Past Due [Paperback]

William Lashner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 27, 2004

It means something to be a client. It means he gets my loyalty, whether he deserves it or not. It means he gets my absolute best for the price of an hourly fee. It means in a world where every person has turned against him there is one person who will fight by his side for as long as there is a battle to be fought.
-- Victor Carl

Author of the acclaimed novels Fatal Flaw, Bitter Truth, and Hostile Witness, bestselling writer William Lashner crafts dark, witty, engrossing tales of suspense involving one of the most intriguing characters of modern popular fiction: Victor Carl.

A defense attorney who lives his life in shades of gray, Victor Carl fights all the right fights for all the wrong reasons. With a failing legal practice, a dead-end love life, a pile of unpaid traffic tickets, and a talent for mixing it up in tough working-class bars and sparring with obstinate cops, Victor skates on the razor's edge of legal ethics in search of the easy buck. But the one absolute in Victor's life is loyalty, especially to a client -- even if he happens to be dead. Like Joey Cheaps, a no-account who takes a knife to the throat down on the waterfront, but not before he shares with his lawyer his part in a terrible crime.

With his client murdered, Victor must search for a killer. But solving the crime means investigating the darkest spot in Joey Cheaps's misspent youth, sending Victor on a twisting journey that leads to a missing suitcase stuffed with money, photographs of a mysterious naked woman, and a Supreme Court justice with a secret to hide. And most dangerous of all, Victor steps into the crosshairs of a vengeful enemy with a past full of pain and a taste for blood.

As thrilling as it is darkly evocative, Past Due is a superb tale of crime and justice that takes the intrepid Victor Carl into brilliant new territory and confirms William Lashner's place among the top suspense writers of our time.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Lashner's latest, his fourth and longest, is another big and beautifully written saga, narrated by righteous, melancholy Philadelphia lawyer Victor Carl. Though the book is nominally a legal thriller, the Dickensian atmospherics command as much notice as the plot. A complex case connecting a recent murder to one 20 years ago counterpoints Victor's hospital visits to his dying father, who is obsessed with unburdening himself of (mostly sad) stories from his youth. It's a tribute to Lashner's skill that these yarns hold their own against the more dramatic main story line. Victor has been retained by petty wiseguy Joey Parma (known as Joey Cheaps) about an unsolved murder a generation ago. The victim was young lawyer Tommy Greeley, and Joey Cheaps was one of two perps, though he was never caught. When Joey is found near the waterfront with his throat slashed, Victor knows his duty. This involves considerable legwork and clashes with an array of sharply drawn characters; Lashner is in his element depicting this rogue's gallery, and Victor riffs philosophically on his encounters. Foremost among the shady figures is a femme fatale (improbably but appropriately) named Alura Straczynski, who sets her sights on Victor. It's a move more strategic than romantic, but no less dangerous for him. The standard coverup by men in high places waits at the end of Victor's odyssey, but this novel, like Lashner's previous ones, is all about the journey. Lashner's writing-or is it Victor's character?-gains depth and richness with every installment.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Joey Cheaps is a bottom feeder. He flits around the edges of the Philadelphia criminal underworld but never scores anything but trouble and jail time. Victor Car, whose place in the legal hierarchy is akin to Joey's in the criminal, is his attorney. Joey reveals to Victor his role in a 20-year-old drug rip-off in which an anonymous young man died. Victor can't fathom why Joey chose to bare his soul when he did but decides to find out when Joey's throat is slit shortly after his confession. Using his police connections to match missing-persons files and unsolved homicides to Joey's time frame, Victor comes up with the likely name of Joey's victim: Tommy Greeley, a failing law student moonlighting in the drug business. Among Greeley's youthful circle were many who subsequently rose to prominence in law and politics. Victor lets the genie out of the bottle with his inquiries on behalf of a failed hood and soon finds himself threatened and his clients receiving unduly harsh penalties in court. Lashner, best-selling author of Fatal Flaw [BKL Mr 15 03], has a rich, sometimes poetic style, but he leavens his prose with humor that fluctuates between morbid and whimsical. This is an extremely good crime novel, and it vaults Lashner into the upper reaches of the hardboiled universe, along with Pelecanos, Lehane, and a very few others. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow (April 27, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060725788
• ISBN-13: 978-0060508173
• ASIN: 0060508175
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,413,470 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

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What's the Problem?, May 29, 2005

By 

Chris Mclaughlin "teamsheltie" (Hawley, Ma USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Past Due (Mass Market Paperback)

I was surprised so few have reviewed this book and the four stars was equally confusing. The writing is superb. The dialogue is funny, genuine and snappy as all get out. The plot is fast-paced and the characters are colorful and interesting. Quite frankly, I couldn't put it down. Lashner scores with this one and adds a new fan to his readers base. I won't hesitate to pick up his next, in hardcover. Read it and enjoy!

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A New Dimension for Lashner, June 25, 2004

By 

John R. Linnell (New Gloucester, ME United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Past Due (Paperback)

This is Lashner's most ambitious work and is clearly a departure from his first three books, all of which I read and enjoyed. South Phildelphia lawyer Victor Carl is the narrator, but this has little to do with being a Grisham type novel. This is Mystic River moves to South Philly. It all starts with Joey Cheaps getting his throat slashed. Joey leaves the world the way he lived in it, owing everyone in sight, including Carl. Hours before his death Joey had met with Victor Carl and as Carl put it, "...Joey Cheaps had given me something. It was something I didn't want, something I had no use for, but he had given it to me all the same. He had given me a murder." As Carl recounts Joey's tale of a twenty year old murder he also reveals a part of himself and his loyalty to a client. That loyalty in Victor Carl's world means "in a world where every person has turned against him there is one person who will fight by his side as long as there is a battle to be fought. And the final battle, far as I could see, was just beginning." Truer words were never put to paper.

Carl's search for Joey's killer leads down many paths and to many interesting a bizarre characters. Halfway through the book he notes, "I had gotten in the middle of something, of which I didn't have the first clue." Right again.

The story unwinds like the peeling of an onion and glimpses of the answer show for a moment and then the story turns in another direction. However, no matter what direction it takes, the reader has signed on for the duration and the answer when it comes, is well worth the trip.

On a personal note, I came by this book through the generosity of a lady who has read my reviews and found them useful. Her husband had started the book, but found it not to his liking and declined to finish it. She offered to send it to me to see what I thought of it. Well, I am delighted she did and I would be more than happy to return it so that she might read it or her husband might give it a second chance. I found it fascinating and I hope you will also.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars fine private investigator tale, April 29, 2004

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Past Due (Paperback)

In Philadelphia, lawyer Victor Carl visits his dying father residing at the Temple University Hospital. His dad may be near death and seems to only tell melancholy tales from his youth, but has enough of his faculties to know that his son's cable is out and the Sixers are on TV.

Meanwhile pathetic insignificant wannabe thug Joey "Cheaps" Parma wants to retain Victor involving the murder of a lawyer Tommy Greeley twenty years ago. Only Victor would agree to assist Joey Cheaps, who not only never pays on time, is assumed guilty even by his attorney, and admits to his lawyer that he was one of the killers. However, not long afterward, the throat slashed corpse of Joey Cheaps is found near the waterfront. Though he knows he will not get paid and realizes he should mind his business, Victor feels a certain obligation to his dead client and begins making inquiries into what happened two decades ago and why suddenly did that homicide resurface into a new murder.

Though the conspiratorial ending and the lack of legalese makes the tale more a private investigator novel, fans will enjoy touring Philadelphia on Victor Carl's days off. The story line is fast-paced, punctuated by Victor's sarcasm, much of which is self-effacing. His relationship with his dad adds a humanizing sidebar even if the Iverson is the draw. Readers will enjoy trekking the town with Victor as he does what he believes is right even for a dead beat loser like Cheaps.

Harriet Klausner