(2006)First read of author. Not all that good after a very promising start as Wyatt Hunt is fired from being a child services officer to become a private detective, not the usual character development. Really bogs down when a dozen of his closest lawyer friends become part of his agency. Too many to keep track of and why does he need them anyway. Main plot was OK as he tries to solve murder of prominent Federal judge and his ?girlfriend?. Booklist ReviewLescroart, the author of the New York Times best-selling series starring Dismas Hardy and Abe Glitsky, introduces a new series character here. Wyatt Hunt is an embittered ex-caseworker in San Francisco, dismissed from Child Protective Services in a dispute with his boss. He is now at the first stages of recovering from this blow, which threatens not his love of salary or sense of self but his mission to save the most vulnerable castoffs in the city. It's pretty standard in mysteries, and even cliched, to have somebody wrongly fired (usually from the police) sink into seclusion or the bottle and then move into private-eye work as a way back to life. This premise gives the character a depth of expertise to draw on and, theoretically, a sufficiently cynical outlook on life. Lescroart draws on this tradition by having his hero drawn out of his seclusion by a homicide inspector friend asking him to look into a murder. The murder is pretty juicy--a federal judge and his mistress are both found dead in his home. One of the suspects is a lawyer/TV crime commentator whom Hunt has a crush on and who suddenly disappears. Hunt works with a loose group of friends, all with different backgrounds and expertise, to solve the judge's murder and the lawyer's disappearance. Hunt is the narrator, much given to long-winded descriptions of his thought processes. This works great with Spenser, but it's boring with Hunt, who hasn't emerged enough from his self-pity to be a credible sleuth, although his child-services background gives him the ability to read motives in surprisingly insightful ways. Enjoyable plot but unconvincing detective. Lescroart fans will be interested, even so. ConnieFletcher.

4 1/2 stars (plus 1/2 for having cameos from so many of my favorite characters like Dismas Hardy, Abe Glitsky, etc). If you're a fan, this is a must read. It tells all about Hardy's investigator Wyatt Hunt, his friendship with Devin Juhle, and how he got started with his agency. He's a pretty interesting guy.

The story had several lines of investigation, with a big surprise at the end. All of the lines seemed reasonable, until they weren't.
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CPA investigator turned private eye helps solve murder of federal judge and his mistress and kidnapping of lawyer

[The Hunt Club] by John Lescroart (pronounced less-kwah)
Wyatt Hunt Series Book #1
4.5★'s

From The Book:
At first, The Hunt Club had a membership of one: private investigator Wyatt Hunt. Since then, others have joined with a common interest in obtaining justice. One member, inspector Devin Juhle, has just caught a major case: the shooting of a sixty-three-year old federal judge and his twenty something mistress...

While Juhle works, Hunt plays, hooking up with TV star and legal analyst Andrea Parisi. But before Hunt knows it, Juhle's case will be of great interest to the members of The Hunt Club. Especially to Hunt himself-as Andrea's card is found in the wallet of one of the victims.

My Thoughts:
I was surprised that this was actually considered a part of an individual series since all the characters including Wyatt Hunt has been incorporated into the Dasmas Hardy series. It was fun to learn about private investigator Wyatt Hunt's early days before joining the Hardy law firm as Dasmas Hardy's investigator.

The case that he and his partner were investigating involved so many possible suspects. In addition to the death of the federal judge and his young mistress it seems that the disappearance of a popular TV personality and lawyer who is an acquaintance and hopeful new girlfriend of Wyatt's...is also very closely tied to the shooting. As a result of the numerous suspects and the fact that the hunt for the missing woman went into so much detail and took so much of the story line...you almost forgot what started the entire case off to begin with. The reader is presented with good solid material for speculation but no real evidence to help you select a killer and believe me when I say you will never in a million years guess the killer and how this saga turns out. Good job keeping us guessing Mr. Lescroart. ( )

In The Hunt Club, John Lescroat starts off with a new series also set in San Francisco, this time featuring private investigator Wyatt Hunt and homicide detective Devin Juhle. Both have troubled pasts and are part of a group called The Hunt Club. They are investigating the murder of a federal judge and his young girlfriend. Hunt and Juhle complement each other in their investigational techniques. Hunt is unconventional and on the edge, while Juhle is analytical and has law enforcement resources at his disposal.

Lescroat does a solid job in this novel, which doesn’t come as a surprise, since he is a strong technical writer. The problem is that there is just nothing spectacular about it. It’s just all right, something to pass the time but there’s not enough there to get overly excited about. It’s the type of novel that you’ll completely forget about a year later.

Carl Alves – author of Blood Street ( )