The Second Chair (2004)

Picking up where ''The First Law'' left off, Lescroart's attorney/cop tag team of Dismas Hardy and Abe Glitsky reunite. Disillusioned by the ''system'' after the shooting of a mutual friend, Hardy has been plea-bargaining away most of his cases while his deskbound SFPD pal longs for his more active lieutenant days. The bungling of a double-murder case by a young associate, however, soon thrusts a reluctant Hardy back into the courtroom and an eager Glitsky onto the trail of a killer dubbed the ''Executioner.'' Despite an initially slow pace and Lescroart's heavy reliance on story lines from prior novels, ''Chair'' is an entertaining, if unoriginal, page-turner.