Marked Man (Hardcover)

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)
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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

"Fun...entertaining." (Publishers Weekly )

"Dry and witty." (Kirkus Reviews )

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.

--This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

New York Times bestselling author William Lashner is the author of seven suspense novels that have been published in more than a dozen languages throughout the world. A graduate of the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop, he lives with his family outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

--This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.