Jackson Workman Pickens Work to his friends an unambitious lawyer in a small Southern town, has some serious baggage. His mother died a year ago from a fall down the family s colonial staircase and his father, Ezra, has been missing ever since. Work is left to deal with his psychologically damaged sister, his father s legal caseload and his own rocky marriage.
Power and greed bring many enemies, especially for a man as cruel as Ezra Pickens, so when his body turns up pretty much everyone in town is a suspect but only one man is charged with the murder... With time, his wife and public opinion against him, Work embarks on his toughest case yet: proving his own innocence. His investigation will uncover a web of intrigue he could never have imagined and he soon realises that no one is above suspicion - even those he loves most.
Smart and swift-moving... Hart knows his way around the courtrooms and jailhouses...the way that Grisham and Turow do - Pat Conroy
Akin to the close-range gut-roiling atmosphere summoned by the legal thrillers of Scott Turow - New York Times
Presumed Innocent meets Fatal Attraction. Hart's prose is like Raymond Chandler's, angular and hard... - Entertainment Weekly
Nobody does hate like Southerners, and you'll find plenty of it in the characters slithering through this well-spun murder mystery... a gripping performance - People magazine
A fast-paced mystery debut - Wall Street Journal
John Hart has hit a home run with his first novel, The King Of Lies, which has garnered universal and well-deserved rave reviews - Deadly Pleasures
A lovely writing style that's full-bodied and lyrical - Deadly Pleasures