John Lescroart
photo by Will Mosgrove
"John Lescroart: The Music of His Writing"

John Lescroart is one of the best writers of fiction around today. After sixteen books he is still going strong, and he is keeping alive the stories concerning attorney Dismas Hardy, and police detective Abe Glitsky. These two men have been at the heart and soul of most of Lescroart's novels.

"But the next book doesn't center around them," Lescroart told me recently in a phone interview. "The new book is titled THE HUNT CLUB and only makes reference to Dismas Hardy. It is a missing person's case and the investigator, Wes Farrell, is mentioned briefly in THE MOTIVE."

When I asked if he had already planned this next book when he was writing THE MOTIVE, he said, "No. I don't go that far ahead. These things just happen. But when I know the name of the character, well I know the story. The missing person in THE HUNT CLUB is Andrea Zarelli and when I knew her name I knew her story."

Lescroart had dabbled in writing, without success, for many years before he got published. This occurred in 1989 after he contracted spinal meningitis. He had been body surfing and somehow got the infection from the water. He was hospitalized and was not expected to live - but he did. After eleven days in intensive care he began the long road back to being healthy.

His job as the chief clerk of a law firm had been farmed out to others. Since he had not been expected to live, the three people who replaced him didn't expect to be displaced. This made for a bad work environment once he did return. This added to the impetus for John to become a writer full time.

"I realized I was not promised the chance to do it in the future so I had better do it now, and I did," Lescroart stated. "With the encouragement of my wife I went into it full steam ahead and found success."

I asked him if it is necessary for people to read his Dismas Hardy/Abe Glitsky books in order of how they are written. "Absolutely not," he said. " Some people read them haphazardly. Others start with the most recent and read backwards. I intended them to be stand alone stories and I hope they are. I think they are."

"I also don't intend them to be read as mysteries," he added. "I write them I the same way Patrick O'Brien wrote his stories. They are suspenseful stories full of color of the city of San Francisco and the human-ness of Dismas and Abe. If people read them as who done it's I haven't done my job. These are books to be read for the richness of the people not just to solve a crime.

In his latest book Lescroart writes about Abe Glitsky's son being born with a hole in his heart. He took this from true experience. His fifteen-year-old son was born with the same problem. "I knew what I went through and I wanted to put it down in print. Then this year when my son went for his check up the hole was gone. It had healed itself. That just doesn't happen after fifteen years but it did."

John Lescroart knows that life is fragile and that we are not promised any set amount of time. Therefore he is doing what he loves and trying to bring pleasure to others with it. If he could use this reviewer's enjoyment as a measuring stick he has succeeded beyond his wildest dreams.

 

 

 

 

 

©2005 Jackie K. Cooper

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