An author who’s penned seven popular murder-mysteries is returning to Iowa this week to sign copies of his latest book. 50-year-old William Lashner, a graduate of the University of Iowa Writers Workshop, says "A Killer’s Kiss" follows the continuing challenges of a cunning yet charming Philadelphia lawyer.
Lashner says, "It’s about an old lover who comes back to torture Victor Carl, who’s my series hero, and gets him in all kinds of trouble which old lovers tend to do when they come back into your life." Lashner himself worked as a Philadelphia lawyer before giving up the law after becoming a best-selling author, but says he put a lot of himself into his primary character, at least early on in the series.
"Victor is sort of ethically-challenged. He follows his own bylaws in terms of how he practices law and how he goes about life and he breaks the rules over and over and over again, except he’s used to a very strict moral code that he has of helping his clients, always going after as much money as possible, of falling for beautiful woman," Lashner says.
This new book is his seventh following the life and trials of Victor Carl, but Lasher says it’ll be his last for a while. He’s giving up the series, at least temporarily, as he wants it to remain fresh. What’s next?
Lashner says: "I love writing mysteries, so they’re still mysteries but they’ll be different, different main characters and different sort of plots. I’ve plumbed Victor’s personal life as far as I can go at this time, his father and his mother and his girlfriends and his fiancee and it’s time to have someone else with their own little neurotic problems."
Lashner is appearing at Prairie Lights Books in Iowa City tonight at 7 P.M. and at the Cedar Rapids Barnes & Noble on Collins Road at 7 P.M. on Wednesday. For more information, visit www.williamlashner.com .