Hard Bargain [Mass Market Paperback]

Lia Matera (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 22, 1993

"Matera is a solid writer. Her dialogue is pungent and her plotting careful."

Detroit Free Press

Everything Laura Di Palma owns she has earned -- including a resounding case of depression and job dissatisfaction as a rising young star in San Francisco's high-powered law circles. Taking off and taking stock, Laura has escaped to the country with her battered and taciturn lover, Hal.

But Laura's idyll doesn't last long. Her former lover, private detective Sandy Arkelett, shows up with the disturbing, emotional case of a young woman's suicide -- which may have been encouraged by her husband. As confused lives and twisted motives swirl around her, Laura discovers that morality and honesty are often at odds with each other, and may have nothing to do with the truth...

"With plenty of action and mystery, this is sensitive, thought-provoking writing."

Winston-Salem Journal

"Matera takes on social and moral issues. She also delivers the goods a mystery writer should, with intelligence, humor, and gutsy femininity."

Robert Campbell

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Matera's skillfully woven tale intertwines attorney Laura DiPalma's dissatisfactions and the problems of a woman whose death she investigates.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

A grim third novel from the skillful Matera, who, here, examines noncommunication--with oneself and with everyone else--and its disastrous outcome. Bay Area lawyer Laura DiPalma, on an extended retreat with her cousin/lover Hal, is inveigled into working on a case with a former lover/partner, low-ideals man Sandy Arkelett. They're trying to find out what went wrong with the marriage of chronic depressive Karen Clausen McGuin, who left a tape for her husband, Ted, about committing suicide with the gun he purposefully handed her. Did he want to kill her? Or could she just not live any longer with the deformities caused from previously stabbing at her face and eye with an ice pick? Ted's in-laws hate him because he's black; Karen's despairing nephew hates him because he thinks he killed her; and Ted's eccentric family hates the Clausens for their long-time destruction of Karen and her nephew. Furthermore, Hal and Sandy loathe each other; Laura comes to truly dislike Sandy and to feel alienated from Hal; and the only one making any contact at all is the viper who poisoned Ted's scuba gear, blew up his boat, and torched his house. The resolution, when it comes, hardly frees anyone. From one of the more interesting new voices in detective fiction: a downbeat but welcome respite from the mystery-by-formula crowd. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Fawcett (February 22, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345380592
• ISBN-13: 978-0345380593
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,473,201 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Unspoken and ambiguous, March 27, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Hard Bargain (Mass Market Paperback)

This was my first Laura Di Palma book and probably not my last, in spite of my tepid enthusiasm for it. I have never been a fan of formula mysteries, ala Lawrence Sanders, and this effort is certainly not formulized. It is more a stroll through the emotionally confused mind of Ms. Di Palma as the events around her twist and turn about the thin plot. I found her relationship with McGuin in the last half of the book particularly vague and frustrating. Her visits from one disfunctional family gathering to another was torturous. It is Ms. Matera's writing style that will bring me back for more.