A well written mystery. ( )

For some reason, I'd never read any Lescroart before. The Vig is a good one to start with. It's not a fast book, which kind of suited me when I read it. It was quite engaging, though. Rusty Ingraham and Dismas Hardy had served together in the DA's office when they send Louis Baker, a cold blooded killer, up the river. Baker vowed, at the time, to make them pay. Years later both of them are out of the biz and down on their luck and Baker's getting out. Then Ingraham is missing leaving a trail of blood. This story has a whole lot of excellent characters and is thick with plot. I'll definitely look for another Lescroart. ( )

I didn't start reading the series about Dismas Hardy as I had thought I was initially reading a stand-alone title. I wanted to back track and read some of the earlier novels in the series but I'm glad I didn't read this novel earlier as I might not have continued with the series. I think my appreciation of this novel is higher due to reading further ahead in the series. This novel gives quite an introspective view of Dismas Hardy as the plot twists unfold and I don't know that I would have appreciated it as much this "early" in the series as the second novel. ( )

The Vig was a decent enough story, but it doesn't really stand out from the pack. In The Vig, a violent felon is released from prison in a case that Dismas Hardy prosecuted years back. After the detective in the case warns Hardy, he runs scared. As the book unfolds it becomes apparent that the killings going on in the story aren't related to the felon. There's more that's lurking underneath the story. Even after the felon gets arrested, Hardy won't let it go. With the help of his friend, Abe Glitsky, they press forward until they discover the truth. There's nothing wrong with the novel, but I just found it a little uninspiring. It's the kind of novel that I would probably forget a couple of months later.

Carl Alves - author of Two For Eternity ( )

While I have read a couple of Lescroart's later books, and really enjoyed, this book in the Dismas Hardy series left me flat.
It just didn't have that oomph that I was looking for. I think this book centered more on the characters and what they were going through more than the actual murder that happened, which by the way was very predictable. The book was just kinda flat to me and dragged along. ( )