
The Ophelia Cut
Dismas Hardy, Book 14
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Narrated by:
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David Colacci
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By:
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John Lescroart
About this listen
When a brutal rapist is murdered, a loving father stands accused of the crime. Defense attorney Dismas Hardy must defend his brother-in-law and old friend Moses McGuire in a thrilling case that hits far too close to home.
Moses McGuire has good reason to be concerned about his beautiful 23-year-old daughter, Brittany. She moves quickly from one boyfriend to the next, and always seems to prefer a new and mysterious stranger to a man she knows something about. But her most recent ex, Rick Jessup, isn’t willing to let her go, culminating in a terrible night when Brittany is raped.
Within 24 hours, Rick Jessup is dead, Moses McGuire is the prime suspect in the investigation, and Dismas Hardy has been hired to defend his brother-in-law. Making things even more complicated, McGuire has fallen off the wagon, and his stay in prison could bring to light old secrets that would destroy Hardy and his closest colleagues’ careers.
As the overwhelming evidence against McGuire piles up, Dismas Hardy focuses on planting doubt in the minds of the jurors - until, in a feat of legal ingenuity that is staggering in both its implications and its simplicity, Hardy sees a new way forward that might just save them all. But at what price?
For the first time since 2009, Dismas Hardy, the author’s most beloved protagonist, returns in a masterful novel that showcases Lescroart’s extraordinary storytelling gifts: a cast of flesh-and-blood characters, morally complex situations, and relentless, nail-biting suspense.
©2013 John Lescroart (P)2013 Brilliance Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Any additional comments?
I don't believe I've heard this narrator before, and I will avoid listening to him again. He performs way too fast, which likely he believes amps up the drama although it makes me feel rushed and harried. In addition, he does not put any pause in between sections (such as the switch from what's going on with one character to a different scene) so I'm listening along and all of a sudden I wonder "how did we get from there to here in this split-second?"I have read most of the Dismas Hardy books, which is a much more enjoyable endeavor than this listening.
Irritating narration
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He did it again
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Great buildup....
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Classic Hardy
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surprise ending
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Brilliant
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The Ophelia Cut (not a good title, which might be a warning) centers on the rape of a young woman and the apparent revenge killing of the man by the young woman's father, Moses McGuire. Of course Dismas represents Moses at the trial, and I won't be a spoiler here about the end of the book. But, the book can at times be forbiddingly complex, and it often assumes that the reader is aware of the details of a massacre involving a number of the main characters here. The group of allies (Hardy, Glitsky, D.A. Wes Farrell, attorney Gina Roake, deceased attorney David Freeman) keeps a volatile secret amongst them. The exposure of this secret threatens them all, providing an underpinning of drama and intrigue to which only some of us readers can relate. In this book we are introduced to a city supervisor (Liam Goodman, whose chief clerk is the victim of the murder) a new chief of SF police, a Korean gangster and trafficker of human flesh named John Lo) and others. The plot gets spread out among these people too far, so that it is hard to keep all the players identified without a scorecard, so to speak. At times I felt a curious mix between boredom and a genuine interest in knowing how things turn out. I could have lived without the boredom, for sure. I think this is another result of the convention by modern novelists to make their books last a standard 300-350 pages in print, or about 12-14 hours in audio. Many younger writers are now shuffling off this mandate, thank goodness. As the late, great Elmore Leonard said, "I leave out the parts that people tend to skip." All writers should have this byword as a sampler knitted and framed on the wall of their writing rooms.
At the end of the book there is a true deus ex machina, which tries our patience a bit because it is implausible, and clearly a desperation move by the defense team. All along I had been thinking, Mr. Lescroart, you have been wildly successful, beyond your most outrageous dreams, but it is time to stop now. Shift gears. I know that he has done that for a couple of earlier books which I haven't read. I get the impression that they weren't as well received as the Hardy/Glitzky books. By this point in his career, the author must be in a position to take truly meaningful risks in doing what he does. I challenge you, Mr. Lescroart, little pipsqueak that I may be: And now it is time for something completely different.
Time to try something different now, Mr. Lescroart
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This book is not a stand alone work -- it is number 14 in the Dismas Hardy series (all books are available in Audible, thanks!) and the plot is linked to number 9, The First Law (which is difficult to listen to due to the reader and it would be good if it was re-recorded by Colacci).
I felt that The Ophelia Cut lacked some of the discipline and care of his previous books. So, what was happening to the author?
Tired? (I hope not -- I'm looking forward to his next novel!) My feeling is that he opted for easy answers to the plot lines that he initially established in his usual intriguing way, and as a result the resolution to the problems were not satisfying. Or was he being overly ambitious? Anyway, disappointly, the overlay of credibility was missing. And, apart from Hardy himself, he did not manage to create that deeply personal involvement with the protagonists that Lescroart normally develops so skilfully.
But this is, none the less, an entertaining listen.
Entertaining but unconvincing plot resolutions
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The Incident at the Pier is more or less central but so is the date rape of Franny's niece, who happens to be Moses's daughter who may or may not have murdered the man responsible. There seems to be an underlying premise that most fathers would want to murder a man responsible for the date rape of his beautiful and very sexually active twenty-something daughter. I doubt it's the attitude of most of those men or very many of those daughters.
Then, there's a muddled conclusion with muddled implications that should haunt Dismas for the rest of his life even though it was none of his doing. As I recall, Moses was kind of interesting as a philosopher bartender, but he doesn't wear well during his trial with either the other characters or with the reader.
Remember the shootout at the pier?
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Bravo Dismas Hardy!
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