Marked Man

I picked this one up on the recommendation of a reader. Normally, I don't like to step into a series 6 books in, but every now and then I throw caution to the wind.

So Victor Carl is a criminal lawyer of some repute, but most of it not that positive, he has some serious relationship issues, a father in poor health, and an odd taste in clients. He's got an investigator (whose name escapes me, and I've already returned the book) who seems awfully good at his job, has a strange speech pattern, and disappears completely and inexplicably half-way through the book. He's got a partner in his law firm going though some sort of existential crisis that I'd probably only understand if I'd read the previous books.

Carl's got a headache of a case at the beginning of the novel – an elderly Greek woman is on her deathbed (I only mention her ethnicity because she can't seem to go more than a sentence without bringing it up) and she wants to say goodbye to her son, a fugitive. Carl's job is to arrange with the authorities for that meeting to occur. It doesn't take long for Carl to find out that it's not just the authorities looking for the client, his former associates are as well. In the midst of that, speaking of headaches, Carl wakes up one morning, can't remember much about the night before – other than there was a lot of alcohol, a blonde, and more alcohol involved – with a woman's name tattooed on his chest. He just has no idea whose name that is.

Believe it or not – that's not all there is to this book. A whole lot of plot lines – many of which overlap in very odd ways – Carl's got to save his own skin, save his client's, get his client to see his mother, find out who belongs to that name (and how it got on him), help his partner with a case and her crisis....aaand a few other things. On the whole, Lashner keeps things moving enough to keep you turning pages, yet doesn't let the multiple storylines confuse the reader.

Each character here is something else – all individual, all worth more time than we end up spending with them. More than anything, his characters impressed me. Whether it's the agoraphobic pervert, the taxi driver with a shady past, the lawyer with a dark secret, the stripper trapped by a childhood tragedy – they're all real, they're all human, they're all fully formed. Really strong stuff there.

I wasn't wowed by this book, but I was engaged and entertained. Victor's not as fun as Andy Carpenter, nor his style and case up to the standards of Mickey Haller – but he's no slouch. I'm probably sold enough to track down book one and dip my toe into this stream at least one more time.