John Lescroart Books in Order

On Spain’s Costa Brava as Franco’s regime falters, two very different couples drift into each other’s orbit. A young American arrives searching for his missing lover, and their intersecting desires and betrayals unfold against rising political tension and the threat of sudden violence.

In a small French town during World War I, Auguste Lupa poses as a gifted chef while secretly hunting a German master spy. As sabotage and murder shake the village, the man rumored to be Sherlock Holmes’s son must unmask the traitor without revealing his own identity.

Auguste Lupa is summoned to the court of Tsar Nicholas II to investigate a royal relative’s suspicious death. Navigating palace intrigue, Rasputin’s influence, and revolution in the air, he works to stop a deadly plot that threatens the Winter Palace and the fragile Russian monarchy.

Trying to escape painful memories, ex cop and ex prosecutor Dismas Hardy tends bar at the Little Shamrock in San Francisco. When a friend’s apparent suicide looks more like murder, Hardy is pulled back into investigation and a web of old loyalties.

Former prosecutor Dismas Hardy hears that a dangerous ex con he once helped put away is out of prison and hungry for payback. When a fellow lawyer vanishes after a bloody crime scene on his houseboat, Hardy has to solve the case before he becomes the target.

Assistant district attorney Dismas Hardy lands the biggest case of his career when a Silicon Valley billionaire is found shot to death. The accused is a high end call girl, and as the trial twists, Hardy is forced to switch sides and uncover a much larger conspiracy.

Dismas Hardy defends Jennifer Witt, accused of killing her abusive husband, her young son, and even her first husband years earlier. As he digs into her past, shifting stories and buried trauma make it hard to know where innocence ends and legal guilt begins.

During a late night street melee in San Francisco, an innocent black man is beaten to death while bystander Kevin Shea tries to intervene. A misleading photo turns Shea into the face of the crime, and Abe Glitsky must hunt him down even as riots and politics distort any hope of justice.

Mark Dooher is a wealthy San Francisco attorney, a pillar of the Church, and a man used to getting what he wants. When his wife is murdered and rumors of an affair swirl, Abe Glitsky and a determined prosecutor push a case that tests the line between what can be proved and what is true.

Once a cop, now a corporate lawyer, Dismas Hardy reluctantly agrees to defend Graham Russo, charged with murdering his terminally ill father. Was it a mercy killing, suicide, or cold blooded crime? The case forces Hardy to confront the gray zone between compassion and murder.

When Dismas Hardy’s wife, Frannie, fails to pick up their children and turns up in jail for contempt of court, his personal and professional worlds collide. She is protecting a friend accused of killing his wife, and Hardy must uncover the truth before his family is destroyed.

A young lawyer is found murdered in a San Francisco alley, and a homeless addict is quickly blamed. For homicide lieutenant Abe Glitsky, the case is shattering the victim is his daughter. As Dismas Hardy defends the suspect, both men uncover political pressure and hidden motives.

The head of a powerful HMO dies after a hit and run and an unexplained hospital overdose, and his family is soon gunned down. Abe Glitsky zeroes in on a staff doctor, while Dismas Hardy takes the man’s case and follows a trail of malpractice, corporate greed, and murder.

When an elderly pawnshop owner and family friend is killed, Abe Glitsky runs into resistance inside his own department. At the same time, Dismas Hardy defends a bar owner accused of the crime while pursuing a civil case against San Francisco’s controversial private patrol specials.

A wealthy political donor and his fiancée are found shot to death in their burning San Francisco mansion. Abe Glitsky is pushed into the high profile case, while Dismas Hardy defends an old girlfriend who becomes the prime suspect, forcing both men to question loyalties and evidence.

Dismas Hardy, now a managing partner at a thriving law firm, finds his faith in the system fading. When a young associate takes on a teenager accused of a brutal double murder, Hardy sits second chair, battling a furious prosecutor and a city on edge as violence flares.

Private investigator Wyatt Hunt and homicide inspector Devin Juhle team up when a federal judge and his young mistress are found shot to death. The case turns personal after TV legal star Andrea Parisi disappears, forcing Hunt’s loose network of friends to push past official limits.

When Dr. Caryn Dryden is found dead in her hot tub, her husband Stuart Gorman seems the obvious suspect, especially with a looming divorce and a large insurance policy. Defense attorney Gina Roake takes his case, but as attraction and doubt tangle, she uncovers secrets that could ruin them both.

Cleaning up another lawyer’s caseload, Dismas Hardy takes on the appeal of National Guard reservist Evan Scholler, imprisoned after a disastrous incident in Iraq. Untangling a love triangle, a private contractor’s shadowy work, and a deadly firefight, Hardy stumbles into a web of betrayal and coverups.

When a popular coffee shop manager is gunned down and found carrying high grade marijuana, attention turns to Maya Townshend, the wealthy, politically connected owner. Dismas Hardy defends her as more bodies fall and San Francisco’s elites scramble to hide their ties to the drug trade.

Aspiring chef and investigator Mickey Dade stumbles on the body of civic power broker Dominic Como in a drained lagoon. Working with Wyatt Hunt and the Hunt Club, he follows a trail through San Francisco’s nonprofit world, where charity, money, and murder prove dangerously entangled.

Ro Curtlee, heir to a billionaire family, walks free after a retrial overturns his rape and murder conviction. Soon witnesses and officials tied to the original case start dying in suspicious fires. Demoted cop Abe Glitsky must stop a vengeful predator while powerful interests shield him.

Wyatt Hunt, raised by loving adoptive parents, has never sought his birth family until he receives a chilling anonymous text: "How did your mother die?" Discovering her death was murder, he reopens a decades old case that leads across the country and deep into his own past.

Dismas Hardy’s niece accuses a smooth political aide of rape, and the next day he is found bludgeoned to death. Hardy’s volatile brother in law becomes the chief suspect, and defending him means exposing old secrets that could topple careers and shatter Hardy’s own circle of friends.

On what is supposed to be a relaxed fishing trip in a small Mexican village, Wyatt Hunt and fellow investigator Joe Trona are pulled into a local gang war. When a family is taken hostage, the two men improvise a risky rescue in a place far from official help.

Jail guard Hal Chase returns home from the airport to find his wife, Katie, missing. Days later the case turns into a suspected homicide and Hal is the prime suspect. Dismas Hardy and Abe Glitsky dig into a troubled marriage, dangerous affairs, and a county jail full of ugly secrets.

When Hal Chase’s wife vanishes and is later found dead near their home, suspicion settles firmly on the jail guard with a messy past. Dismas Hardy and Abe Glitsky probe a failing marriage, dangerous liaisons, and corruption inside the county jail to find out who really benefited from her death.

A teenage foster girl falls from a San Francisco overpass onto a car below, and the public demands answers. When a well liked teacher who mentored her is charged with murder, Dismas Hardy’s daughter Rebecca leads his defense, confronting bias, politics, and the hidden lives of foster children.

Kate Jameson confides to her best friend, San Francisco detective Beth Tully, that she is obsessed with a married man she barely knows. One impulsive affair later, a deadly outbreak of violence and betrayal forces Beth to investigate a murder that may be rooted in that single night.

In this crossover short story, therapist Morgan Snow treats Lucy Delrey, a patient who calmly admits she feels nothing when she hurts people. As Lucy hunts down a childhood hero she believes abandoned her, obsession, old secrets, and a videotaped killing collide in a disturbing finale.

Recovering from gunshot wounds and planning to slow down, Dismas Hardy is pulled back into court when a former client is accused of poisoning her boss, the head of a family owned business. Investigating feuding heirs and financial secrets, he discovers that nearly everyone had something to gain.

Hardy’s longtime assistant, Phyllis McGowan, suddenly disappears and then reappears in handcuffs, charged as an accessory to the murder of a human smuggler. As Hardy fights to clear her, he uncovers a tangle of immigration schemes, vigilantism, and old cases that refuse to stay buried.

Years after prosecutor Wes Farrell put Paul Riley in prison for rape and murder, new evidence frees Riley and brands the conviction a mistake. When Riley is found dead amid the spoils of a fresh scam, Farrell, Dismas Hardy, and Abe Glitsky must decide who really wanted him gone and why.

In this brief autobiographical essay, John Lescroart explains how he created Dismas Hardy and found his way into crime fiction. He recalls failed early novels, years as a working musician, and the near misses that almost kept his San Francisco lawyer from ever reaching the page.