The Hunter

“How did your mother die?” For San Francisco PI Wyatt Hunt, that enigmatic text message triggers his biggest, and most personal, case—and it’s a great start to bestseller Lescroart’s outstanding fourth Hunt novel (after 2010’s The Treasure Club). Hunt, an orphan with few details of his birth parents, soon learns that his birth name was Wyatt Carson; that his mother, Margaret, was murdered; and that his father, Kevin, was charged with the crime but never convicted. He also receives, from the priest who married his parents, a letter from Kevin asserting his innocence. Lescroart deftly handles a large supporting cast and makes fine use of the city of San Francisco while cleverly incorporating a piece of real history into the narrative, the infamous Jonestown massacre in Guyana in 1978 (the “People’s Temple” leader Jim Jones had been active in San Francisco). This book succeeds on every level—as a mystery, as a thriller, and as an exploration of its appealing hero. Agent: Barney Karpfinger. (Jan.)