Review of "The Second Chair" by John T. Lescroart

Remember Dismas Hardy? He is the San Francisco detective who is very family-oriented and has some really good friends in the Police Department. Dismas has moved up in the world. Now he is the managing partner at his detective agency. Dismas is the man who brings in the business and the money, but no longer does the digging, chasing, or the court work himself.

Amy Wu is a new lawyer in the firm and she is assigned to case that takes her to juvenile court. There she meets a young, not quite 18-year-old. His name is Andrew Bartlett who is accused of killing his drama teacher and his girlfriend at the teacher's apartment. It looks very bad for the kid. The police and the D.A. are sure that Andrew is guilty.

Amy decides that it would be only an eight-year sentence if she can keep Andrew in the juvenile court. To do this, he has to plead guilty, but Andrew is adamant that he is not guilty! Amy makes a few mistakes, and Dismas steps in to help her in what turns out to be a complicated and farther-reaching case then anyone imagined.

It takes a long time to get into the meat of this mystery, but when Dismas becomes involved, the fireworks fly and the story becomes fascinating.