Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Fatal Flaw by William Lashner, Peter Francis James ISBN: 0-06-055644-7 Publisher: HarperAudio Pub. Date: 06 May, 2003 Format: Audio Cassette Volumes: 4 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.3 (20 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Bad Love
Comment: Talk about an ambitious plot! Victor Carl, a lawyer, finds his friend, Guy Forrest, also a lawyer, sitting naked outside the house of his friend's murdered girlfriend, Hailey Prouix, who of course is (or was) also a lawyer. Got that? But wait - there's more. It turns out that old Vic was also sleeping with Hailey, and he agrees to represent prime-supect Guy in his defense as Hailey's murderer. As Guy's lawyer, Vic figures, he can make sure that Guy, who maintains an improbable innocence, pays his due for the murder of Vic's also-girlfriend Hailey. Convoluted? You bet. But nonetheless, this is one terrific read. And not simply because the plot's main characters are all lawyers who are either 1) dead, 2) in jail awaiting trial, or 3) twisting the law for personal gain.
William Lashner - think Grisham without the cornpone. Or the street smarts and grit of "Mystic River"(s) Dennis Lehane with the courtroom realism of Scott Turow. Lashner's "Fatal Flaw" is a compulsive tale of love, betrayal, murder, and mayhem wrapped around a good old-fashioned who-dunnit and a compelling courtroom drama. This guy is the real deal: sharp dialogue, interesting and believing characters, well-drawn settings, an intriguing storyline. Lashner's Hailey Prouix, while dead from the first page, emerges through the memories of those still living as one witchy woman, able to reduce a man to a sniveling pile of desire with a mere bump of the knee. Lashner takes us on a journey through time and place, from Philadelphia's home of the affair and murder, to the Las Vegas strip, to the hills of West Virginia in an investigation that will reach back into the hills of Hailey's childhood. And the deeper Carl digs, the more his certainty fades, as a murky tale of old murder and dark secrets unfolds. Vic Carl is an engaging and believable protagonist backed by a dependable supporting cast, most notably Philadelphia Main Line Detective Breger and private investigator Phil Skink, the human metaphor of a blunt instrument. While the reader will likely figure out the end game well into the last third of the book, expect no diminishing enthusiasm in reaching the payoff. The reader is held helpless in Lashner's vicelock grip to the last word.
If you're looking for a real page turner - a fresh and exciting take on the overdone legal drama - look no further. William Lashner's "Fatal Flaw" is on the top self of American pop crime fiction.
Rating: 5
Summary: Compelling and clever mystery/thriller
Comment: William Lashner's "Fatal Flaw" is a terrific novel, a compelling page-turner that's all the more accomplished for the way it succeeds at two antithetical goals. On the baser level, the novel is a wonderful example of that Grisham-patented sub-genre known as the legal thriller. The plot, about a jaded attorney who's asked to defend a law school buddy on a murder charge, is carefully wrought and fiendishly clever, with swoops and twists that are mostly unpredictable but somehow always plausible (at least while you're caught up in the plot's momentum).
Lashner has a florid, hard-boiled, wiseguy style: In contrast to Grisham, who uses words solely to advance his plots, Lashner's love of wordplay and interesting turns of phrase makes his prose a pleasure to read.
The main characters have surprising depth and moral shading. Victor Carl, the defending attorney, has developed impressively (as a character, not necessarily as a human being) since Lashner introduce him in "Hostile Witness." From that novel and its successor, "Veritas", we came to know Victor as the polar opposite of a high-powered attorney: seedy, cynical, and resourceful - very much like Humphrey Bogart in "The Maltese Falcon," but with a Jewish patina.
In "Fatal Flaw," Lashner pushes his hero over the edge of decency and professional ethics. As the novel opens, Victor arrives at the scene of the crime to find his client, Guy Forrest, sitting naked on his doorstep, while the body of Guy's fiancée -- an Appalachia-bred beauty named Hailey Prouix - is still warm upstairs. Without any hesitation, Victor begins rearranging and removing evidence.
How Lashner manages to make this ethically challenged hack likeable - indeed, even heroic - is one of the novel's giddy accomplishments. Equally skillful is the way he uses flashback, clues, and reminiscences to turn Hailey into one of the most intriguing femme fatales in recent memory. (Ashley Judd, call your agent!)
On a higher level, "Fatal Flaw" functions as a kind of meta-mystery, an insinuating parody of the detective novel-slash-legal thriller. Lashner seems to have thrown in every convention, stereotype and affectation he could think of, drawing on influences ranging from Chandler and Cain to Grisham and Turow. The plot twists, while not predictable in themselves, occur at predictable intervals; the racy language is deliberately overheated by just a couple of degrees; and the eccentric supporting characters are rendered (and named) with almost Dickensian flair. It's hard to resist a creation like Phil Skink, the skanky investigator who seems to ooze rancid foreboding from every pore.
As you read each sentence, you can almost hear Lashner chuckling with his tongue planted firmly in his cheek. Yet while this sort of mocking detachment can kill a good thriller, Lashner's approach only enhances it. In "Fatal Flaw," Lashner assembles all the usual suspects of the genre and emerges with something unusually startling and pleasurable.
Rating: 5
Summary: Great Read!
Comment: For those who like a book to move right along, have a great plot, and give the reader a fair chance at solving the mystery, this is the book. I was very impressed!
 |
Title: Bitter Truth by William Lashner ISBN: 006056038X Publisher: HarperTorch Pub. Date: 25 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
 |
Title: Hostile Witness by William Lashner ISBN: 0061009881 Publisher: ReganBooks Pub. Date: 01 April, 1996 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
 |
Title: The Narrows: A Novel by Michael Connelly ISBN: 0316155306 Publisher: Little, Brown Pub. Date: 03 May, 2004 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
 |
Title: Past Due by William Lashner ISBN: 0060508175 Publisher: William Morrow Pub. Date: 27 April, 2004 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
 |
Title: The Second Chair: A Novel by John T. Lescroart ISBN: 0525947752 Publisher: Dutton Books Pub. Date: 26 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
