Fatal Flaw
 William Lashner
 (Reviewer - Narayan Radhakrishnan)
 2003 William Morrow/HarperCollins
 ISBN: 0060508167

The murder of his mistress has a colleague of lawyer Victor Carl honoring a friend's cry for help.

Sr. Reviewer Narayan Radhakrishnan writes:

Lawyer-authors are a dime a dozen, & legal thrillers are now the “in thing”, so you really have to search hard to find a good one besides John Grisham, Scott Turow, Richard North Patterson & Steve Martini. During the last few years, especially since 2000, many a lawyer tried to follow in their footsteps, but few have met with success. D.W. Buffa & William Lashner, I believe are the only two, who deserve acclaim for breaking the Turow- Grisham-Patterson hegemony.

In Fatal Flaw, Victor Carl, the series protagonist, “the lawyer who always does the right thing, but for the wrong reasons”, returns in fine, though a subdued form. One late night, he gets a phone call from his colleague & erstwhile classmate Guy Forrest, who claims he has found his girlfriend, rather mistress, Hailey Prouix, dead, rather murdered, in her house. Forrest had deserted his wife & children for this “bimbo.”

All evidence points to Forrest's guilt, even Victor doubts his innocence, but Forrest maintains a steady not guilty stance. He begs Victor to help him, & the attorney grudgingly accepts -- more to humour Forrest than anything else. But Victor's investigation opens up a whole new can of worms, as he quickly uncovers Hailey Prouix's past. She was a real enigma of a woman, & the true murderer has something to do with Prouix's past which the killer seriously wants kept hidden.

Victor Carl, is somewhat subdued this time around. Gone is the frenetic vibrancy seen in Hostile Witness & Veritas.

Though legal thriller action is at a minimum in Fatal Flaw, the author's expertise in law is well revealed. I particularly liked the way Victor Carl safeguarded his client's/friend's interest when the police came in for questioning at the crime scene. No hot arguments, no frenzied objections, nothing but a cool, levelheaded style that drove the point home.

So how do I rate Fatal Flaw, well, it is not as good as Hostile Witness, but far superior to Veritas. I did enjoy the book, & recommend it.

Also from William Lashner: Bitter Truth
(08/17/03)

Narayan
2003©Narayan Radhakrishnan
A RebeccasReads.Com Sr. Associate Reviewer

Reviewer's Bio:
I am a 26 years old lawyer practicing in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India. Along with my legal practice, I have finished post-graduate studies for both Business Law & Human Rights. I am a self proclaimed numero-uno legal thriller lover & am the proud owner of all of Grisham's & Turow's novels. I enjoy John Mortimer's Rumpole & relish an occasional Martini & a rare Scot(ch)t-oline with a Patterson on the side.

My work A FICTION OF LAW is now about 500 pages in length & features 500 lawyer authors & 2000 legal thrillers covering a 300 year period - inclusive of entries from the USA, UK, Asia, Europe, China, Middle East etc. Still in search of a publisher.
www.keralatourism.org