The 13th Juror - Mass Market Paperbound

by John Lescroart (Author)

In John T. Lescroart's brilliant new novel, The 13th Juror, Dismas Hardy, lawyer/investigator, undertakes the defense of Jennifer Witt, accused of murdering her husband and their eight-year-old son as well as her first husband, who had died nine years earlier from an apparent drug overdose. While preparing his case, Hardy learns that both of Jennifer's husbands had physically abused her. But Jennifer refuses to allow a defense that presumes her guilt. She is not guilty, she claims. Hardy is now driven to seek an alternative truth a jury can believe. As the trial progresses, the complex truth itself begins to change, to bend, to fade in and out of focus as the clock keeps ticking on Jennifer's fate, until there seems only one person left to convince, and she is "the 13th juror"--the judge. The 13th Juror is a stunning and suspenseful novel of moral ambiguity, of good intentions, bad judgements and the tortuous path to ultimate justice.

Front Jacket

He is obsessed with her innocence. He will be destroyed by her guilt.
The walls were champagne. The house was immaculate. A prosperous doctor lived there with his son and his beautiful wife. But the elegant walls hid a family's secret, a wife's shame. And one day shots rang out in the doctor's house. Suddenly Jennifer Witt was in jail, facing the death penalty.
Jennifer insisted that she had not killed her abusive husband -- and she could never have killed her own son. Dismas Hardy believed her. But Hardy was only part of the defense team, and the only lawyer who continued to believe her...even as her story was torn to pieces, even as her lies came out, even as she was found guilty of murder.
Now there's only one thing Jennifer can do to save her life...and she refuses to do it. So Hardy must do it for her. And in a shocking case of violence, betrayal, and lies, his only weapon is the truth...
"The 13th Juror...When innocence is not enough.

Author Biography

John Lescroart is the author of nineteen previous novels, including The Betrayal, The Suspect, The Hunt Club, The Motive, The Second Chair, The First Law, The Oath, The Hearing, and Nothing But the Truth. He lives in Northern California.