Unable to resist a reconciliation with his former fiancâee Julia, second-rate lawyer Victor learns that Julia's wealthy husband has been murdered, a crime in which Victor finds himself targeted as the prime suspect when the police begin questioning him. - (Baker & Taylor)

Unable to resist a reconciliation with his alluring former fiancée Julia, second-rate lawyer Victor learns that Julia's wealthy husband has been murdered, a crime in which Victor finds himself targeted as the prime suspect when the police begin questioning him and the murder weapon appears in his bedroom. 50,000 first printing. - (Baker & Taylor)

You want to know what deceit tastes like? It's sweet. Like honey. Charged with electricity. Laced with amnesia. It's why adultery will never go out of fashion, why sincerity fails, why sex with strangers is more fun than ever it ought to be. It is the very taste of old love reclaimed, which might be the sweetest deceit of all.

There's nothing easier—or more dangerous—than falling into bed with an old lover.

Especially when you're Victor Carl.

Once upon a time, Victor was engaged to a woman named Julia. She was beautiful and elegant and not the kind of woman to end up with a second-rate lawyer on the edge of insolvency. Victor always assumed she'd burn him, and she did.

Now she's back, trailing an expensive perfume that reeks of trouble.

Julia's husband has been murdered, her fingerprints are all over the crime scene, and $1.7 million in cash is missing. Julia is suddenly in desperate need of a fall guy. Is that why she turns up on Victor's doorstep on the night of the murder, with her lipstick fresh and her heels high? It's all enough to make Victor doubt the healing power of love.

But in Victor's world lust trumps reason seven days a week. As he reaches for his old lover, he convinces himself that Julia truly wants to make amends for the past, that they might have a future together, and that the Beatles were right—all you need is love. Until two cops troop into his apartment and start fingering Victor for the murder.

Suddenly, Victor Carl, a man who has spent a lifetime making bad decisions for the worst reasons, is no longer fighting to rekindle a lost love. He's fighting to save his life.

Booklist Reviews

*Starred Review* Love can turn anyone into a fool, even a shrewd, streetwise Philadelphia criminal-defense attorney like Victor Carl. So, when Victor's one-time fiancée, Julia, who abruptly left him to marry a wealthy urologist, returns, he's gaga—for the second time. When two Philly police detectives arrive at his apartment and tell him that the urologist has just been murdered and that he is their top suspect, Victor's first thought is for Julia. Even when hard evidence shows that he is being set up and that Julia may be party to the frame, love conquers all. There's a lot more plot here than just love and murder. There's financial chicanery, $1.7 million in cash, jealousy, revenge, deceit, and several other flavors of love at its deadliest. There are also half a dozen quirky, well-crafted characters, including two menacing Euro criminals, the even more menacing Philly cops, a young African American client of Victor's, and even the dead, high-born-but-low-down urologist. And there's Lashner's writing, which is alternately elegant and lyrical (about love), cynical, tough, knowing, and even funny. This intelligent page-turner delivers not only great entertainment but also considerable insight into the human condition. Copyright 2007 Booklist Reviews.