“Treasure Hunt” by John Lescroart is the subsequent novel in the Wyatt Hunt mystery series, following directly after “The Suspect” and the original basis of the series, “The Hunt Club.”
Hunt, the protagonist of the series, works alongside colleague Mickey Dade in order to determine a way of keeping The Hunt Club open for business. The club, which is a private investigation company led by Hunt, is undergoing massive financial troubles. Without a resolution, Hunt may have to discontinue his business even after being an invaluable source to solving cases in the past.
It is not until supporting protagonist Dade takes the literary stage that readers find he may be just as valuable to the firm as Hunt is, and more importantly, the answer to all of its financial problems. In the office, Dade is inundated with paperwork but rarely sees much action in the cases Hunt obtains. But now all of that is about to change.
Lescroart, to begin, is forthright in his plot. Within the first sentence, readers witness a murder, however, Lescroart in his great weavings of mystery does not give it all away at once: “The day he found the body, Mickey Dade woke up under a tree on Mount Tamalpais.” Many readers new to the series can come to find that this scene and overall setting of the novel is in San Francisco. By the end of the chapter, the author slowly unravels more information, leaving Dade in a very uncomfortable but profitable situation.
The victim, submerged underwater in a mere near the park, has now revealed himself to Dade, peering out to him as if he could with a “dead man’s eyeless face.” Realistically, Dade screams in shock, but as soon as he contacts police officials the media overhears and swarms in the presence of the corpse. Dade, who uncovered the man, is seen on television. The media coverage gains the firm a new case, and Hunt knows that Dade, though eager and resilient to be on the case, is about get in over his head.
Later, the body is identified as Dominic Como, one of the city’s prolific activists. When the agency is hired and funded through associates of Como, Hunt begins to see that Dade is more valuable than he once perceived.
As the Club begins to look into Como’s work with nonprofit organizations and discovers that the methods of fundraising may be suspect of deviant behavior, another murder reveals itself. Therein, the investigation goes from stable to complex as the team of investigators attempts to round up all of the suspects by going through every possible scenario.
In the conclusion of the book, the murderer is revealed and apprehended, but not without some twists in the outcome. The book leaves readers once again captivated by the Hunt firm, especially by Dade’s breakthrough performance in the novel.
Rating: W W W W
| Tweet | Follow @wkdr |
|
|
