The Mercy Rule

Against his better judgment, Dismas Hardy decides to defend fellow attorney and onetime baseball star Graham Russo, indicted for murder in the death of his ailing father, Sal. At first, Sal's death looks like suicide--his plans to kill himself before his cancer or his Alzheimer's made life unlivable were well known. And Graham admits administering morphine to ease his father's suffering. Was it a mercy killing? Maybe. But then Sal's valuable collection of baseball cards turns up in Graham's safe-deposit box. The stage is set for a confrontation between Graham and his old law-school rival, now assistant state attorney, and between Dismas and his old friend, Homicide Chief Abe Glitsky. But an appealing woman cop who falls in love with her suspect and a senior judge with a personal interest in the trial's outcome keep changing the odds. What lifts this courtroom drama a notch above Lescroart's earlier mysteries featuring the ruminative and appealing Hardy are Dismas's reflections on how out of touch he's become with his family--something he'd vowed to correct until Graham Russo came to him for help. Veteran stage and screen actor John Shea captures Hardy's inner conflicts in a voice soft with the glow of fine Irish whiskey; audio fans are in for a treat. (Running time: six hours, four cassettes) --Jane Adams