A group calling themselves the Exoneration Initiative are the champions of wrongly convicted prisoners all across the country. Their goal is to see that justice is restored. Even with the best of intentions, though, nothing will ever be a hundred percent right. Case in point: their most recent exoneree, Paul Riley, a man put away for the rape and murder of his girlfriend. Riley’s newfound freedom has made a lot of people unhappy. So unhappy, in fact, that he ends up dead within months of walking out of prison.

Right away, the cops look to Doug Rush for the crime. He’s the man with the strongest motive --- it was his daughter whom Riley was convicted of killing. Plus, there’s an eyewitness who fingers him as the gunman. Apparently, he just walked up and shot Riley in the head. Slam dunk. End of story. Well, not quite.

"John Lescroart is a master at breathing life into some of the most interesting characters in suspense today."

So now Rush needs a lawyer. And he knows just who to hire: Wes Farrell, the San Francisco District Attorney who prosecuted the Riley case. Farrell has since left the DA’s office and partnered up with Dismas Hardy. Farrell and Hardy make a good team, but lately Farrell has been having second thoughts about representing defendants accused of serious crimes. Nonetheless, Rush convinces him to take his case.

To help Farrell with his decision, Rush swears he didn’t do it. Yeah, well, doesn’t everyone say that? Farrell shrugs it off, thinking that Rush’s claims of innocence are most likely false, but he vows to provide the best defense he can anyway. Meanwhile, he curses the Exoneration Initiative for ever tackling Riley’s appeal in the first place. Without their meddling, none of this would have occurred. Riley would still be in prison --- and alive --- and Farrell’s client wouldn’t be in this predicament.

Then, the day before trial, Rush disappears, and their case vanishes along with him. Farrell has to admit that he’s not sorry the case fizzled, although a few nagging concerns linger about whether his doubt as to Rush’s guilt played into the outcome in some way. Without a client, though, there’s nothing more to do. It’s time to move on. But the firm’s investigator, Abe Glitsky, isn’t ready to do that. Not yet. Glitsky knows there’s a missing piece out there somewhere, and he believes he’s close to finding it. There’s a link just out of his reach; Glitsky only needs a little more time. And he has a plan. But that plan involves a lot of risk. Maybe too much risk. Because the missing piece is a deadly one.

John Lescroart is a master at breathing life into some of the most interesting characters in suspense today. Wes Farrell, Dismas Hardy and Abe Glitsky shine as personalities, and they virtually dance on the pages. These lawyers know their way around a case and how to prep for court. Glitsky is the daring, gutsy one, walking almost blindly into danger, leaving us literally screaming for him to watch his back. Thank heavens he has good backup. THE MISSING PIECE is Lescroart’s newest hit in his Dismas Hardy series, all of which are thoroughly entertaining and compelling mysteries.