Motion To Dismiss [Paperback]

Jonnie Jacobs (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 30, 2002

Scrupulous San Francisco defense attorney Kali O'Brien knows how to play the odds in a system where reality can be shaded. Despite apassion for justice that doesn't allow for compromise, her newest case is casting doubt on the one principle she cherished most: the absolute dead certainty that her client is telling the truth. Grady Barrett, a wealthy computer magnate married to Kali's best friend, has been arraigned in the rape of Deirdre Nicholas. Even if the sex was consensual, that doesn't acquit him, in Kali's eyes, of an indiscretion that has shattered his marriage, and further eroded his dubious reputation as a man of principle. Especially in the shadow of Deirdre's vivid, emotional, and thoroughly convincing deposition--damning testimony that Barrett maintains is a clever and manipulative web of lies spun to trap him. Despite his pleas of innocence, Kali's instincts tell her that Barrett may be as guilty as sin. Then Deirdre plunges to her death from a second-story balcony. A tragic accident? Or cold-blooded murder? Now, bound to a client she is afraid to trust, Kali finds herself straddling the razor-sharp line between crime and punishment. It isn't long before she finds her own life in jeopardy as a veil of lies is lifted, and the pasts of everyone from victim to victimizer, from illicit lover to faithless friend, unfold with their own provocative surprises.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

There's nothing hard-edged or particularly profound about Jonnie Jacobs's series of mysteries starring California lawyer Kali O'Brien, but--like good TV movies--the plots are convincing, the characters colorful, and the writing smooth and competent. The author's latest finds O'Brien handling a trial in her hometown in the Sierra foothills for a lawyer friend, Nina Barrett, who is five months pregnant and just diagnosed as having Hodgkin's disease.

When Nina's husband, Grady--a handsome and successful businessman with a history of sexual conquests--is accused of rape by a blowsy woman he met at a party, Kali very reluctantly agrees to defend him. She is virtually certain that the swaggering Barrett is guilty, and resents his betrayal of her sick friend. But as the investigation and trial proceed, Kali gradually begins to believe his claims of innocence--especially when two people die in suspicious circumstances. Jacobs succeeds in catching and holding readers' interest by setting up her characters as generic and then proceeding to fill in the relevant details that make them unique. Other Kali O'Brien books in paperback are Evidence of Guilt and Shadow of Doubt. --Dick Adler --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Kirkus Reviews

In the middle of launching a public offering of ComTech, his graphics chip company, Grady Barrett runs into a streak of rotten luck. His wife Nina, six months pregnant, has been diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease, which can't even be treated till after a caesarian. Deirdre Nichols, the beauty salon receptionist he picks up at a bar, accuses him of rape, and he won't even consider his lawyer Kali O'Brien's consensual-sex defense. Then suddenly the charge is withdrawnbut only because the complainant is dead, fallen from her balcony window. Or pushed, say the Oakland police, who claim they can place Grady's Mercedes convertible at the scene, courtesy of a statement by Deirdre's seven-year-old daughter. Calling on Hal Fisher, a gay investigator she's worked with before, Kali rolls up her sleeves in preparation for the trial. Once again, though, Grady is adamant about running his own defense. He can't spend six months to a year away from his sick wife and his little girl while he waits for the case to come to trial; Kali will have to do everything she can to get the charge thrown out at the preliminary hearing, even though nobody's been able to pull off that trick since Perry Mason. Jacobs is still too lightweight to run with her big sisters in the legal-intrigue genre; there's nothing of Nancy Taylor Rosenberg's sense of menace or Lisa Scottoline's powers of invention on display here. Instead, Kali's third case (Evidence of Guilt, 1997, etc.) is a whodunitand the best-turned puzzle of Jacobs's six novels to date. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 284 pages
• Publisher: e-reads.com (April 30, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0759212279
• ISBN-13: 978-0759212275
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,433,413 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fast-paced and suspenseful with a surprise ending, June 22, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Motion to Dismiss (Hardcover)

I read this book at the suggestion of a friend (I'm not a big fan of legal thrillers) and really enjoyed it. There's plenty of courtroom action, but it's presented in such a way that what you see are the people more than the legal two-step. In fact, it's the characters that make this book good and that delineate it from many others in the genre. Kali O'Brien is a complex and likable narrator I'm looking forward to seeing again.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars gripping story with great characters, June 6, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Motion to Dismiss (Kali O'Brien Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

This is a new author for me, but am I ever glad I made the discovery. Motion to Dismiss is a well written page-turner with depth and realistic characters. Kali O'Brien is an attorney who reluctantly represents the husband of a friend when he is accused of date rape. Rape grows to murder and she again agrees to represent him for the sake of her friend. There are several subplots - an ex-lover law partner who seems impicated in the crime, a second death - and they all tie together at the end. Pick up the book and settle in for an afternoon (or evening) of good reading. Just don't plan on getting anything else accomplished.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Suspensful - Kept me up all night, October 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Motion to Dismiss (Hardcover)

I really enjoyed this book. I liked the characters and I never did guess the killer, alhough I can see now that there were clues along the way. Readers who enjoy books by Perri O'Shaughnessy and Lisa Scottoline will probably enjoy this as well.