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Synopsis
Late one night Victor Carl gets a panicked phone call from an old law school classmate. Guy Forrest claims he has just found the body of his fiancé lying murdered in the house they shared. The victim is Hailey Prouix, for whose love Guy had abandoned his children, his job, his wife, his life. Hailey had mesmerized every man she ever met - including, unbeknownst to Guy, Victor Carl. Convinced that Guy is Hailey's killer, Victor agrees to represent him, all the while secretly vowing to see justice done, whatever the cost.
Victor embarks on a quest that will take him from Philadelphia to Las Vegas to the valleys of West Virginia. He digs further into Hailey Prouix's past and discovers that nothing is as simple as it had seemed, especially the woman he thought he loved. As Guy's murder trial heads toward its shattering conclusion, Victor must find the brutal truth before the mechanism of retribution he himself has set into motion falls like a hatchet, smack on his client's head.
Publishers Weekly
At the start of this highly readable if predictable third thriller by Lashner (Hostile Witness; Veritas), Philadelphia lawyer Carl answers the late-night distress call of his friend Guy Forrest and finds him naked and sobbing on the front steps of a suburban house. Inside is the corpse of Guy's lover, Hailey Prouix, the woman for whom he left his devoted wife and kids. Even though at first he's unconvinced of Guy's innocence, Carl eventually agrees to represent Guy when he's charged with murder. Carl also holds an important secret that he keeps from Guy; from his own legal partner, Beth; from everyone, in fact, but the reader: Carl was Hailey Prouix's lover, too. In the novel's early chapters, Lashner effectively describes the mind games that Carl plays with himself, rationalizing decisions that are in his own best interest, if not those of his client. Once he believes Guy's earnest claims, Carl begins to probe Prouix's past, more to answer his own nagging questions about her than to find her killer or even to save Guy. The trail takes him to Las Vegas and to Prouix's childhood home in West Virginia. The past sins and crimes that Carl uncovers are of the predictably unspeakable variety. Indeed, the plot has a by-the-numbers feel: in one set piece, Carl is pursued and run off the road by a mystery car with tinted windows. What raises Lashner's thriller above the ordinary is its rich and resonant first-person narrative. Since his debut in 1995's Hostile Witness, the character of Carl has aged like fine wine. His wit is sharper and deeper now, but he also displays a bittersweet nostalgia and a more seasoned (if jaded) worldview. He's a provocative and entertaining guide, far more entertaining than the journey on which he leads us. 6-city author tour. (May 16) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.