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Fatal Flaw by William Lashner
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Fatal Flaw (edition 2004)

by William Lashner

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178560,683 (3.65)19
Member:teeth
Title:Fatal Flaw
Authors:William Lashner
Info:HarperTorch (2004), Mass Market Paperback, 576 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:***1/2
Tags:legal thriller

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Fatal Flaw by William Lashner

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This was a great legal thriller. it was a bit slow in parts but i enjoyed the book and would read another book from this author. ( )
  teeth | Feb 29, 2012 |
3rd in the Victor Carl, Philadelphia defense lawyer, series.

Another outstanding entry in this series. Carl has become obsessed with his lover, Hailey, a beautiful sad, seductive woman who is also a lawyer. Called one night to the home of his friend Gary, another lawyer--who coincidentally just happens also to be Hailey’s lover with whom Gary is living--Carl finds Gary naked out on the front stoop and Hailey murdered inside. Carl swears to find out the truth of the murder and bring the murderer to justice--and is convinced that Gary is the murderer. Accepting Gary’s request to be his lawyer, Carl cold-bloodedly sets up to sabotage the defense and see Gary get at least life if not the death penalty for the murder.

But things are not always what they seem.

A fast-paced thriller that follows Carl to Las Vegas, West Virginia, and the inside of a courtroom as the plot takes any number of twists and turns. A new characters shows up, the inimitable Phil Skink, somewhat disreputable private investigator. If nothing else, Lashner has a knack for inventing engaging and unusual private detectives!

The writing is above average, the characters believable and well-depicted, and the plot is extremely well-done. Highly recommended. ( )
  Joycepa | Nov 17, 2010 |
Hailey Prouix was loved by many, too many. Guy Forrest was her fiance, and she was the life of his life. He left his wife, children, and successful career to be with her. So what happened that made him the prime suspect in her murder. Victor Carl was her lover, they meant in secret and let no one know of their affair. Guy and Victor go all the way back to law school. On the night of Hailey's death Guy called Victor and asked for his help. When Victor arrived at the home of Guy and Hailey he found Guy sitting naked on the front stoop with the murder weapon in his hands. Victor then promised Guy that he would help him, what he didn't say was that the help would be to make him pay for killing the woman they both loved. Victor quickly makes decisions that will help aid in the speedy conviction of Guy.

Unfortunately for the both of them, not long after it seems that Victor has succeeded in sealing Guy's fate, small details start to not add up just right. Somewhere, Hailey has more lovers and Victor must travel through time and space to uncover the secret life of the the woman he loved but never quite knew.
  molly4407 | Aug 19, 2008 |
Attorney Victor Carl returns in “Fatal Flawâ€? by William Lashner. When Victor receives a phone call from fellow attorney and friend Guy Forrest on a dark and rainy night, you can be sure it’s not good news. Victor finds Guy sitting naked holding a gun outside the house he shared with Hailey Prouix, the woman he gave up everything for. Inside his lover lies shot dead. Guy swears he did not kill her, but Victor thinks otherwise. After all, what’s a guy to believe? His perceptions are perhaps slightly colored by his own involvement with the deceased woman. He makes a vow to help Guy. Help him right into a death sentence that is. Victor quickly assesses the situation and takes the necessary steps to lead to a quick conviction for his former pal.
But once those steps have been taken, he begins to discover that he may be very wrong about so many things. Can Carl unspring the trap that he has set for his client? A trap that may not only convict an innocent man, but also implicate himself? To pursue justice (and save his own hide) he must travel across the country and into the past, to uncover the dark secrets in the life of the woman he thought he knew so well, yet never really knew at all. The plot is clever and unpredictable, told in the cynical voice of the “ethically flexibleâ€? Victor Carl.
1 vote dailyplanit | Jul 8, 2006 |
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Guy Forrest was sitting on the cement steps outside the house when I arrived.
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Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 0060508183, Mass Market Paperback)

Fatal Flaw is a rare delight: a legal thriller with freshness and vitality, qualities too often lacking in this sometimes-tired genre. This third entry in the Victor Carl series opens with a bang, as Victor finds fellow lawyer Guy Forrest on the front stoop of his lover's house, stark naked in the pouring rain, a gun beside him, the lover's bloody corpse on the bed inside. He sure looks guilty--but then, little is as it looks in this exceedingly well-plotted tale. The first 30 pages alone deliver several jolting revelations that change what we thought we knew, and the surprises keep coming right up to the last few pages.

Fortunately, William Lashner is as fine a wordsmith as he is a plotter. The settings are crisply evoked, from Philadelphia and Las Vegas to the dirt-poor Appalachians. All the characters are vivid, and a few--including the murder victim--are well-nigh unforgettable. But it's the narrative voice of Victor Carl that really carries the book. Cynical, funny, streetwise, and ethically flexible, he's an exceptionally engaging guy. And, like some of the wisecracking private eyes he resembles, he can deliver both breezy sarcasm and real emotional power. My suggestion: Reach past those other legal thrillers and put Fatal Flaw at the top of your reading list. --Nicholas H. Allison

(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 14 Feb 2013 13:52:01 -0500)

(see all 4 descriptions)

"Lust will make a fool of any man, but it is only love that can truly ruin him. So says Victor Carl, the ethically adventurous Philadelphia lawyer who usually ends up doing the right thing, but, as his law partner says, often for all the wrong reasons." "Late one night Victor gets a panicked phone call from an old law school classmate. Guy Forrest claims he has just found the body of his fiancee 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." "But when Victor's certainty begins to crack, he embarks on a quest that will take him from Philadelphia to Las Vegas to the valleys of West Virginia and back again. He digs further and further into Hailey Prouix's past and discovers that nothing is as simple as it had seemed, especially the woman he though he loved." "Who was Hailey Prouix? Behind the answer lurks a killer. 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."--BOOK JACKET.… (more)

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