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Published May 2006
320 pages
Genre: Mysteries
Publication Information
John Hart creates a literary thriller that is as suspenseful as it is poignant, a riveting murder mystery layered beneath the southern drawl of a humble North Carolina lawyer. When Work Pickens finds his father murdered, the investigation pushes a repressed family history to the surface and he sees his own carefully constructed façade begin to crack.
Work’s troubled sister, her combative girlfriend, his gold digging socialite wife, and an unrequited lifelong love join a cast of small town characters that create no shortage of drama in this extraordinary, fast-paced suspense novel.
Hart’s mastery of prose and plot belie his newcomer status as he explores the true heart of a man. An illuminating anatomy of a murder and the ripple effect it produces within a family and a community, The King of Lies is a stunning debut.
"Starred Review. Hart's stunning debut, an exceptionally deep and complex mystery thriller, compares favorably to the best of Scott Turow." - Publishers Weekly.
"The King of Lies, John Hart's seething, roiling, boiling North Carolina murder story … crossbreeds enough Grisham-style intrigue and Turow-style brooding to make for a sulfurous mix. Mr. Hart's prose style keeps it bubbling, sometimes spilling over the top." - New York Times, Janet Maslin.
"In a top-notch debut, Hart's prose is like Raymond Chandler's, angular and hard. Grade: A." - Entertainment Weekly.
"A marriage of carefully crafted prose alongside have-to-keep-reading suspense." - The Denver Post.
"Spicy but not exactly nutritious." - Kirkus Reviews.
This information about The King of Lies was first featured
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: Eddie Bauer
John Hart is the author of the Redemption Road (2016), and of four New York Times bestsellers, The King of Lies, Down River, The Last Child and Iron House. The only author in history to win the best novel Edgar Award for consecutive novels, John has also won the Barry Award, the Southern Independent Bookseller's Award for Fiction, the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award and the North Carolina Award for Literature. His novels have been translated into thirty languages and can be found in over seventy countries.
A former defense attorney and stockbroker, John spends his time in North Carolina and Virginia, where he writes full-time.
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