Show No Fear [Unabridged, Audiobook] [Audio CD]

Perri O'Shaughnessy (Author), Johanna Parker (Narrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2009

10 cd's 11.5 hours

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Recorded Books; Unabridged edition (2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1436178355
• ISBN-13: 978-1436178358
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (72 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,703,949 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Wait for the Paperback, December 7, 2008

By 

Dianne E. Socci-Tetro "Books & Chat" (Connecticut, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Show No Fear: A Nina Reilly Novel (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

Show No Fear : A Nina Reilly Novel - by Perri O'Shaughnessy

This is a prequel novel that gives us a tremendous amount of back story for the 13 books in the Nina Reilly Series. We learn about Nina, her brother Matt, her son Bob and PI Paul van Wagoner and how they became what they are today. We find out why Nina becomes such a driven attorney, how her relationship with Paul started and so many other details. This book cleverly opens with a prologue and the death of a woman on Nov 26, then starts it's first chapter with a jump back in time to mid September and the events leading up to that death.

For people who have read the entire series and want this book because you think it will fill in gaps - wait - just save some money and wait for it to come out in paperback. It's not a horrible book, it's just not up to the usual standards of the O'Shaugnessy sisters normal writing, nor is it their normal style. The plot is thin, the characters, even the ones we know and love are, for the most part unlikable and whiney during this time period. I have to wonder why there was such a hiatus between Nina Reilly novels.

For anyone thinking to try this series by buying this book first - my advice is don't! If you want superb suspense and a good legal thriller with a butt-kicking female legal eagle then I suggest you dive right in with the first book in the series "Motion To Suppress" I don't think you'll be sorry.

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars What A Train Wreck!, December 3, 2008

By 

Brian Baker (Santa Clarita, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Show No Fear: A Nina Reilly Novel (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

I've been an O'Shaughnessy fan since the premiere Nina Reilly novel "Motion To Suppress". Imagine my anticipation when I read that "Show No Fear" was coming out, and it was a novel that would give us the backstory about Nina's evolution into the character we've come to know so well in the previous books.

Well, after finishing the book, I'm scratching my head in amazement at what a disaster this book is.

This book's promoted as a "legal thriller", but there are few thrills, and little legal maneuvering.

First of all, it's extremely unfocused. The story wanders all over the map, with no real rhyme or reason, going from murder mystery to soap opera to love triangles (multiple) to law firm politics to single-parenting to medical malpractice to child custody battles, with neither cohesion nor coherence. This book simply doesn't know WHAT it wants to be. A classic case of overreaching, trying to cover too many bases, and thereby failing at covering any of them adequately.

The Nina Reilly in this book is unrecognizable as the character we know from previous works. Granted, she's much younger, but would this woman who goes into heat any time any guy's within five feet of her turn into the legal eagle of Lake Tahoe? What is up with that?

The murder mystery itself is given very short shrift, and when the denouement finally arrived, I was astonished at how incompetently it was portrayed. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what Nina and the killer were doing. Why were they thrashing around in the surf? What happened to the killer's gun? Neither acted believably at all, nor did O'Shaughnessy regular Paul van Waggoner, a police detective in this novel working on the murders while not otherwise busy chasing every skirt in sight. I guess his preoccupation with sex must explain why he doesn't even notice the killer's car is missing when the killer leaves the scene of the final confrontation. Not much of a detective; just a hound.

Unfortunately, this was a terrific premise that failed in the execution.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Will likely be a welcome addition to the Nina Reilly series for many fans, January 26, 2009

By 

Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Show No Fear: A Nina Reilly Novel (Hardcover)

When a woman's body turns up off a bridge near Big Sur, Nina Reilly sets out to solve her first murder case. In this prequel to Perri O'Shaughnessy's bestselling series, readers learn about the events that lead Nina to pursue her illustrious career as a criminal lawyer and also get a glimpse into her early life. Despite its flaws, the 12th Nina Reilly thriller is an interesting read, primarily because of Nina's appeal as a tough, smart heroine who has a personal interest in discovering the identity of the killer.

At the outset of the novel, Nina is a single mother in her late 20s living in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. Working as a paralegal by day and attending law school at night, Nina already has her hands full when her ex-lover, Richard Filsen, shows up at her son's preschool and demands a paternity test. As the story progresses, she not only finds herself caught up in a fierce custody battle but also becomes embroiled in her mother's malpractice lawsuit against a corrupt acupuncturist.

To her dismay, Nina soon learns that Richard, a well-known attorney who is thoroughly unpleasant, is on the other side of that battle as well. Though she takes comfort in the fact that her firm's high-powered lawyer, Remy Sorensen, has agreed to represent her mother, events soon prove that even Sorensen's legal skills aren't enough to keep her mother safe. To make matters more complicated, Nina can't stop herself from falling for her boss, Jack McIntyre --- who just happens to be in love with the stunning Remy.

As a divorced mother, I found myself rooting for Nina as she struggled to balance work, school, motherhood --- and murder. There were, however, several problems with the plot that would lead me to believe that some readers might fare better with another book in the series. After the initial "kicker" scene, SHOW NO FEAR gets off to a slow start, and fans expecting the usual sort of legal thriller may be disappointed. At times it veers so far from its genre that it almost seems like a contemporary romance novel (not necessarily a bad thing, if that's what you're after). To be fair, the pace does pick up quite a bit during the book's second half. From that point on there were enough unexpected plot twists to keep me reading, and the identity of the murderer, though it did not come as a complete surprise, was clever and well concealed. The ending was satisfying, but I must admit its implausibility bothered me at times.

SHOW NO FEAR will likely be a welcome addition to the Nina Reilly series for many fans. Besides providing background information about Nina, O'Shaughnessy gives us the history of several characters who appear in later books, including her son Bob, her troubled brother Matt and skirt-chasing homicide detective Paul van Wagoner. For readers who want to learn more about O'Shaughnessy's intriguing protagonist --- or for those who simply like to commence at the beginning of a series --- this might be a good place to start.

--- Reviewed by Lori Lamothe