From Library Journal
Attorney Nina Reilly is back, but stolen client files may put her out of business. Luckily, her friendly ex-husband is defending her in court even as her detective boyfriend investigates. Unluckily, the two men are about to spar.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Nina Reilly seems to have hit her stride: her solo legal practice in Lake Tahoe is booming, her son is growing happily, and her love life is blooming, thanks to her investigator Paul von Wagoner. When she wakes up one morning to find her SUV stolen, her life changes instantly, not because of the lost car itself but because her briefcase, containing three of her current files, was in the backseat. Each of those files contains potentially disastrous information should they land in the wrong hands. She lost her main set of car keys the day before, she remembers, but had they really been lost? Could someone have stolen them in an effort to steal the files? One of the cases involves a Hmong family about to collect an insurance settlement from the fire that burned down their store. Perhaps the family's mysterious representative is behind the theft. Then there's the smarmy opposing attorney in a divorce case Nina is handling. The third case involves a pair of sisters who witnessed a murder but fear for their lives if they go to the authorities. Nina worries for her clients but also has concerns for herself when she is brought up on charges of incompetence by the state bar. Nina hires her ex-husband, which provides for amusing banter among him, Nina, and Paul. O'Shaughnessy furnishes believable characters and well-drawn courtroom scenes, but what really gives this legal thriller its appeal is the genuinely unusual premise. Mary Frances Wilkens
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
Praise For Perri O’Shaughnessy’s New York Times Bestselling Nina Reilly Series
Writ of Execution
“Tense and fast-paced...intriguing legal maneuvers and gripping courtroom drama.” —Tampa Tribune
Move to Strike
“A fast-paced page-turner...plenty of plot twists and turns...courtroom drama and deft legal maneuvering are still the heart of this thriller, and the tough-minded Reilly is its soul.” —New York Post
Acts of Malice
“Will keep you turning the pages into the night.”—USA Today
Breach of Promise
“A legal mystery for thoughtful readers...the dialogue is clean and smart and the surprise twists wonderfully effective.”—San Francisco Chronicle
Obstruction of Justice
“Nina Reilly is one of the most interesting heroines in legal thrillers today.” —San Jose Mercury News
Invasion of Privacy
“Suspenseful and complex.” —San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle
Motion to Suppress
“A real puzzler, with twists diabolical enough to take to court.” —The New York Times Book Review
From the Inside Flap
It s the moment every attorney fears most...one careless moment that threatens careers, reputations, lives. For Nina Reilly, it will change everything--and ignite a case where her own clients are witnesses against her...and where the defendant is Nina herself.
As an attorney championing desperate people, Nina Reilly has skirted the edges of legal ethics in pursuit of a just result, but she has never before broken the rule of absolute protection of her clients secrets. One September night in Lake Tahoe when her unlocked truck is stolen, her life changes forever. Gone are her most sensitive case files, complete with the sometimes brutally candid notes she took while interviewing her clients.
It s every attorney s nightmare. And now the worst has happened: The secrets are being revealed, one by one, in ways that will cause the greatest harm. Nina s own clients complain to the State Bar of California, and suddenly Nina is fighting for her license and her livelihood in a legal proceeding that may ultimately lead her to disbarment. In desperation, Nina turns to her ex-husband, celebrated San Francisco lawyer Jack McIntyre, to represent her.
And as personal tensions erupt between McIntyre and Nina s sometime boyfriend, private investigator Paul van Wagoner...as reputations are ruined and people begin to die...a chilling pattern of rage and revenge comes into focus. Someone is bent on destroying the lives of Nina s clients and, in the process, Nina Reilly.
About the Author
Perri O’Shaughnessy is the pen name for two sisters, Pamela and Mary O’Shaughnessy, who live in Hawaii and California respectively. Pamela graduated from Harvard Law School and was a trial lawyer for sixteen years. Mary is a former editor and writer for multimedia projects. They are the authors of Writ of Execution, Move to Strike, Acts of Malice, Breach of Promise, Obstruction of Justice, Invasion of Privacy, and Motion to Suppress.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Chapter 1
That Thursday in early September billowed up blue and white, as breezy and innocent as a picnic, the air filtering through shimmering sunlit leaves. But during the afternoon, the true Sierra atmosphere showed its face in a ferocious summer storm, ruthless, unpredictable, and dangerous.
And because the storm dislocated all sorts of human arrangements that night, or because life is a mist of error, or perhaps just because she had been working too hard and couldn't deal with one more thing that day, Nina Reilly made a small, critical mistake that changed everything.
The day began at eight-thirty sharp with the Cruz custody hearing, now in its second day and going fine, if anything could be fine about a family splitting up. Lisa Cruz, Kevin's wife, took the stand, and she loved their two kids, no doubt about that, but she had some very strange ideas, too.
"I'm a full-time mom and a professional with a deep spiritual side," she said from the witness box, gazing at Jeffrey Riesner with large, earnest, liquid eyes that seemed to beg for further help. "I depend on the great philosophers for guidance."
Kevin began an astringent, whispered commentary. "Moving right along from Jim Beam, to pills, to marathons, and onward into religion," he muttered.
Lisa had a pale, heart-shaped face and a tentative, breathy voice. She wore a structured jacket and creased slacks and looked fragile, but Kevin had told Nina that Lisa could run five miles without breaking a sweat; had no compunctions about kicking him when he was down; had an extensive, X-rated vocabulary; and bore unswerving allegiance to nothing and no one except their kids.
Lisa adjusted her body, as she had frequently during Riesner's questions, raising one leg over another, then deciding against it. She was not a woman who enjoyed sitting still. "I studied philosophy at the community college," she said.
"She took one course, and quit before the final," Kevin whispered to Nina.
"I consider myself a truth-seeker and scholar. Of course, I work hard to impart the right values to my children: hard work, healthy diet, goal-setting." She had a lot to say about vitamins.
More whispering. "She'd use a cattle prod if she thought she could get away with it. She's fanatic about physical fitness. Those kids don't get a moment's peace, between the death marches up and down mountains and the bogus mind crap she feeds them." Kevin had arrived at court very emotional, as always. Nina had to watch out for him when she should have been giving all her energies to watching Jeffrey Riesner, the attorney representing Lisa. She shook her head sharply, her eyes closed, and Kevin understood and stopped.
Nina and Riesner went way back, but not to good places. They had a long history of conflict, which had begun almost the day she had arrived in the town of South Lake Tahoe and set up an office as a sole practitioner. A partner in Tahoe's most prestigious law firm, Caplan, Stamp, Powell, and Riesner, he viewed her as an out-of-town upstart who had barged into his territory and seduced away several good felony defendants. Nina saw him as a relentless greedhead who held grudges and hated women, her in particular.
She watched him playing Lisa now, playing the judge, playing the court, as homey in a courtroom as you could be without moving in a couch and pillows. How he warmed their hearts with little stories of Lisa's generosity and kindness. The smallest smile was calculated, a warm nod to the judge, practiced. She could never understand his reputation for success in the courtroom. Apparently, judges and juries could not see through the tall, smooth-talking, Armani-clad exterior to his squirming, wormy insides.
Under Riesner's careful handling, Lisa went on for quite some time, modestly recounting her achievements as a parent and a volunteer firefighter with several exciting stories to tell. Slowly, Riesner built up his Wonder Woman. Her mother, who lived nearby, watched the children for her during fire emergencies, when volunteers were called out. She attended church, raised money for good causes, met with teachers for conferences, and loved her children.
What interested Nina most was not what she said, though, but how, whenever Lisa started to show real emotion by raising her voice or letting a little vehemence enter, Riesner gently steered her back to calm, like a fairy-tale hero sparing her the scary, dark woods. After several minutes, having wrung all the good he could from his client, he turned back to his table and sat down, but not without first casting a victorious sneer Nina's way.
Nina stood. She had thought a long time about how to cross-examine Kevin's wife. Lisa wasn't a bad mother, just as Kevin wasn't a bad father, but both parents couldn't have the children. Many had tried to split custody, and the only parents who succeeded were parents who respected and liked each other after the divorce. Lisa and Kevin didn't like each other anymore.
Emotional volatility was Lisa's weakness. She sat in the box, hands neatly folded, like a female Buddha. Nina needed to get around that pseudoserenity.
"Mrs. Cruz, you describe yourself as a seeker," Nina said. "Could you tell us a little more about what you mean by that?"
Riesner cleared his throat, considering an objection, probably. The phlegm went no farther than his esophagus and lodged there, to judge from its sudden halt. He didn't like the question, but must have decided to let it ride.
"Well," Lisa said, any ease she had developed during Riesner's questioning now gone. She hesitated, tongue-tied, staring at Nina with a half-fascinated, half-repulsed expression on her face, drumming her fingers on the rail in front of her.
"Mrs. Cruz?" Nina said.
Lisa finally spoke, although the words sounded forced. "Life has a deeper meaning than just--this," she said.
A few observers in the audience looked around the earth-toned, windowless courtroom and chuckled.
"I don't mean just this moment," she said defensively, "although every moment is significant. And this one certainly is, since it involves the future well-being of my children. But to answer your question more broadly, I would say I'm interested in the big picture. Taking responsibility for your actions. Accepting blame when you do wrong." Flat brown eyes followed Nina's every move as if she expected Nina to jump her at any moment.
"You are a religious person, I understand."
"Yes," she said.
"You take your children to church every Sunday?"
"Yes."
"I understand your religion forbids blood transfusions?" Nina asked.
"I haven't lost my senses just because I joined my church," Lisa said. "I'm open to advice from conventional medical doctors, and would take Kevin's wishes into consideration even after our divorce is final, as I always have before. You know, I don't limit myself when it comes to a personal philosophy to live by. I've spent a lot of time thinking about how we should live as well as why we live and I've drawn some conclusions."
"What conclusions?"
Lisa sat back in her chair, considering the question seriously. "Oh, there's a level we operate on in this country--hey, I'm not knocking anyone else, okay? But I don't want my life bogged down by trivia and reduced to a long series of tasks to be done. I try to keep my life spiritual, focused, and tranquil."
Nina knew Lisa had balked and complained bitterly for years about the changes in her life since having children. She had no more time for her personal pursuits, felt limited in her important volunteer work, and unduly burdened by the dragging weight of child rearing. Some of Kevin's resentments percolated around his wife's stubborn refusal to contribute to the normal running of their household.
"You have two children," Nina said. "Surely there are many chores that need to be done? Surely there is a great deal of trivia?"
"Of course. Children make messes. That's their job."
"And tranquility isn't really a normal state of affairs in a young family, is it?"
"No. Tranquility is an aspiration. It doesn't come easy."
"Isn't one of the big surprises about becoming a parent finding out how little we control the dynamic in the household and how quickly the most basic things can get out of control?"
"I've adjusted," Lisa answered dryly, understanding the direction Nina was taking. "Of course I do chores. Big ones, little ones. Petty ones. Many, many chores."
"You make sure your children have clean clothing?"
"Yes."
"You have a regular laundry day?"
"I do it when the basket is full."
"Whenever the basket is full?"
Lisa had begun to fidget. The questions about her domestic routine bored her. "Yeah, whenever," she said, looking at Riesner, who treated her to some serious eyebrow action. "Because what's the difference if I do it on Monday or Friday as long as it gets done eventually? You know, people don't realize how they try to re-create Victorian standards of living without the kind of help people had then. Yes, our standard of living is higher than ever, but just because you have a dishwasher, does every dish need to be done that minute? Just because you have a vacuum, should you be expected to vacuum every day?"
" 'Eventually' you do the laundry?" Nina persisted. "Would that be once a week or twice a week?"
Lisa rolled her eyes. "Probably once every two weeks, if you were to average it out."
"Do you feed your children regularly?"
Her eyes narrowed. "Of course I feed them regularly."
"How would you defi...
