Fatal Flaw (Mass Market Paperback)

~ (Author) "GUY FORREST was sitting on the cement steps outside the house when I arrived..." (more)
Key Phrases: lucky jacket, lawn boy, raincoat pocket, Hailey Prouix, Guy Forrest, Jesse Sterrett (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Fatal Flaw is a rare delight: a legal thriller with freshness and vitality, qualities too often lacking in this sometimes-tired genre. This third entry in the Victor Carl series opens with a bang, as Victor finds fellow lawyer Guy Forrest on the front stoop of his lover's house, stark naked in the pouring rain, a gun beside him, the lover's bloody corpse on the bed inside. He sure looks guilty--but then, little is as it looks in this exceedingly well-plotted tale. The first 30 pages alone deliver several jolting revelations that change what we thought we knew, and the surprises keep coming right up to the last few pages.

Fortunately, William Lashner is as fine a wordsmith as he is a plotter. The settings are crisply evoked, from Philadelphia and Las Vegas to the dirt-poor Appalachians. All the characters are vivid, and a few--including the murder victim--are well-nigh unforgettable. But it's the narrative voice of Victor Carl that really carries the book. Cynical, funny, streetwise, and ethically flexible, he's an exceptionally engaging guy. And, like some of the wisecracking private eyes he resembles, he can deliver both breezy sarcasm and real emotional power. My suggestion: Reach past those other legal thrillers and put Fatal Flaw at the top of your reading list. --Nicholas H. Allison --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

At the start of this highly readable if predictable third thriller by Lashner (Hostile Witness; Veritas), Philadelphia lawyer Carl answers the late-night distress call of his friend Guy Forrest and finds him naked and sobbing on the front steps of a suburban house. Inside is the corpse of Guy's lover, Hailey Prouix, the woman for whom he left his devoted wife and kids. Even though at first he's unconvinced of Guy's innocence, Carl eventually agrees to represent Guy when he's charged with murder. Carl also holds an important secret that he keeps from Guy; from his own legal partner, Beth; from everyone, in fact, but the reader: Carl was Hailey Prouix's lover, too. In the novel's early chapters, Lashner effectively describes the mind games that Carl plays with himself, rationalizing decisions that are in his own best interest, if not those of his client. Once he believes Guy's earnest claims, Carl begins to probe Prouix's past, more to answer his own nagging questions about her than to find her killer or even to save Guy. The trail takes him to Las Vegas and to Prouix's childhood home in West Virginia. The past sins and crimes that Carl uncovers are of the predictably unspeakable variety. Indeed, the plot has a by-the-numbers feel: in one set piece, Carl is pursued and run off the road by a mystery car with tinted windows. What raises Lashner's thriller above the ordinary is its rich and resonant first-person narrative. Since his debut in 1995's Hostile Witness, the character of Carl has aged like fine wine. His wit is sharper and deeper now, but he also displays a bittersweet nostalgia and a more seasoned (if jaded) worldview. He's a provocative and entertaining guide, far more entertaining than the journey on which he leads us.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher: HarperTorch (March 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060508183
• ISBN-13: 978-0060508180
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #331,211 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Prolific!, June 11, 2003

By	Kelly Delaney (Norris, TN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fatal Flaw (Hardcover)

Although this is the third in the Victor Carl series, it was the first I've read to date. Now I can't wait to start at the beginning. The author's style is great, the plot interesting, and the mystery, although pretty easy to figure out, is still a good one. Although I thought at first that Victor Carl was a carbon-copy of lawyers portrayed in other books, I quickly found out this was not so. Lashner has the gift of expression, and the courtroom drama is better than Grisham at his best. I'm a fan!

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling and clever mystery/thriller, May 24, 2003

By	Jon Ringold (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fatal Flaw (Hardcover)

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.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tight Plot!, June 15, 2005

By	Marion "[e-mail]" (Louisiana) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Wow! The plot of this book was not only totally sweet, but also as tight as they come. When you learn in the first chapter that the attorney (Victor Carl) was bopping his best friend, Guy Forrest's fiance, Hailey, then said attorney is called to the scene of Hailey's murder and finds Guy sitting naked on the front steps of the murder scene with the smoking gun in his hand! Whoa! This book grabbed me from the get-go and didn't let go until the final chapter when everything is wrapped up in a nice, neat package. I haven't read a murder mystery this good in many moons. If you're looking for a great summer read, get this one. It won't let you down.