Stan Lerner's Criminal [Hardcover]

Stan Lerner (Author), Lawrence Stern (Editor), None (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 20, 2007

An intense page-turner based on the author's true-life experiences. Stan Lerner s Criminal is the graphic and shocking account of the rise to power of the world s most calculating and dangerous criminal...Sam Noah. Sam Noah was handsome, intelligent, and charismatic. He came from a good family, had the perfect girlfriend, and attended UCLA where he ranked at the top of his class. Noah could have made anything he wanted to out of his life. But crime came naturally to him. The story begins in 1984. The Cold War is at its height and the CIA is looking for still more funding for its covert operations around the world. Powerful men decide that there must be a go to guy. A man that will do whatever is necessary to finance the wars that Congress cannot be made aware of. Sam Noah takes a job at a popular nightclub where he runs a smalltime ticket scam -- and he begins to recruit the ruthless men that will help him build a narcotics empire. When the FBI becomes a gathering threat to Noah, he forms an alliance with the CIA. His innovations -- the crack house and the drive-by shooting -- not only bring an unprecedented level of violence to the streets of America. They assure the powerful men who have engaged his services that Noah is indeed capable of doing the unthinkable. The sale of cocaine makes him rich. His willingness to commit murder ensures that he will remain so. Not since Hannibal Lecter has there been such a horrifying yet engaging mastermind of evil. Stan Lerner s Criminal transports the reader into the darkest of all places: the criminal mind. This is an unforgettable journey into the psyche of Sam Noah -- the man behind some of the most brutal sins against humanity. By the end of this unflinching tale, what may shock the reader the most is how he or she will ultimately identify with and root for this ruthless but brilliant Criminal. Stan Lerner was born in Montebello, California and currently lives in Los Angeles. His vast and diverse body of work has earned him such credits as: the painter of The Black Period, the creator and producer of the Las Vegas music spectacle Night Tribe , the writer, director, producer of the motion picture comedy Meet The Family , and now the author of Stan Lerner s Criminal . Stan Lerner is truly one of the great creative forces of our time.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The most intense book I've ever read! --Eric Reid ICM

Comedy and convenience are not found in Stan Lerner's Criminal as it dares and delivers one of the best stories ever told. --GrooveTickets

About the Author

Even prior to his thirteenth birthday Stan Lerner the child prodigy was compared to the great artists of history. His paintings were of the stature of Miro and his writings reminiscent of Poe, and Tolstoy. Today he stands almost alone as the towering artistic force or our time. From the paintings of Black Period, to the motion picture Meet The Family , to the Las Vegas music spectacle Night Tribe , and the novel Stan Lerner's Criminal in between he has done nothing less than shift the paradigm of his chosen mediums. An artist s, artist, his name resounds in the worlds of both art and business, but more than this his work has been a light to the disenfranchised. Embracing the dark, not afraid to find humor, the pure sexual celebration of music, all part of his most diverse pallet. Born and raised in East Los Angeles Stan Lerner the author is the product of the worst public school systems in the United States. Yet he was accepted to UCLA where he attended, and was perhaps most distinguished for his lifestyle and business savvy. A multi-millionaire artist by the age of eighteen his great artistic talent was perhaps eclipsed in the public eye by his fantastic wealth and fast lifestyle. Ultimately the death of his beloved father gave him the focus to pursue his artistic talents singularly. As a painter, playwright, musician, choreographer, screenwriter, director, and novelist, triumph after triumph has ensued. The one time jet setter is now hardly seen in public. The Lerner work however is never ending and always evolving. It is hard to imagine that such a profound body of work spanning more than twenty years is the work of a man just forty-two years of age. Lerner now only further solidifies his place in history and his value as a national treasure with every work.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 622 pages
• Publisher: Lerner Wordsmith Press; 1st edition (August 20, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0964964414
• ISBN-13: 978-0964964419
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.2 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,676,506 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Stan Lerner is an award winning-author whose diverse credits include the novels "Stan Lerner's Criminal", "Blast", the novellas "In Development", "Get Chicks 101", "Get The Right Guy", the self-help book "Impact", and the children's book "Stanley The Elephant." Stan Lerner is also the creator of the Las Vegas music spectacle "Night Tribe" and the writer, director, producer of the hit motion picture comedy "Meet The Family". When not doing all of the aforementioned Mr. Lerner is the editor and principle writer for http://www.downtownster.com. which features the ground breaking, serialized, semi-fictional blog "The Adventures Of Downtown Oliver Brown" - Stan Lerner' Blogs have garnered an audience of more than two million readers--and this audience grows daily.
Mr. Lerner was born in Montebello CA and has lived in downtown Los Angeles for the last thirteen years.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A New Natural Born Killer, February 24, 2008

By 

Alex Hutchinson "Author of Almost Columbine" (Grove City, Florida) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Stan Lerner's Criminal (Hardcover)

On rare occasion there comes a tale that dives so deep into the mind of a killer that the reader gets ill from the spectacle. I have yet to turn down a book for review, but with Stan Lerner's Criminal, I was tempted. The graphic violence and psychological depravity exhibited by the main character, Sam Noah, is unlike anything I've ever read before.

Sam is a UCLA student who gets a job working the door at a nightclub and uses it as a springboard for his ever-growing list of felonious enterprises. As a bouncer, he exhibits a joy for dominating unsuspecting patrons and taking advantage of underage girls. As a killer, he is as ruthless as any mob boss.

Secret side door ticket sales evolve into drug dealing, which evolves into a private limousine service meant to front his finances from the police and the IRS. Along the way he reaches out to disenfranchised lunatics, pushing their buttons until they become serial killers in their own right. Then Sam calls the FBI and hints about how best to catch his prodigy creations.

Sam Noah is the very definition of a criminal in all of the worst ways. He is the Nazi extension of a modern day, calculating psychopath who cares so little about the value of human life, any friend or passerby could be his next victim. His vulgarity toward these individuals is without bounds.

This book should come with a caution sign painted across the front of it. In one scene a woman is tied naked to a tree and her breasts are cut off with a carving knife. In another, two women are sniffing cocaine off the main character's erect penis. Whether it is masochism or homicide, there is always a forward thinking line of reasoning behind Sam's every action.

Criminal reads like the literary version of Natural Born Killers. It shows the world from the antagonist's perspective and does not yield to self-censorship. As an epic tale it lacks the respect and structure of the Godfather and plays out more like the fast paced film, New Jack City.

Stan Lerner should be applauded for assembling this enormous project, but his audience might be limited to those with morbid fascinations and strong stomachs.