Writ of Execution [Abridged, Audiobook, CD] [Audio CD]

Perri O'Shaughnessy (Author), Laural Merlington (Narrator) (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 3, 2001

Masterful storytelling. . .gripping legal drama . . .relentless suspense - these are the hallmarks of Perri O'Shaughnessy's work. Critics hail her legal thrillers as "terrific . . . will keep you turning the pages into the night" (USA Today) and "a real puzzler. . .with twists diabolical enough to take to court" (The New York Times Book Review). Now the New York Times bestselling author of Move to Strike returns with Writ of Execution, an electrifying tale that plunges attorney Nina Reilly into a shadowy world of high-stakes gambling and cold-blooded murder. In the mountain resort town of South Lake Tahoe, Nina Reilly is known for taking on the underdog cases, the kind that can make - or break - her one-woman law practice. Her latest case begins in the middle of a summer night when she is called away from a very personal visit to her investigator Paul Van Wagoner's hotel room to meet with a desperate new client at her office. The frightened young Washoe Indian woman gives her name as Jessie Potter. She has just hit one of the biggest jackpots in Nevada history, and the men in suits are waiting to hand her the million-dollar first installment when they know her real identity. With time running out, Nina helps her client devise a brilliant plan to collect the money while keeping her true identity a secret. The check's due to clear in ten days-and Nina's got her hands full as powerful interests line up to grab the money. The Nevada Gaming Control Board is looking into allegations that the jackpot was rigged. The man sitting on the seat just before the jackpot hit says it's his, and he doesn't mind going outside the law to get it. And the wealthy man stalking Nina's client has managed to attack the jackpot winnings with the help of an unscrupulous local lawyer, Jeff Riesner, using a legal maneuver called a writ of execution. To fight it, Paul Van Wagoner flies to Hawaii and digs up a dark moment in Jessie's past. The odds of Jessie ever collecting are starting to look hopeless. For Nina, what began as a fight for an underdog in federal court soon escalates into something very different and far more dangerous. Jessie has a secret, and she needs that money for a very good reason. By the time Nina discovers that Jessie is withholding vital information, it might be too late for her client and even for Nina herself. Because somewhere in the darkening Tahoe night, people are dying. A killer is exacting chilling vengeance in a case where the writ of execution has become more than a legal maneuver; it's a death warrant.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Nina Reilly's new client ought to be dancing in the streets. She's just won the biggest slot machine jackpot in Lake Tahoe history. But if Jessie Potter claims it, she's putting herself and her little boy in harm's way. Someone's out to get the young woman, and the only one who seems to be on her side is Kenny Leung, an awkward but likable techno-wizard who's about to go bankrupt. Nina comes up with a plan to help Jessie collect her jackpot without revealing her identity to the powerful man who believes she killed his son. But her client's pursuer is already on the sniff. Though he was unable to convince the police to charge her with homicide, he and his sleazy lawyer counter Nina's maneuver by filing a writ of execution that will deprive Jessie of her rightful winnings. And just to thicken the plot, there's someone else threatening Jessie--a very angry man who believes she stole the jackpot that should have been his. He will kill anyone who stands in the way of his claim.

Nina may be a crafty lawyer, but she's not quite as deft in juggling her personal and professional lives. Paul van Wagoner, her investigator, isn't happy with their romantic relationship, and Nina herself, still mourning the death of her husband, is reluctant to commit to more than a casual romance. Perri O'Shaughnessy doesn't devote a lot of ink to her heroine's emotional concerns, but she's good at plotting, excellent on the legal maneuvering, and handles her secondary characters well, particularly Leung, whose computer expertise illuminates the technical aspects of slot machine gaming. This is a series that keeps getting better. O'Shaughnessy fans who've stuck with Nina since her somewhat plodding earlier adventures will be glad they stayed the course. --Jane Adams --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

A wild, just-barely-believable scenario jump-starts this serviceably written, well-paced and engaging courtroom thriller, seventh in a series by the bestselling duo (sisters Pamela and Mary O'Shaughnessy) who write under the pen name Perri. On an ordinary night at a Lake Tahoe casino, a young ex-Marine and Native American widow named Jessie Potter punches a button on a slot machine and winds up hitting the jackpot to the tune of $7 million. Rather than jumping for joy, she flees the casino, dragging computer nerd Kenny Leung, the man at the slot machine next to hers, along with her. Jessie, it is revealed, is being stalked and can't sign for her check, for fear of publicity. Desperate for a solution, she convinces Kenny to marry her so she can sign as Mrs. Leung, and to protect her interests, she hires lawyer Nina Reilly, back once more after her adventures in Move to Strike. The story takes off when Jessie's former father-in-law enters the picture with a wrongful death suit, claiming that Jessie killed his son, and a writ of execution that will seize all of Jessie's assets, including the $7 million. Meanwhile, key witnesses to Jessie's win keep turning up dead, and Nina and her arch rival, Jeff Riesner, face off in court. Although development of the interpersonal relationships is rushed, making them never quite as believable as they should be, and the language and dialogue are rendered predictably, the suspenseful and well-executed courtroom scenes provide ample payoff. In particular, the book's final third captivates with its scenes of wily courtroom negotiation. Readers will relish the myriad plot details and the procedural drama, and enjoy the cast of offbeat characters. Major ad/promo; author tour.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: CD Library Edition; Abridged edition (July 3, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1587884917
• ISBN-13: 978-1587884917
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 6.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,480,683 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A chance meeting between clients, January 2, 2002

By 

L. Quido "quidrock" (Tampa, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Writ of Execution (Hardcover)

Jessie Potter, a doomed young woman with a secret, and Kenny Leung, one of the more confused characters in fiction this year, leads to a casino jackpot and a need for Nina Reilly, in her seventh outing, to try to make sense of it all. Jessie defines the concept of self-sufficiency, and Kenny defines haplessness, despite his brilliance in the computer field, so their collaboration gives the book a light tone. The courtroom adversaries for Reilly are pretty ruthless, and used to a larger setting than what they find in Tahoe...it is hard to believe that Nina will prevail. Nina's independence, her relationship with her family (played down a little in this book), the spectacular scenery that is Tahoe, and the depressing world of casino gambling all play a role in this novel. Sandy, Nina's irrepressible secretary, is back, and is as feisty as ever.

I'm always fascinated by the concept of sisters who live at a distance (Pamela and Mary O'Shaughnessy) writing a series together. You really can't tell where one begins and the other leaves off, such is the seamlessness of their collaboration. Reilly has been incredibly entertaining in each outing, and although there are some pitfalls in this story, overall, it keeps you enthusiastic, entertained and happy with the outcome.

One issue with the series is the unresolved relationship between Reilly and Paul van Wagoner, her terrific investigator. This book continued the dance that is their life together. I'd like for O'Shaughnessy to resolve this one way or the other, and, at the end, it appears that a resolution may be under way for the next book.....but that is what you say each time you finish a Nina Reilly novel.

A really entertaining and worthwhile series with a great heroine!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not as Good as Previous Nina Reilly Novels, July 15, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Writ of Execution (Hardcover)

Although I had read and thoroughly enjoyed all other novels in the Nina Reilly series, I was disappointed by "Writ of Execution." This novel concentrated less on Nina and more on the client, Jessie Potter, who hired Nina to assist her in collecting on a multi-million dollar slot machine jackpot. I always enjoyed the relationship between Nina and her acerbic secretary, Sandy, as well as Nina's relationship with her son, Bob. Neither relationship was developed or included to any extent in this novel. Paul von Waggoner was an abbreviated character in this book as well, and he's one of my favorites! I eagerly await the next installment in the Nina Reilly series--and hope that Nina receives a warm welcome from Paul when she arrives in Carmel.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Overplotted Confusion, July 4, 2002

By 

Wendy Kaplan (Houston) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Writ of Execution (Mass Market Paperback)

This book disappointed me, because I have become so spoiled by the O'Shaughnessy sisters' outstanding previous efforts. I wish I could have given it 3 and a half stars. It's not bad, just unnecessarily confusing.

The plot centers around a young woman who wins the ultimate jackpot on the aptly named Greed Machine, a slot machine at one of Lake Tahoe's casinos. Rather than jumping for joy, however, Jessie Potter seems terrified at her $7 million windfall. And the casino is not that anxious to award her prize either. In no time, Jessie is plucked out of her very private life and into real danger. By the time her case lands in Nina Reilly's lap, the young woman is in danger of losing the money--and possibly her life. And she's not the only one in jeopardy. A pudgy Chinese-American computer geek named Kenny, who happened to be sitting next to Jessie when she won the jackpot, becomes inextricably entwined in her problems.

And OUR problem at this point in the book is that neither Jessie nor Kenny are particularly likeable. It took me quite some time to care about either of them--a necessity in this plot-heavy novel. I was more concentrated on the sub-plot involving a compulsive gambler with a Glock and a murderous obsession with the jackpot he believes is his, not Jessie's.

A further subplot is the ongoing and at this point annoyingly frustrating relationship between Paul, Nina's indispensable private eye and sometime lover, and Nina, still mourning the loss of her husband. Paul loves Nina, Paul wants Nina, but as in all the other books, Nina isn't sure, and Paul can't take much more rejection. He's in for it, though--from Nina arriving in his hotel room, stark naked under her full-length coat--and then at the critical moment changing her mind, to a blithering series of coitus interruptus that began to take on the aura of the Keystone Kops. I found the whole thing annoying and insulting to both characters. This is NOT a Stephanie Plum novel, where that kind of thing happens all the time. t doesn't belong in the Nina Reilly series, and this reader, for one, is tired of it.

The book does pick up speed, however, as we become more involved with Jessie and Kenny, learn their secrets, worry about the danger they are in, and root for Nina to help them both. Near the very end of the book, a triumphant courtroom scene reveals a hidden secret that changes the course of several lives. It's a great ending, a thoroughly enjoyable and believable climax. Unfortunately...the book does not end there. It goes on for several more chapters as we follow the original murderer, still bent on claiming his jackpot. There is so much happening in this quasi-epilogue, it is intensely confusing. Then finally, in two pages, everything is wrapped up in a neat red bow, happily ever after. Except for Nina and Paul and the various murdered people and the murderer himself and the slimy despicable opposing lawyer, the hated Jeff Reisner.

Whew! It's exhausting just writing the review. Again, I love anything the O'Shaughnessys write, but this book is the weakest in the series so far. I hope it's an anomoly!