Past Due

by William Lashner

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Editorial Reviews
Product Description

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.

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All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review: 4 out of 5 stars

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

5 out of 5 stars

Lashner is the best!, 2008-06-14
This was my first William Lashner novel and still my favorite. After reading this I bought all his books and took a vacation. Lashner's writing skills are unmatched. There are only two writers who can make me get up and lock all the doors and laugh out loud all in the same page. Nelson Demille and William Lashner. Only William Lashner is better. The characters are so real you can almost touch them. After reading all of Lashner's books I find myself wondering aimlessly through book stores in search of a writer just as talented. I'm always disappointed.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5 out of 5 stars

Funny and engrossing, 2007-05-21
I picked up PAST DUE one night on a whim, knowing nothing about William Lashner or his reputation in the mystery genre. The cover caught my eye, and it looked thick, so being the type who prefers more of an epic story, I snatched it off the shelf and perused the first line.

I was hooked. And the book took off from there.

Lashner created a very funny anti-hero in Victor Carl, a sleazy Philadelphia lawyer intent on keeping his word to find a murdered client's killer. Carl's loyalty sees him encounter dangerous thugs of all types, from members of the Mafia to crooked politicians and judges, to drug dealers and their hangers-on. They all put Carl through the ringer, and do so in such smart and funny ways that many times I found myself laughing out loud at what transpired. The mystery is superb, keeping you guessing until the VERY end, and Carl's occasional visits to his dying father in the hospital are funny and touching all at once. All the characters are drawn to perfection, too, making you believe in them and accenting the story with that much more poignancy.

Lashner's chapter endings are among the best I've ever read. So good, in fact, that I absolutely hated when I had to put the book down. So my only qualm with PAST DUE really only concerns the ending. Lashner has a ton of expectation riding on the climax, dispensing with the humor and getting serious as the end approaches. But then, in one fell swoop, everything turns comical again when we find out who's behind it all and why. Needless to say, I felt let down, almost a bit cheated. Seems he wanted to lighten the mood a bit prematurely.

Nevertheless, I still heartily recommend PAST DUE for any mystery, suspense, or thriller enthusiast out there. The story's a funny, intriguing romp that takes you through the highest courts in Philly to the seediest parts of its underbelly. Truly epic in scope, pick up PAST DUE for a good laugh and a good mystery.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2 out of 5 stars

Weak Follow-up to Previous Victor Carl Stories, 2007-03-15
I was greatly disappointed with this book that is lacking the dynamic and intriguing characters of previous Victor Carl books (Specifically, Hostile Witness). Also, I remember the tension and integrety questions of the previous book I mentioned as Victor takes money to basically railroad an innocent man, bankrupts another man, and sleeps with a key witness in a murder tria. I really had to push myself to get through this one. It is also lacking the great interaction with his partner Beth who was prevelent in previous efforts.

I did not care about Joey "Cheaps" Parma and finding his killer nor did I find it the least bit interesting how Joey and his partner stole the suitcase.

I compare Lashner to David Rosenfelt who has been writing Andy Carpenter stories. His books seem to keep the flow of the characters from book to book and all his follow-ups to his brilliant first novel were good in their own right. I hope Mr. Lashner really plans out his next Victor Carl effort or he will lose this reader.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2 out of 5 stars

I was not thoroughly impressed, 2007-01-04
This was my first Lashner novel, and unless popular opinion overwhelms me, it'll probably be my last. I'm a big fan of mystery novels and this one just left me a little unexcited. Although I felt I could root for the main character, the rest of the cast seemed unexciting and unmemorable. Lashner's writing style seemed at odds with the genre as well. It came across as too informal, too casual for the story. I followed this book with a Michael Connelly story and that eclipsed this in it's attention-keeping abilities.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4 out of 5 stars

Very fun read., 2005-06-20
This was my first Lashner novel, and I'm looking forward to tracking down the rest. His characters are like your neighbors, simple and complex if you start digging. The plot is engaging, twists you around and leaves you sitting mistaken in your own predictions but not feeling cheated. Everything makes sense, and most of it is surprising when revealed. It's a long discovery into a story and an old lifestyle, written in a noir style that flows extremely well.

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