Bagmen (A Victor Carl Novel) - Softcover

William Lashner is the New York Times bestselling author of The Barkeep, The Accounting, Blood and Bone, and eight previous Victor Carl novels, which have been translated into more than a dozen languages and sold across the globe. Writing under the pseudonym Tyler Knox, Lashner is also the author of Kockroach, a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, which was described as “roaringly entertaining” by Publishers Weekly and “an energetic tour de force” by USA Today. Before retiring from law to write full-time, Lashner was a prosecutor with the Department of Justice in Washington DC. He is a graduate of the New York University School of Law as well as the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He lives with his wife, his three children, and his dog, Chase Muttley, outside of Philadelphia.

Sometimes trolling for clients at the courthouse won’t do it, so lawyer Victor Carl goes even lower. He becomes a bagman, toting cash from one who needs a favor to one who can grant it. No sooner have we finished the second chapter than a corpse is found with clues that lead to Carl. Detective work intersects bag work for the rest of the novel, and the author is good at both. This is one of the rare crime novels that convey a little-known truth: moving through glittering rooms full of wealthy, beautiful people with shark edges can be really tiresome. More death leads Carl to a Chinatown-like revelation, though readers might find the most fun is in the buildup. Carl turns conversations into vaudeville routines, with the world his straight man, and though there are too many of them, the exchanges are often very funny. Cop: "God is dead." Lawyer: "That means there’s an opening.” And there’s room for philosophy, too. Bagmen aren’t always awful. They grease wheels, unjam jams. An entertaining, thoughtful read.