Jackson Workman Pickens – ‘Work’ to his friends – an unambitious lawyer in a small Southern town, has some serious baggage. His mother died a year ago from a ‘fall’ down the family’s colonial staircase and his father, Ezra, has been missing ever since. Work is left to deal with his psychologically damaged sister, his father’s legal caseload and his own rocky marriage. Power and greed bring many enemies, especially for a man as cruel as Ezra Pickens, so when his body turns up pretty much everyone in town is a suspect – but only one man is charged with the murder. With time, his wife and public opinion against him, Work embarks on his toughest case yet: proving his own innocence. His investigation will uncover a web of intrigue he could never have imagined – and he soon realises that no one is above suspicion – even those he loves most.
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Reviews
'Nobody does hate like Southerners, and you'll find plenty of it in the characters slithering through this well-spun murder mystery... a gripping performance'
'A fast-paced mystery debut'
John Hart has hit a home run with his first novel, The King Of Lies, which has garnered universal and well-deserved rave reviews
'Smart and swift-moving... Hart knows his way around the courtrooms and jailhouses...the way that Grisham and Turow do'
'Akin to the close-range gut-roiling atmosphere summoned by the legal thrillers of Scott Turow'
'Presumed Innocent meets Fatal Attraction. Hart's prose is like Raymond Chandler's, angular and hard...'
A lovely writing style that's full-bodied and lyrical