Oh soooo fine to be back in John Lescroart’s Dismas Hardy and this has plenty of Abe Glitsky in there, too!   Long ago I listened the Dismas Hardy books at Audible  and I was going in order  but then,  with Book 8 they switched narrators around more than once and I just quit for a long time but when I tried his latest book,  The Fall, in March of 2022 and The Missing Piece in 2023!  Now the narrators seem to be being switched around.  

The Oath
by John Lescroart 
2002 
Read by Robert Lawrence 13h 5m
Rating:  A+ / mystery-crime-procedural-legal 
(#8 in the Dismas Hardy series) 

I never minded the length of Lescroart’s novels before but I think now that novels in general might be getting shorter. This 2003 book is 13 hours in length, but prior to this his looks had been 15 and 18 hours long.  Although I certainly don’t pick for that, these days most of my books run in the 10-12 hour range. Oh well –  it’s as good as ever even if I’m not used to the length anymore.   

The problem is that the young rather idealistic Doctor Eric Kensing has turned to Dismas Hardy to defend him when Glitsky is roughly questioned him about a the murder of  Kensing is scared but drops some information on Hardy which expands the investigation by Abe Glitsky.  A hospital has lots of characters and the Intensive Care Unit has lots of deaths and money seems to flow among the elites.  Poor Glitsky is trying to train a couple of apparently incompetent new recruits and those scenes are often pretty funny.   

ME –  the number of characters makes it a bit confusing.  The chapters seem to start abruptly and it sometimes takes a bit to figure out who and what is involved in the new scene.  But the plot is great, as usual, as it twists and surprises with regularity ending in true thriller form.  The narrative has occasional lighter sections for family arc and humorous lines a dotted with occasional humor.  There’s an interesting little acknowledgements section re the workings of a big city hospital.  

Enjoy –  I’ll be reading the next Dismas Hardy book, #9, which I missed and, fortunately for me, continues with Robert Lawrence as narrator. Also, Abe Glitsky is newly recovered from his gunshot woulds in book #8 and back at work. Then I have one more missed book remaining – The Rule of Law. – #18 with Jacques Roy narrating. (See? I told you I’d read all the David Colacci books and if I’ve missed a Dismas Hardy book or an Abe Glitsky book I’ll pick them up when I see them – I don’t know what they are!)