This seems to be a week when veteran authors who have been long and firmly ensconced in the mystery genre demonstrate that, late in their careers, they are still capable of presenting some of their best work on shining platters. John Lescroart has been turning out stories centering on Dismas (as in “The Good Thief”) Hardy for quite a while now. I can’t recall ever reading a bad one, but Lescroart has upped his own quality ante, if you will, what with last year’s stand-alone and now the Hardy-featured POISON. If you are new to either the author or his protagonist, you can jump on right here and ride the train back in time later. Please do so; POISON is a gem.

Dismas Hardy is a San Francisco defense attorney who has a deep and long friendship with Abe Glitsky, the local district attorney with whom he frequently crosses swords. Such relationships aren’t as odd or as infrequent as one might think, and throughout the series Lescroart has done an excellent job of demonstrating how the two men on very opposite sides of the courtroom navigate their respective ships through the straits of their personal and professional lives. It makes for a strong secondary story, but the star of POISON is the mystery at its kernel.

"POISON is a gem.... a story that will make you want to drop what you are doing and make your way to the Bay Area to follow the dots as Dismas, his investigator Wyatt Hunt, and one or two unexpected sources suss out what's what."

Dismas is on the verge of retiring from the practice of criminal law --- if not the practice of law entirely --- as he slowly but steadily recovers from injuries visited upon him by an unhappy client. However, he is pulled back into the undertow when he receives a call from Abby Jarvis, who he had represented on a vehicular homicide charge several years previously. Abby had made a model recovery, working as a bookkeeper for an extremely successful family-run business. Grant Wagner, the family patriarch, died suddenly, approximately one month prior to the book’s present. It was initially determined that he had passed as the result of a heart attack. A second autopsy, though, blamed his death on poisoning.

When it was discovered that Abby had been making off-the-books withdrawals from the company, motive and opportunity met and wed, and she was arrested for murder. Abby insists that she is entirely innocent and that, among other things, Wagner knew about the payments she was making to herself. Dismas isn’t so sure, but he has some sympathies for his former client, so he reluctantly takes the case in its pretrial stages, telling himself that he will find Abby another attorney when things get moving.

Meanwhile, the San Francisco Police Department is busy investigating the shooting death of a local would-be IT entrepreneur. It would seem that the two matters are entirely unconnected, but longtime mystery readers will enjoy the manner in which Lescroart brings his seemingly disparate plot tracks together and involves Dismas’ son in the mix as well. San Francisco is that smallest of small towns, and hardly anything occurs that does not involve or affect something else. Lescroart uses this truism to great effect in POISON, as well as a few other elements (more or less) unique to San Francisco.

The result is a story that will make you want to drop what you are doing and make your way to the Bay Area to follow the dots as Dismas, his investigator Wyatt Hunt, and one or two unexpected sources suss out what's what.

The ending is one of my favorites of Lescroart’s, one that veteran fans of his and Dismas Hardy’s will appreciate as well. While one will await any new book from Lescroart with anticipation, that will be particularly true of next year’s offering. For the time being, though, we have POISON, and you will be glad that you do.