The last time I was on holiday I read The Suspect by John Lescroart, and it was pretty good. A cut above the usual poolside reading, enough to make me try him again.
Treasure Hunt sounded exciting, and it was a fast read. Lescroart has a collection of characters that the stories circle around. Wyatt Hunt runs an investigation agency called the Hunt Club, and there are allusions to previous cases and the histories of his staff. Some stories seem to center on Wyatt, but this one is first introduced by his go-fer Mickey Dade and his secretary sister Tamara who work for the Hunt Club. The body of a charity maven is found dead in SanFrancisco, and the Hunt Club quickly springs into action to mediate a reward for information. They are working alongside the police and city charities to uncover corruption, finger-pointing, and how large charities fund their fundraising.
He mentions in the afterword that his original title for the book was 27 restaurants, which is evident by the revolving settings of beautiful San Francisco, and characters constantly cooking (one reviewer says "you may be stymied at times by too many intricacies regarding the simple task of making and eating a meal.") American detectives seem to love fine wines and cooking; sounds more like the hobby of the writer. I seem to prefer writers like Arnaldur Indridison, whose depressed Icelandic demeanour leads to missed meals, or meals of salted herring and cigarettes.
In a wet raincoat. In the car.
The Hunt Club seemed like a good team though; Mickey, Tamara and their dad working with Wyatt ~ I can see how any of the characters could hold their own novel, and perhaps other Hunt Club novels have done that. Mickey prefers to sleep outside under bridges, you know how you do. Wyatt lives in a giant warehouse he can park his car inside - nothing unusual there.
My only thorn would be the contrived ending where Wyatt assembles the guilty and the innocent Poirot style in his warehouse to unveil the villain. A little far-fetched.
A good romp, several twists. About what I expected from a popular thriller, and I'd try Lescroart again for diverting entertainment.
2010 / Paperback / 464 pages
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