“Opens with a
blistering trial scene…After the razzle-dazzle opening, Lashner slips into a
thoughtful reflection on the failings of the legal system…there is also lively
action, great steamy sex, and witty dialogue.
The phrasemaking is dazzling.”
—Booklist on The Four-Night Run
“Lashner melds
a nightmarish vision of a city driven by greed and poverty with serious
discussions of criminal law and its practice and its corruption.”
—Publishers Weekly on The Four-Night Run
The
Four-Night Run
William Lashner
On sale: May 24th, 2016 · Thomas & Mercer · $4.99 Ebook
William Lashner
On sale: May 24th, 2016 · Thomas & Mercer · $4.99 Ebook
430 pgs ·$15.95
Trade Paperback · ISBN-13: 978-1503933248
The Four-Night Run description:
"J.D. Scrbacek has just won the biggest trial of his career, but even as he crows to the press, his entire life blows sky-high. Was the bomb meant for him, or for his mobster client? In this seaside casino town where the tables run hot and the tensions run high, the odds say the attorney is a marked man.
Alone and on the run, Scrbacek flees into the city’s forgotten underbelly, a ruined corridor called Crapstown, where he is forced to confront the ghosts of his past, his present, and his future. Somewhere in the sordid stream of his own existence lie the answers he needs. But in order to emerge from the depths of Crapstown, Scrbacek must argue for his life before a jury of the forgotten and the damned. Is he lawyer enough to save his own skin?
From the bestselling author of The Barkeep comes a raucous tale of reckoning, racketeering, and revenge."
Excerpt
On his rush out
of the courtroom in search of the nearest camera, Scrbacek ran smack into
Thomas Surwin. The prosecutor’s expression was understandably darker and more
pinched than usual.
“I hope you’re proud of your fine
work in there,” said Surwin.
“Very.”
“Take my advice, Scrbacek, and watch
your ass.”
“Oh, I will,” said Scrbacek, with a
wink. “On the evening news.”
The lovely glow of Casinoland was
just infiltrating the darkening sky to the east when J.D. Scrbacek stood on the
courthouse steps with the cameras on and the heavy white lights picking up his
rugged features. His tie was tight; the collar of his raincoat was turned
rakishly up. His intern had already been dispatched to drive the Explorer from
the parking lot behind the courthouse to the front steps, so as to provide the
cameras a view of Scrbacek’s dramatic exit with his client. All was as it
should have been, except that his client wasn’t by his side. Surwin had
unexpectedly kept Caleb Breest locked up one more night, pending a probation
revocation hearing scheduled for the next morning. But still the scene was as
near-perfect as Scrbacek could have wished when he began to crow to the crowd
of reporters.
“The Jury’s verdict wasn’t just a
victory for Mr. Breest, it was a victory for all of us. This was a case without
motive or evidence, a case that should never have been brought, a case hatched
in the mind of First Assistant County Prosecutor Thomas Sour-Wine simply
because he doesn’t like my client. Well, I’m not sure I like my client either,
but if that’s enough to put a man in jail and kill him dead, then we all have
much to fear.”
He gave good press, Scrbacek,
especially on the courthouse steps after a high-profile win.
“Now that Mr. Breest has been found
innocent of Mr. Malloy’s murder, I hope the police redouble their efforts to
find exactly who committed this horrible crime. My sympathies and the
sympathies of Mr. Breest remain, as they have all through this ordeal, with the
Malloy family. Nothing that happened in this courtroom can disguise the fact
that a man is dead and his murderer still at large. There might be celebrating
tonight by Mr. Breest’s friends and associates, there might be fireworks in the
night sky over this fine city, but our thoughts will be with the brave—”
A loud pop, followed by a deafening
explosion from behind the courthouse.
The crowd ducked. Some reporters
dived to the ground, others threw their arms over their heads as if mortars
were incoming. Scrbacek alone remained standing tall, his anger rising at the
goons who had started the celebration before he had finished his speechifying.
He raised his voice and began again.
“As I was saying, there may be
fireworks in the night sky over this fine city, but our…”
It was no good. The cameras were off
him now. The reporters were running in a pack down the steps, circling the
building. TV crews lugged their equipment, straining to keep up. There were
calls, yelps, and poundings of hard-soled shoes on cement.
“What I’m trying to say,” Scrbacek
shouted to the retreating backs of the media, “what is important to remember…”
But no one anymore was listening.
Standing alone on the steps of the
courthouse, Scrbacek cocked his head at the commotion before following the mob
down the steps. People were now running away from the explosion, running madly,
with terror etched on their faces, as they passed the reporters. The two groups
were shouting back and forth, the reporters heading to the rear of the
courthouse and the sane civilians running away.
“What is it?”
“A car, I think.”

William Lashner is the New York Times Bestselling creator of Victor Carl, who has been called by Booklist one of the mystery novel's "most compelling, most morally ambiguous characters." The Victor Carl novels, which have been translated into more than a dozen foreign languages and have been sold all across the globe, include BAGMEN, KILLER'S KISS, FALLS THE SHADOW, FATAL FLAW, and HOSTILE WITNESS. He is also the author of BLOOD AND BONE, THE ACCOUNTING, and, most recently, THE BARKEEP, which was a Digital Book World Number One Bestselling Ebook.
Lashner was a criminal prosecutor with the Department of Justice in Washington D.C. before quitting the law to write fulltime. A graduate of the New York University School of Law, as well as the Iowa Writers' Workshop, he lives with his wife and three children outside Philadelphia.
--Author website:
http://williamlashner.com/content/index.asp
More
Praise for the Novels of William Lashner
“[Lashner]
manages to be both deadly serious and frequently hilarious.”
—Wall Street Journal
“[Lashner's] books
are... smart, fast-paced, witty, and written with a touch of Vern or Dumas.”
—Columbus Dispatch
“With high wit
and perfect pitch, Lashner keeps the reader spellbound.”
—Harlan Coben
“Grandly
entertaining... Lashner is as impressive as anyone writing legal thrillers
today.”
—Washington Post Book World
Giveaway
$10 US Amazon Gift Card (Open INT)
The Four Night Run (US only)
Book sounds like a great thriller. Lookin forward to reading.
ReplyDeleteBook sounds like a great thriller. Lookin forward to reading.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting excerpt.
ReplyDelete