Marked Man [Mass Market Paperback]

William Lashner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 29, 2007

It must have been a hell of a night. One of those long, dangerous nights where the world shifts and doors open. A night of bad judgment and wrong turns, of weariness and hilarity and a hard sexual charge that both frightens and compels. A night where your life changes irrevocably, for better or for worse, but who the hell cares, so long as it changes.

It must have been a night just like that, yeah, if only I could remember it.

All Victor Carl knows is that he’s just woken up with his suit in tatters, his socks missing, and a stinging pain in his chest thanks to a new tattoo he doesn’t remember getting: a heart inscribed with the name Chantal Adair.

My apartment is trashed, my partnership is cracking up, I’m drinking too much, flirting with reporters, sleeping with Realtors. Frankly, I’m in desperate need of something hard and clean in my life, and finding Chantal is all I have.

Is Chantal Adair the love of Victor’s life or a terrible drunken mistake? Victor intends to find out, but right now he’s got bigger concerns. His client, a wanted man, needs to come in out of the cold, and he’s got a stolen painting for Victor to use as leverage.

But someone is not happy that the painting has surfaced. Or that the client is threatening to tell all. Or that Victor is sniffing around for information about Chantal Adair. The closer Victor comes to figuring it all out, the deeper into danger he falls, as the ghosts of the past return to claim what’s theirs.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Bestseller Lashner's novels about the trials and tribulations of Philadelphia defense attorney Victor Carl are theoretically about crimes and criminals, but are really about the protagonist's soul-searching and deep personal involvement in the cases he takes. This solid sixth entry (after 2005's Falls the Shadow) finds Carl's involvement entirely involuntary. After drinking rather too much one evening, Carl wakes up with a splitting hangover and the name Chantal Adair tattooed on his chest. Who is or was Chantal, and what does she have to do with the elderly lady who just called in a very large favor from Carl's father? Ogling every woman within a hundred miles and seizing any opportunity to drive someone else's flashy car or drink someone else's expensive booze, Carl works his grimy, self-deprecating charm for all it's worth as he searches for answers that are guaranteed to be unpleasant. This fun legal thriller may have more show than substance, but is no less entertaining because of it. (On sale May 30)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Who the heck is Chantal Adair, anyway? After a particularly riotous night, defense attorney Victor Carl awakes to discover that her name has been tattooed to his chest. Oh, and his suit is ruined, too, and where have his socks gone? As regular Lashner readers know, Victor Carl is one of the mystery genre's most compelling, most morally ambiguous characters, a lawyer with razor-sharp instincts but a certain fuzziness when it comes to staying within the strict confines of ethical behavior. Here, Victor has picked up an interesting case: a man wanted by the FBI hopes to come in out of hiding, and he's using a stolen Rembrandt painting as a bargaining chip. Someone really doesn't want that painting, or the man himself, to see the light of day, but, despite the life-threatening nature of the case, Victor can't stop thinking of Chantal Adair: Is she his one great love, or merely some drunken one-night stand? Unlike many legal-thriller writers, who present their protagonists as righteous heroes, Lashner thoroughly enjoys exploring the darker, seamier, grungier side of his lead character, and here he peels back a few more of Victor's layers. Genre fans will be reminded of George V. Higgins' Jerry Kennedy and, more recently, John Lescroart's Dismas Hardy. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Harper (May 29, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 006072160X
• ISBN-13: 978-0060721602
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #991,491 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

William Lashner is the New York Times Bestselling author of A KILLER'S KISS, MARKED MAN, FALLS THE SHADOW, PAST DUE, FATAL FLAW, BITTER TRUTH, and HOSTILE WITNESS. His thrillers have been translated into more than a dozen foreign languages and have been sold all across the globe. He also recently published a small existential novel called KOCKROACH under the pseudonym Tyler Knox. Before becoming a novelist, he was a prosecutor with the Department of Justice in Washington D.C. A graduate of the New York University School of Law, as well as the Iowa Writers Workshop, he lives with his wife, his three children, and his dog, Chase Muttley, in Philadelphia.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Victor Carl returns, November 3, 2006

By 

Charles W. Cerny (Richmond, KY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Marked Man (Hardcover)

First let me say that I am a Victor Carl fan. That said, although very readable, this is not the best of the Carl books. I'm sorry but the new investigator just isn't as good as the old one. As usual, Victor bumbles his way through solving the crime but the characters just don't seem as realistic as Lashner usually delivers

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars LASHNER AT HIS BEST AND MOST IMPRESSIVE, June 15, 2006

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Marked Man (Hardcover)

William Lashner is a no holds barred writer, his prose is smart, upbeat, and, at times, uproariously funny. Marked Man is Lashner at his best, and most impressive.

He doesn't wait to reel you in, but opens with a grabber: "It must have been a hell of a night. One of those long, dangerous nights, where the world shifts and doors open and you give yourself over to your more perilous instincts..."

These are the words of Victor Carl, a Philadelphia lawyer. He can't remember the night but his suit is in shreds, his socks are long gone, and he's sporting a new tatoo - a heart inscribed "Chantal Adair."

Dare you to put this book down - it's impossible. Carl will admit his life is in a mess, and he really needs to find Chantal - whoever or whatever she is.

However, that's got to take second place to fulfilling a dying woman's wish - she wants to see her ex-con son one more time before she dies. Not an easy task as said son is in hiding after a 15-year-old art theft.

However, son is willing to barter a missing Monet and Rembrandt, so he says, in order to see his mother. All Carl has to do is arrange this trade-off. Meanwhile, who is Chantal and what is she to Carl? If he ever gets his life straightened out, reading about him will be less interesting. He's certainly not the most dedicated or ethical of attorneys but he is definitely one of the most entertaining.

Enjoy!

- Gail Cooke

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A suspenseful 6th installment to an already terrific series, June 7, 2006

By 

Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Marked Man (Hardcover)

I probably should not reveal a trade secret here, but there are more Victor Carls practicing law than there are Perry Masons. The creation of William Lashner, Victor Carl is a rumpled knight whose considerable legal acumen is matched neither by his office management skills nor his personal habits. MARKED MAN, the sixth installment in the Carl series, fully supports Lashner's ongoing argument that a dramatic novel can be deep, funny, tragic and exciting without sacrificing any of those qualities to another.

In MARKED MAN, Carl wakes up after a night of drinking and discovers that he has a tattoo on his chest. It's not like such an occurrence is totally unheard of; it's just that the tattoo is a name he does not recognize --- Chantal Adair. Intrigued, he wants to find this mystery woman and begins nosing around a bit; the more he finds out, the more important it becomes to track her down.

Meanwhile, Carl is retained to help an elderly woman on her deathbed locate her son, who has been missing for nearly 30 years. Finding him is easy enough, but he has good reason for wanting to stay hidden. Long ago he committed a crime, but is still facing fallout from it --- not only locally, but also from the FBI and by some unknown folks who aren't as restrained and polite as the Feds.

All of this would be more than enough for Carl's plate, but he has additional problems. Beth Derringer is having a life crisis that may bring an end to their law firm. She also has a client with a rough past who is seeking joint custody of her daughter. What Lashner accordingly sets up, in a subtle and brilliant manner, are three separate plotlines, two of which converge and all of which ultimately will share a common theme with different yet bittersweet endings. Carl is a bit of a smart aleck, and some of his remarks are extremely funny --- at one point I was phoning my wife to read a couple of them to her at the office. But MARKED MAN is by no means a comedic novel; there are few winners here.

Lashner sustains and accelerates the momentum of a series that only recently has received the popular acclaim it has deserved from its inception. Its ultimate conclusion marks a turning point of sorts, one that will have readers wondering what will come next. The only certainty is that no one will be disappointed. Highly recommended.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub