In general, I enjoy legal thrillers.  I like a good courtroom drama with all of the excitement and thrills that can surround a trial.  Especially when we have a clear rooting interest.

But John Lescroart's A Plague Of Secrets was a total letdown.  There's a trial, but it wasn't particularly exciting.  And the readers are kept in the dark about whether the defendant is guilty or not.  Mostly because the defendant is one of the dullest characters I've ever read - who can't be bothered to speak up in her own defense.  So we don't even know who to cheer for.

The story revolves around a young man's murder.  He was a manger at a coffee shop.  And, he was selling a lot more than coffee.  Let's just say there was some wacky stuff hidden inside those coffee cups. 

Based purely on circumstantial evidence, the police arrest Maya, the store's owner.  And, since she happens to have political connections of her own, the media jumps all over the story, making things even more difficult for her.

The rest of the book follows the trial.

Defending Maya is Dismas Hardy, one of Lescroart's returning characters.  He's a basic nice-guy defender, one who will go miles out of his way to help his clients.  And in this case, Maya's going to need his "special" help.  It's nice to follow Hardy through all of Lescroart's books, especially since he's well developed and we get to feel like we know him.

But, despite enjoying Hardy's story, I found this book to be quite dull.  Other than the last few pages, there was absolutely no excitement, no surprises, and no thrills.  What we did have were ridiculously inept police officers, a dull-as-dishwater defendant, a gung-ho prosecutor who presses forward despite knowing that he hasn't a shred of real evidence to present.  And there's the judge, who has a pre-determined bias against the defender. 

In addition, there were a ton of background characters.  Mostly they offered their opinion about Maya's guilt or innocence but few had any real clues to offer.  In addition, we got sucked into a few subplots involving these people, but nothing that particularly excited me.

As far as the ending goes, it was action-packed and fairly exciting.  But it felt like it was tacked on, written by a different author.  The events that took place came completely out of left field.  I prefer when twists are followed by an "ah-ha, I should have seen that coming!" moment.  As in, there should be clever, subtle clues throughout the book leading up to the surprises.  In this case, the end just felt out of place, given the rest of the story.

So, while I typically like Lescroart's books, A Plague Of Secrets fails.

Recommended: No