Falls the Shadow
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
New York Times bestselling author William Lashner returns with a brilliantly twisty tale that probes the dark side of the law -- and man
Unlike the rest of you, I cheerfully admit to my own utter selfishness. I am self-made, self-absorbed, self-serving, self-referential, even self-deprecating, in a charming sort of way. In short, I am all the selfs except selfless. Yet every so often, I run across a force of nature that shakes my sublime self-centeredness to its very roots. Something that tears through the landscape like a tornado, leaving nothing but ruin and reexamination in its wake. Something like Bob.
--Victor Carl
A beautiful young woman is dead, her husband convicted of the murder. In seeking a new trial for the husband, defense attorney Victor Carl must confront not only a determined prosecutor and a police detective who might have set up his client, but also a strange little busybody named Bob.
Bob has the aspiration, one could even say compulsion, to help those around him. And it usually works out well for all concerned, except when it ends in blood. But Victor doesn’t know that . . . yet.
Thanks to Bob, Victor is suddenly dressing better, dating a stunning woman, and both his economic prospects and his teeth are gleaming. It’s all good, until Victor finds a troubling connection between Bob and the murdered wife. Is Bob a kind of saint or is this obsessive Good Samaritan, in reality, a murderer?
Filled with the keen wit, deep poignancy, twisting suspense, and dark realism that has entranced readers, impressed reviewers, and made William Lashner’s previous novels bestsellers, Falls the Shadow is a riveting novel sure to leave readers eager for more.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Payment in advance lures cheerfully selfish criminal defense attorney Victor Carl (who last fought the good fight in 2004's Past Due) to seek a new trial for Fran ois Dub , a charming French chef convicted of murdering his beautiful wife, in Lashner's fifth legal thriller. Like every case in every courtroom drama, Dub 's is more complicated than it first appears, involving secrets that could humiliate, if not bring down, half of Philadelphia society. Carl, who thinks Dub did it even as his partner, Beth Derringer, says otherwise, is further distracted by a new pro bono client he's taken on and a throbbing toothache that sends him into the less-than-tender hands of Dr. Bob, a dentist who takes a holistic approach by involving himself in every aspect of his patients' lives. Soon Carl's getting himself a new girlfriend, a new wardrobe, new dental work and a new set of troubles from the cream of Philadelphia high life. Lashner works overtime to amuse the reader, arming his tough-talking characters with jokes to spare, leading to a tone that's somewhere between Raymond Chandler and Chandler Bing. Toning down the relentless wisecracking might have helped sell the more serious parts of the book (would the victim's grieving mother really tease Carl about his missing tooth?), but the well-staged plot twists and Carl's amusingly amoral narration make for good beach reading.
Customer Reviews
My first (but not last) taste of Victor Carl
This book was recommended to me by the author's brother, a prominent gastroenterologist, who, like me is from suburban Philadelphia, is stuck with a family of lawyers, and loves baseball.
I am a fan of multiple sub-genres of mystery/suspense, but I love a good procedural. This story is loosely a procedural, but is also a character study. The protagonist, Victor Carl, is a lawyer who is torn between his idealistic love for the law and his disdain for the world that cannot live up to such ideals. The antagonist, Dr. Bob, is an enigmatic meddler who is unable to stop interfering in the lives of others to support his own views of right and wrong. At least that is the book's design. However, by the end of the story, it is not clear to me who was the protagonist and who was the antagonist. This conflict elevates this book well above others of its genre.
Not to be neglected is the author's sense of humor. Even those not from Philly will recognize local semi-celebrities (or pastiches of several) who are being skewered, but the jokes are all in good fun. Especially the restauranteur jokes.