The King of Lies

The King of Lies

3.77 of 5 stars 3.77  ·  rating details  ·  3,712 ratings  ·  623 reviews
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,...more
ebook, 432 pages
Published April 1st 2010 by Minotaur Books (first published 2006)

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Eric
May 07, 2008 Eric rated it 4 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition
Recommended to Eric by: John Hart
I met John Hart a few months ago. He is friendly, intelligent, down-to-earth guy with a good personality. He convinced me to get this book, the first of his 2 currently published ones. He didn't force sell - he just talked about it.

It is a 1st-Person POV murder mystery.

At first, it took me a little while to get into his writing style because it was so different from what I normally read (SF&F). However, once I adapted, I flew through the book. I also thought it was neat that his main charact...more
LJ
KING OF LIES (Suspense-Jackson Workman Pickens-North Carolina-Cont) –NR
Hart, John – 1st book
Thomas Dunne Books, 2006, US Hardcover – ISBN: 031234161X
First Sentence: I’ve heard it said that jail stinks of despair.
*** Jackson Workman “Work” Pickens is a defense attorney, married to a beautiful woman, living in a big house. His father, Ezra, had built a powerful legal practice and a financial fortune and disappeared. Now Ezra’s body has turned up showing he dies of two gunshots on the day he disapp...more
Debby
I read John Hart's second novel, Down River, first and was thrilled to find a new author with a phenomenal gift for storytelling, character development and an understanding of human relationships. John Hart writing

Now that I've read his debut novel, The King of Lies, I'm even more convinced of my initial impression. This book is great in all those apects; great mystery, great characters that span the height and depth of human relationships. I guessed on the "whodunit" about 3/4 the way through t...more
Michael
Jackson Pickens--better known was "Work"--is a lawyer in a North Carolina, who seems to have the perfect life--good job, bright future, beautiful and devoted wife. But if you scratch just below the surface things aren't quite as ideal as they appear.

A little over a year ago, his mother died suddenly and his father disappeared. Work and his sister Jean know what happened that evening but neither one is willing to come forward and tell the full truth--until his father's body shows up at a local ab...more
Caitlin
I'm fond of Scott Turow, so when the back of this book compared the author to him, I figured it would be worth a shot (and it was). This is a combination legal thriller and portrait of a man at the end of his rope.

Our hero, Work, has always been his father's son - following his father into the practice of law, marrying the woman his father chose for him, living the life he was supposed to live. His father's disappearance and the subsequent discovery of his body (with two bullets in the head) has...more
Brayden
Mar 20, 2008 Brayden rated it 1 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: nobody
This book should have been better. It's Pat Conroy doing noir with a little bit of Grisham mixed in. Part family drama, part murder mystery. The problem? The book just sucked. The first 100 pages show promise, but that promise quickly dissolves as the protagonist turns into a self-loathing, jerky moron and the plot becomes a disaster. We're supposed to feel sorry for the character (in the noir fashion, he's supposed to be a good man caught in a web of deceit), but I found myself rooting against...more
Elizabeth
Nov 30, 2011 Elizabeth rated it 5 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: people who enjoy suspense
I picked this up on a lark and could not put it down! This novel is written in first person. The protagonist has spent his entire life living up to the expectations of a cruel and heartless father. In his quest to please him, he has become cruel and heartless himself. However, when his father is murdered, Work (yes, that's his name) begins to reexamine his lifestyle, his goals, his relationships with others. As he conducts an investigation into the death of his father, he evolves into a happier,...more
Linda
This is the first John Hart book that I have read and I enjoyed it.

Jackson Workman "Work" Pickens is a lawyer who has been keeping secrets form himself and others every since a scene with his dad, Sister Janet and his mom. His mother died that terrible night and that plot is woven throughout the story. His sister has mental stability issues, his father is a high pressure highly acclaimed lawyer and his wife is seemingly the perfect society wife. When there is another death involving "Work" the s...more
Andrea
Jackson Workman Pickens, known as Work, is going about his life with little passion or hope. His business is failing, his marriage is passionless and his life in general is just unfulfilling. A little over a year ago his mother died and on the same night his father, Ezra Pickens, vanished. Ezra was a brilliant lawyer who created a legal empire that Work is now trying to carry on with but failing miserably.

Then suddenly everything changes when the murdered body of Ezra is discovered and Work find...more
Cathy
This was given to me by a friend -- he liked it so much, I put it at the top of my reading stack, although I hadn't heard of the author or book.

Wow -- it picked up and moved -- fun, fun read.

Immediately went out and got the next two books!!



(From B&N)

From the masterful New York Times bestselling and two-time Edgar Award-winning author of The Last Child and Down River, comes this tour de force of murder and the dark ripples it sends through a man, his family and community.

Jackson Workman Picke...more
Michael Tuggle
I stumbled on this incredible debut from John Hart by accident and it blew me away. I couldn't put it down and immediately bought his other two books - now three. Literally one of the best books I have ever read.

(From B&N)

From the masterful New York Times bestselling and two-time Edgar Award-winning author of The Last Child and Down River, comes this tour de force of murder and the dark ripples it sends through a man, his family and community.

Jackson Workman Pickens—known to most as Work—mi...more
Mary
Nov 22, 2011 Mary rated it 4 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: people who enjoy contemporary mysteries
Recommended to Mary by: I got it at a Library Book Sale
Jackson Workman Pickens - 'Work' to his friends - is an unambitious lawyer in a small Southern town. He also has some serious baggage. His mother died a year ago in a fall down the family's colonial staircase and his father, Ezra, has been missing ever since.

Work is left to deal with his psychologically damaged sister, his father's legal caseload and his own rocky marriage. Power and greed make many enemies, especially for a man as cruel as Ezra Pickens, so when his body turns up almost everyone...more
Dina
Told through the eyes of Jackson Workman Pickens, known to friends as "Work", this book is a deep and complex thriller. The plot is believable, the characters are three-dimensional, and the movie rights have already been sold! This should make a great movie.

Work is a criminal defense attorney like Ezra, his famous, wealthy father. Work has many internal conflicts, among them a traumatizing incident that happened when he was 12, the death of his mother, the murder of his father, the attempted su...more
James Thane
The King of Lies is the first book from John Hart, published three years before The Last Child, the book for which he won the Edgar Award for Best Novel. Jackson Workman Pickens ("Work") is a North Carolina lawyer who's labored his entire life in the shadow of his domineering father, Ezra, also a lawyer. Work is also trapped in a marriage to a cold, scheming, social climbing witch. Work hates being a lawyer and can't stand his wife, but he's been living the lie that is his life for so long that...more
Beth
In John Hart’s first of three novels, a lawyer, ”Work” Pickens, is accused of murdering his father, Ezra, when his body is found. It seems clear to the police and the district attorney that Work had seen his father’s will and wanted the $15 million being left to him before Ezra changed his mind. And Work, sure that his emotionally disturbed sister, Joan, did it, is willing to take the rap for her.

Work and Joan had been raised in a dysfunctional family with a very rich, very despicable father who...more
Judi/Judith
The author, John Hart has arrived on the scene, writing his first novel, a southern gothic melodrama, that will keep you spinning with it's twists and turns, while making you read faster and faster to find out who really "done" it. While the mystery centers around a wealthy lawyer, who has been found dead a year and a half after his disappearance, the story is told, first person by his son, Work, who is also a lawyer. As he goes about trying to unravel the mystery of his father death, Work reali...more
Nancy
Jun 04, 2008 Nancy rated it 2 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition
Recommended to Nancy by: Judy
Shelves: mystery
After about 80 pages I hadn't found a single like-able character. I checked for friend's Goodreads reviews and discovered that LJ had a very low opinion of this book. Knowing it wasn't just about to become really fascinating, I skipped to the end to see who-done-it. The last 50 pages seemed better than the first 80 so I gave it 2 stars. Over 200 pages went unread so take this review with a grain of salt. There could be good parts I missed.
Phil
The King of LiesJohn Hart

Fair, but not a great novel. The ending is predictable; the women are really treated poorly; they are either self-indulging witches, psychotic, or abusive. I question what kind of home life the author was raised in.

The story is really of a man caught in a mid-life crisis; a wife he hates, a career not by choice but by trying to please his father, two recently dead parents, and of course the mistress that likes to be used. One or both parents were murdered (never quite su...more
Michael Johnston
What a bleak story. An interesting murder mystery and a convincing story, but... bleak, bleak, bleak. In fact for the first half of the book the story was so unrelentingly, desolately grim that I almost put it down. Everything that could go wrong in one person's life, everything that could make one's life fall into a pit of despair happens early in the book.

The main character (who goes by the name "Work") has just learned that his father has been murdered (two bullets in the head) and left in a...more
Sandy Vaughan
Ah, Audible.com, you have so dented my pocketbook! Between the sales of different kinds one almost on top the the other were just too good to resist!

The King of Lies is a murder mystery taking place in midevil history. Adelia is a doctor but has to use a unic as a beard...otherwise, she would be labeled a witch and suffered the consequences. Who sends her on a mission to ensure the safety of his daughter? The King of England, Henry II! Among the company is her lover and father of her daughter, t...more
Rick Daley
I read the Kindle edition, and to be honest to abundance of typos was staggering. I'm not faulting the author, but if it was my book I would be in serious discussions with my publisher to avoid putting out any of my works in such poor quality. I counted over 50 typos, many were a single sentence with several typos. It seems that no one proofed the digital copy before it went to print.

The most common was a single quote instead of a double quote at the start of dialogue, but there were instances w...more
JoAnne Pulcino
THE KING OF LIES
John Hart
A magnificent debut novel that is brilliant and quickly becomes a complex, fast paced and intelligent mystery thriller.
Jackson Workman Pickens, “Work” is totally overshadowed by his larger than life father. When his mother dies, and his father disappears all his inner demons brought on by a loveless marriage, poor emotional choices, and his worry about his sister’s psychological traumas are swept aside when his father’s murder is discovered.
As Work stands to inherit fift...more
Bill
You know what's refreshing about John Hart? He's got three novels out now and there are no recurring characters. The standalone crime novel. What a concept.

I was really in the mood for a good legal thriller. I had read a very positive review a while back for his Down River, I think it was, and it had mentioned The King of Lies has his impressive debut.
So, naturally, I like to hit a guy's debut effort first.

The King of Lies is not without flaws. There were a few passages where I found some of the...more
Diane
Jackson Workman Pickens ("Work") has everything going for him -- a beautiful wife and a (sort of) successful law practice -- but nothing about him meets the expectations his father (Ezra) has set for him. The night Work's mother dies after a fall down the stairs, his father disappears. When Ezra's body shows up 18 months later with two bullets in his head, Work becomes the prime suspect.

This is an interesting mystery with all sorts of twists and turns. It contains all the typical murder mystery...more
☮Karen
The first half of the book, while it was a good story line, was annoying to me as it seemed like Hart tried too hard to be a creative writer. That's one reason why this isn't 5 stars. The other reason is that I figured out who the killer was. His Last Child was written much better. But the last half of the book really picked up and the writing seemed to improve by leaps and bounds.
Terrie Purkey
Recommended by a friend, this is a good who-dunnit from a first time author. The main character is a tortured soul, unhappy in life and when his very wealthy father is found murdered, he is the obvious suspect. There are plenty of hints, twists and turns to keep the reader engaged and I actually didn't figure it out til the very end. At the beginning I found the sentence structure awkward sometimes, maybe a little formal or something. But by 1/4 of the way into the story, I'd become accustomed t...more
Rob
I have been hearing about John Hart for a bit now, and finally delved into his 1st novel, The King of Lies. Immediately I was drawn in by the atmospheric backdrop & author's descriptive prose, and would later become impressed with the resolute character development.
We meet small town, southern attorney Jackson Workman Pickens, more commonly referred to as "Work," when he is given the news of the discovery of his father's body; a year after his mysterious disappearance. Quickly, investigative...more
Jeffrey
Jun 03, 2008 Jeffrey rated it 5 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: mystery lovers, legal fiction lovers
Shelves: mystery, read-in-2008
Excellent mystery about a lawyer who is accused of murdering his father. The lawyer has an alibi, it appears but he thinks he is protecting his sister who has other demons and there are a lot of bit characters on the stage as well. There is a lot of intrigue as well. The novel hooks you in but if there is one flaw it rambles a little, but I liked it a lot.
Thomas Block
This is the first John Hart novel that I read. There's no question that his wordsmith abilities are top shelf, and there were lots of really good moments throughout the novel. My biggest problem was that the good guys (and girls) in the book were all very touchee-feelie types (that gets really old to me really fast), and almost carbon copies of each other. The bad guys were all very, very bad; they all made Darth Vader look benign.

Hart was definitely at his best when he was talking about police...more
Glee
I didn't hate this book, but it came close at times. Maybe I would have liked it better at another time, but I found myself terribly annoyed. The Southern Gothic wears on me a bit, especially when the cliches are so lazy and the stereotypes are so trite. Not all southerners are in-bred halfwits, but you might not know that from reading this book. And by halfwits I don't even mean dumb, just indecisive and dithering. Unless they were mean. And mean old Daddy who abused all of his family members i...more
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Won copies of this book for my book club 4 18 Feb 06, 2013 05:59am  
The King of Lies (Paperback)
The King of Lies (Paperback)
The King of Lies (Hardcover)
The King of Lies (Paperback)
The King of Lies (Kindle Edition)

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I was born in Durham, North Carolina in 1965, the son of a young surgeon and French teacher who quit teaching to raise her children. Eventually, I moved to Rowan County, where THE KING OF LIES and DOWN RIVER are both set, and on which the fictional Raven County is loosely based. My favorite memory of childhood is a five hundred acre farm that has since fallen to the sweeping tide of development th...more
More about John Hart...
The Last Child Iron House Down River The Art of the Storyboard: A Filmmaker's Introduction Le Roi Des Mensonges: Roman

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