in Hardy’s law firm.
About the Author
John Lescroart (pronounced “less-kwah”) is a big believer in hard work and single-minded dedication, although he’ll acknowledge that a little luck never hurts.
Now a New York Times bestselling author whose books have been translated into 16 languages in more than 75 countries, John wrote his first novel in college and the second one a year after he graduated from Cal Berkeley in 1970.
The only hitch was that he didn’t even try to publish either of these books until fourteen years later, when finally, at his wife Lisa’s urging, he submitted SON OF HOLMES to New York publishers—and got two offers, one in hardcover, within six weeks!
But about six years before that first hardcover publication, John’s ambition to become a working novelist began to take shape. At that time, as Johnny Capo of Johnny Capo and His Real Good Band, he’d been performing his own songs for several years at clubs and honky-tonks in the San Francisco Bay Area. On his 30th birthday, figuring that if he hadn’t made it in music by then, he never would, he retired from the music business.
He’d been writing all along, and didn’t stop now, although his emphasis changed from music first, prose second, to the other way around. Within two months of his last musical gig, he finished a novel, SUNBURN, that drew on his experiences in Spain. Since John didn’t know anyone in the publishing world, he sent the manuscript to his old high school English teacher, who was not enthusiastic. Fortunately, the teacher left the pages on his bedside table, and his wife picked them up and read them. She loved the book and submitted it in John’s name to The Joseph Henry Jackson Award, given yearly by the San Francisco Foundation for Best Novel by a California author. Much to John’s astonishment, SUNBURN beat out 280 other entrants, including INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE, for the prize. Read More
