William Lashner continues to amaze. He has demonstrated the multiple facets of his literary talent from the beginning of his career --- first with his always entertaining, constantly evolving Victor Carl series, followed by his genre-jumping stand-alone novels. None of his previous works, though, will quite prepare you for THE FOUR-NIGHT RUN, a darkly nightmarish brutal romp you will never forget.

"THE FOUR-NIGHT RUN has it all: unrelenting, unblinking violence; occasional grim humor; middle-aged angst; and a cast of characters too surreal to be anything other than a hundred percent true to life."

The book is set in Casinoland, a semi-mythical New Jersey city where the bright lights of casinos hold sway. It is fertile ground for the criminal defense legal practice of J.D. (love the initials) Scrbacek (yes, it plays havoc with your spell check program, not to mention ancestry.com). Scrbacek has just won an acquittal for a seemingly indefensible client named Caleb Breest, who had been charged with murder. On the evening of the verdict, Scrbacek is looking forward to nothing more or less than a good dinner, fine spirits and some adult conversation in its many forms. What he gets is his world turned upside down. Within hours of being both heralded and cursed for his victory, Scrbacek finds that he is on the run, with his home and office burned down, and his automobile exploded. He is also suffering from a serious gunshot wound. Worse, he inexplicably finds himself blamed for the very occurrences that have so quickly destroyed his life, and is pursued by both the legal and criminal elements of the city.

Scrbacek has few, if any, options. When faced with the choice of going to the lights or the darkness, he eschews the glitter of Casinoland and embraces the gritty darkness of Crapstown, the ruined, deserted part of the city that has become all but forgotten by everyone except its impoverished citizens. It’s an instinctive move for Scrbacek, and one that he comes to regret many times over the course of four dangerous days and nights during THE FOUR-NIGHT RUN. He finds succor where none is expected, and deceit and treachery from those he thought he could trust. To determine who and what have caused the disasters that have befallen him, Scrbacek has to revisit his past, examining each element of each choice he made that ultimately brought him to his past successes and current failures. It cannot be a leisurely contemplation, however. It seems as if the entire city is out to kill him, and only one attempt has to be successful.

THE FOUR-NIGHT RUN has it all: unrelenting, unblinking violence; occasional grim humor; middle-aged angst; and a cast of characters too surreal to be anything other than a hundred percent true to life. And while the book is not, strictly speaking, a courtroom thriller, the spike of its story --- what it means to be a solo attorney in private practice --- is immersed in the poison of truth before Lashner drives it home. It’s a violent, dark story, so I naturally loved every word of it. If you like your fiction served up with shattered dreams as the main course, you will as well.

Audiobook available, read by Peter Berkrot