Dismas Hardy: A Mysterious Profile

By John Lescroart

The New York Times–bestselling author tells the story of how he created his popular San Francisco sleuth.

In 1989, everyman Dismas Hardy debuted in John Lescroart’s mystery, Dead Irish. It’s a story millions of readers have enjoyed, along with other entries in the New York Times–bestselling series. But a tale they may not know is how Lescroat invented the ex-Marine, ex-cop, and ex-lawyer turned sleuth.

In this brief autobiographical essay, Lescroart details the development of Dismas Hardy, as well as his own career. He discusses his attempt to be a “serious” novelist, his stint as the lead singer of a band, and his struggle to get published. He also talks about how he realized he was meant to be a writer (and not working a “regular” nine-to-five) and how Dismas’s adventures almost didn’t become the series readers love.

Praise for the Dismas Hardy Novels

“Compulsively readable . . . a dense and involving saga of big-city crime and punishment.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“A beautifully written San Francisco murder story with perfect-pitch dialogue.” —Playboy on Dead Irish

 

“The killer proves to be as fascinating a personality as Hardy himself.” —Publishers Weekly on Dead Irish

“The narrative flows effortlessly and includes a Perry Mason–worthy moment when Hardy manifests a bit of courtroom magic. Lescroart is a perfect choice for readers who enjoy great ensemble casts.” —Booklist on Poison

• Language: English
• Publisher: MysteriousPress.com Open Road
• Release date: May 10, 2022
• ISBN: 9781504074476

John Lescroart

John Lescroart is the New York Times bestselling author of twenty-nine previous novels, including the The Rule of Law, Poison, and Fatal. His books have sold more than ten million copies and have been translated into twenty-two languages. He lives in Northern California.

Book preview

Dismas Hardy

A Mysterious Profile

John Lescroart

Dismas Hardy

I wrote my first book in college.

It was what would now be called a legal thriller, based on the idea that capital punishment was cruel and unusual because the condemned person knew that the execution was coming. I developed the conceit that the death penalty would be more humane if the condemned didn’t know about the sentence, if one day he merely went to the prison doctor for a routine injection or vaccination, and instead the medication was a fatal one. No doubt it’s for the best that this book remains unpublished, but in it, I named the condemned man Dismas Hardy. He appeared for about one page, was dispatched, and disappeared.

But the name struck me as particularly memorable, in the mold of, say, Travis McGee or Sherlock Holmes. (It was probably the single best thing in the book.) In any event, I resolved that if I ever did get to writing a mystery series, my hero would be called Dismas Hardy. I knew that Dismas was the name of the good thief on Calvary, who was crucified next to Jesus, and it was always good to have a biblical antecedent to help provide kind of an instant sense of gravitas in a hero. As for the surname Hardy, I had grown up with the Hardy Boys—Frank and Joe—and it seemed to me that there really couldn’t be a better all-American, highly-pedigreed last name for a detective. So that was settled; my hero would be called Dismas Hardy.

Of course, I wasn’t planning on becoming a mystery writer in those days. After all, I was studying the continental novel in translation at UC Berkeley—Stendahl, Camus, Tolstoy, etc. I was serious. But I was a confident cuss, and a part of me thought that I could probably write a Nobel-quality literary work every few years and pay the bills by whipping out a steady stream of entertaining mystery fiction (under