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The Barkeep by William Lashner
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The Barkeep

$42.99

Get for $14.99 with membership
Narrator Luke Daniels
Length 12 hours 5 minutes
Language English
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Edgar Award Nominee

Justin Chase is the perfect barkeep, tending bar as he lives his life, in a state of Zen serenity. At least until Birdie Grackle, a yellow-haired, foul-mouthed alcoholic from Texas, walks into his bar, orders a Mojito, and makes a startling confession.

Six years ago Justin’s life was ripped apart when he discovered his mother’s bludgeoned corpse in the foyer of the family home. Now Justin’s father is serving a life sentence and Justin, after a stint in an asylum, drowns his emotions in a pool of inner peace. But when Birdie Grackle claims to be the hit man who murdered Justin’s mother for the money, Justin is hurled back to the emotions, the past, and, most frightening of all, the father he tried to leave behind.

Who hired Birdie Grackle to kill Justin’s mother? Was it Annie Overmeyer, the sexy young woman with whom Justin’s father had been having an affair? Was it Justin’s brother, who took advantage of his father’s conviction to take control of the family business? Was it someone from his mother’s secret life, the shocking details of which Justin is only learning now? Or was it maybe his imprisoned father, to whom Justin is suddenly growing dangerously close? For all of Justin’s efforts to banish emotion and attachment from his life, this searing journey into his past affects him in ways he could never have anticipated.

As Justin pieces together the truth, a merciless killing machine begins stalking him, leaving a trail of dead in his wake. Someone wants to bury the truth, and maybe Justin, too. As the terror closes in, Justin had better find some answers quick, because the stakes have been raised—his life is on the line and murder is just not Zen.

William Lashner is the New York Times bestselling creator of Victor Carl, a character Booklist called “one of the mystery novel’s most compelling, most morally ambiguous characters.” The eight Victor Carl novels, which include A Killer’s Kiss, Marked Man, Falls the Shadow, Past Due, Fatal Flaw, Bitter Truth, and Hostile Witness, have been translated into more than a dozen languages and are sold all over the world. He is also the author of the bestselling thrillers The Accounting and Blood and Bone, as well as the novel Kockroach, which he published under the pseudonym Tyler Knox. Before leaving his job to write full-time, Lashner was a criminal prosecutor with the Department of Justice in Washington, DC. He is a graduate of NYU’s School of Law and the prestigious Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He lives outside Philadelphia with his wife and three children and his dog, Chase Muttley.

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Reviews

Praise for New York Times bestselling author William Lashner:

“[In] the upper reaches of the hardboiled universe…” Booklist

“William Lashner is remarkable.” —Nelson DeMille

“Lashner keeps the reader spellbound.” —Harlan Coben

“Lashner…could be considered an East Coast version of Michael Connelly…” Library Journal

The Barkeep is one of those books that you start reading and cannot put down, even as you almost wish you never reach the ending. William Lashner is primarily known for his series of legal thrillers featuring Philadelphia attorney Victor Carl, but this stand-alone work cements his deserved place in the constellation of master thriller authors.” —Book Reporter

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