Authors: Perri O'Shaughnessy.
Mass Market Paperback, 400 pages
Publisher: Dell
Publication Date: 2007-08-28


Reviews :

    For ambitious, troubled architect Ray Jackson, the nightmare begins one sultry California night when his wife disappears. No phone call, no ransom note, no body, reveals whether Leigh is dead or alive.

Then, suddenly, a woman shows up on Ray’s doorstep demanding answers: Kathleen, an old friend of Leigh’s. Ray wants answers, too, but his questions seem strange and shady to Kat. Suspected by his wife’s friend and by the police, Ray launches a desperate and alarming search of his own. Using a collection of keys he has held on to since he was a boy–keys to homes he and his mother once lived in–Ray quietly yet boldly enters each house, one by one, hoping to unlock the secrets of his own past. As past and present collide, as a chilling mystery begins to unravel, Ray is suddenly confronted with the most agonizing decision of his life–to face his own violence-laden past, acting to prevent another horrendous act of violence, or not. His choice will leave nothing and no one the same.


From the Hardcover edition....

Authors: Perri O'Shaughnessy.
Mass Market Paperback, 432 pages
Publisher: Dell
Publication Date: 2006-06-27


Reviews :

    No one writes legal suspense like Perri O’Shaughnessy. Blending powerful human drama with legal thrills, mystery, humor, and unforgettable characters, the New York Times bestselling author has created a uniquely entertaining series of novels centered around lawyer and single mother Nina Reilly. Now, in a masterful new novel, Nina’s investigation into an unsolved murder takes her on a dark journey strewn with old crimes, bitter truths, and heart-stopping danger.

For Nina Reilly, the mountain town of Lake Tahoe is home. It’s where she forged a successful career as a tough, resourceful attorney–and raised her teenage son, Bob, alone. Back from a stint in Monterey, where her love life took a tumble, Nina has returned to her Tahoe law office with her old friends Sandy Whitefeather and Sandy’s son, Wish. It isn’t long before she has a new client whose wife was shot and killed during a casino-district robbery two years before. The police have no suspects, and the robbery victims, three students, lied about their identities and are hiding outside California and the reach of the court.Two of the witnesses have fled to a village not far from the home of Bob’s father, Kurt Scott, in Germany. As Nina tries to unravel the mystery of one violent Tahoe night, a harrowing journey begins–one that takes her from the dark underworld of Tahoe’s casinos to the halls of a prestigious East Coast university to Europe and an emotional reunion with Kurt.

As old feelings are rekindled, Nina’s case turns violent. Everyone has something to hide–the brilliant but unstable mathematics student who has made an astonishing discovery, the owner of a motel where the shooting took place, and the shooter, who has turned the whole case into a gigantic lie.

Filled with all the rich drama, stunning surprises, and ingenious twists we have come to expect from this incomparable storyteller, Case of Lies will grab you from the very first page and never let you go as it speeds to its incredible conclusion....

Authors: Perri O'Shaughnessy.
Mass Market Paperback, 464 pages
Publisher: Dell
Publication Date: 2005-03-29


Reviews :

    Nina Reilly takes on the most dangerous and difficult case of her career in New York Times bestselling author Perri O’Shaughnessy’s latest thriller. An ingenious blend of forensic science, history, and gripping suspense, Unlucky in Law pits the tough but compassionate attorney against the most unbeatable adversary of all: the law.

Nina has just received a last-minute call from her old boss and mentor in Monterey County, California, where she is enjoying the breathtaking scenery and spending time with her boyfriend, P.I. Paul van Wagoner. Klaus Pohlmann is in desperate straits and begs Nina to take over a seemingly unwinnable case: A luckless two-time felon named Stefan Wyatt has robbed a grave and made off with the long-buried bones of a Russian émigré. When he is caught and arrested, further devastating evidence found in the grave suggests that Stefan is guilty of a far more deadly crime.

A young woman, a classmate of Stefan’s, has been killed, and he is accused of her murder. Now, as a result of California’s Third Strike law, Wyatt is looking at twenty-five years to life whether he’s convicted of grand theft or murder. Either way, he’s in big trouble.
With her client’s blood DNA found in the dead woman’s apartment, Nina faces an uphill battle. Suspecting that her hapless client has been set up, Nina brings in a brilliant forensic pathologist who comes up with a startling theory about the case that could rewrite a crucial page of European history. As the evidence mounts against Nina’s client, Paul launches his own investigation into the shadowy past of the two-decades-old skeleton. But long-held secrets nearly get him killed and reveal a more insidious evil at work—and an extraordinary story dating back to tsarist Russia and the Romanov court. As Wyatt edges closer to the unluckiest verdict of his young life, Nina makes an astounding discovery that just might save her client—or expose a killer who could bury them all.

Brilliantly imagined and compulsively readable, Unlucky in Law is a beguiling mix of wrenching drama and gripping action. And it is Perri O’Shaughnessy’s most accomplished novel to date.


From the Hardcover edition....

Authors: Perri O'Shaughnessy.
Mass Market Paperback, 512 pages
Publisher: Island Books
Publication Date: 1998-06-08


Reviews :

    Lightning strikes twice.

Two people have died in Lake Tahoe in shocking accidents.  In a nearly empty parking lot, a hit-and-run driver kills probation officer Anna Meade Hallowell.  High up on a jagged mountain, wife abuser Ray de Beers gets what he deserves: he's struck by lightning.  Attorney Nina Reilly, hiking on a rare day off from her one-woman law practice, sees him die.  So does her date, Tahoe deputy DA Collier Hallowell.  Still shaken from his wife's violent death, Hallowell is hit hard by the accident.  It's a bad end to a first date...  and the start of a case that will test Nina's ethics and her heart.

Nina is certain de Beers's death is an act of God.  But his aging father wants to exhume the body to rule out foul play.  De Beers's frantic wife and teenage twins hire Nina to stop the disinterment.  What gets unearthed are secrets that raise new questions about Anna Hallowell's death, an indictment against one twin for murder, and a damning piece of evidence that can convict the boy .  .  .  unless Nina obstructs justice by hiding it.  No good lawyer will take that kind of risk.  But a brilliant lawyer, one with a passion for truth, just might .  .  .  ....

Authors: Perri O'Shaughnessy.
Mass Market Paperback, 480 pages
Publisher: Island Books
Publication Date: 2000-06-13


Reviews :

    The New York Times bestselling Nina Reilly novels have dazzled both readers and critics with their crackling blend of legal suspense and taut human drama. Now Perri O'Shaughnessy, hailed as "smart", "gripping", and "complex" by the San Francisco Chronicle, brings us her best--and most explosive--Nina Reilly novel yet.

Amid the sparkling snow-swept mountains of Lake Tahoe, Nina Reilly has made a home, juggling the demands of her one-woman law practice and raising a teenage son alone. Now Nina has taken on a case that will threaten everything she holds dear, drawing her into a tangled web of loyalties and alliances within one of Lake Tahoe's most prominent families. Her client: a man accused of murdering his own brother--on the ski slopes of Tahoe. The law says Nina must give Jim Strong the best possible defense. But Strong's family has turned violently against him, and suddenly Nina is at the center of the storm. As she works a flawed and troubling case and gets swept into an unexpected love affair, the two sides of Nina's life come crashing together...in the ultimate act of malice....

    Nobody in the exploding field of legal thrillers catches the day-to-day life of a working lawyer better than the O'Shaughnessy sisters--lawyer Pamela and writer Mary, who collaborate under the joint byline of Perri. This is the fifth in their series about lawyer Nina Reilly. O'Shaughnessy expertly balances Reilly's life between the working half and the private half (raising her 16-year-old son as a single mother and finding the time and place for romance). The fact that both parts take place in the heavenly venue of Lake Tahoe only adds to the reading pleasure.

Acts of Malice begins with a jolt: the manager of one of the area's largest ski resorts is charged with the murder of his brother, and hires Nina to defend him. But this will not be an easy case for Nina since the prosecutor, Collier Hallowell, is the man who shook up her life so violently by walking out on her a year before. Also, Nina and her immediate circle find themselves in danger from the very client that they are defending.

Other examples of the O'Shaughnessy expertise include Breach of Promise and Motion to Suppress. --Dick Adler...

Authors: Perri O'Shaughnessy.
Mass Market Paperback, 560 pages
Publisher: Island Books
Publication Date: 1999-06-08


Reviews :

    Broken hearts. Broken promises. Deadly consequences.

In glitzy Lake Tahoe, couples break up every day. But few are as successful as Lindy and Mike Markov, who built a $200-million business together—before Mike took up with a younger woman. Now he's claiming he doesn't owe Lindy a dime since they never married.

Attorney Nina Reilly, struggling to make a living in her one-woman office and raise a young son alone, agrees to take Lindy's case. Nina knows winning is a long shot, even with a brilliant jury consultant and a palimony expert on her side. It's the kind of case—full of passion and explosive secrets—that could make a fortune for a young lawyer. Or drive someone to commit murder—for love, money . . . or the right verdict.

New York Times bestselling author Perri O'Shaughnessy has created a wonderfully unique and unpredictable character in Nina Reilly, a tough, tenderhearted attorney and single mother who has been hailed by critics as "one of the most interesting heroines in legal thrillers today" (the San Jose Mercury News)....

    Fans who have been eagerly awaiting the next installment in the Nina Reilly series won't be disappointed by Perri O'Shaughnessy's latest, Breach of Promise. The creator of Invasion of Privacy and Obstruction of Justice has crafted a tale of love and murder gone awry in the material age.

Palimony--birds do it, bees do it, Liberace's heirs do it, and so do Mike and Lindy Markov. When Mike falls for Rachel, a young and beautiful vice president at Markov Enterprises, he tells Lindy (his companion and business partner of many years) that their relationship is over, leaving her, in effect, to go soak her head in one of the Markov Super Spas they've invented and sold to countless arthritics. Desperate to retain her fair share of their $250 million fortune, Lindy hires Nina to pursue a palimony suit against Mike, tempting her with an enormous percentage if they win their case.

O'Shaughnessy thus leads into the deceptively simple, deeply disturbing philosophical conundrum around which she weaves her tale of intrigue: What would you--what would anyone--do for money? As Nina pursues her case, O'Shaughnessy tests the boundaries of traditional courtroom-drama fiction by playing with the conventions of narrative form, but she remains true to the genre's ethic of devious surprises and fast-paced action.

Granted, Nina is a lawyer rather than a private investigator, and her smooth style bears little resemblance to, say, the sardonic goofiness of Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone, but she may strike a chord with fans of Sara Paretsky's Chicago sleuth, V.I. Warshawski. Both Nina and V.I. cling stubbornly to their independence and sense of fairness as they wage battle against institutionalized forces of greed; and both O'Shaughnessy and Paretsky use engaging characters, tight plotting, and clever dialogue to lure their readers into wrestling with legal and moral dilemmas. --Kelly Flynn...

Authors: Perri O'Shaughnessy.
Paperback, 320 pages
Publisher: Delta
Publication Date: 2006-12-26


Reviews :

    The New York Times bestselling author of the acclaimed Nina Reilly thrillers brings her prodigious storytelling gifts to this first-ever collection of short crime fiction. From desperate housewives to hard-boiled PIs to an appearance by Nina Reilly herself, these chilling short mysteries–many appearing in print for the very first time–set the mood and ratchet up the suspense as only Perri O’Shaughnessy can.

Here are tales of love and betrayal, rage and revenge–nineteen sizzling stories that run the gamut from classic whodunits to winding thrillers to an unusual cozy that casts Gertrude Stein as an unlikely Miss Marple. And here Perri O’Shaughnessy has created some of her most sinister and compelling characters yet: a college student who devises an ingenious method for getting her sexy teacher’s attention . . . a haunted ex—homicide cop who takes a long walk into his blood-shadowed past in a twisting tale of brutal murder and escalating violence . . . a model wife who surprises both herself and a bothersome furnace man when she is confronted with an unacceptable ultimatum . . . a lemon tree that plays a pivotal role in the tale of a woman who at long last asserts her independence. . . .

From a blood-soaked scheme that’s born at a slot machine in Vegas to the violence that ensues when the fat lady stops singing, Sinister Shorts shows us life at its most menacing, murderous, and unbearably suspenseful. And it proves once again the unique and captivating genius of Perri O’Shaughnessy.


From the Hardcover edition....

Authors: Perri O'Shaughnessy.
Mass Market Paperback, 480 pages
Publisher: Dell
Publication Date: 2004-04-27


Reviews :

    New York Times bestselling author Perri O’Shaughnessy has garnered impressive acclaim for her tough, passionate thrillers set against the lush Lake Tahoe landscape and the world of one remarkable character: Attorney Nina Reilly. In this spellbinding new novel, O’Shaughnessy delves deeper into the heart and psyche of her popular heroine as Nina journeys back to her hometown to heal old wounds, and instead discovers that old secrets can be the deadliest kind....

Nina Reilly needs a fresh start. In three years, she’s taken on some of Lake Tahoe’s most controversial cases and has turned her struggling one-woman law firm into a thriving practice. Now she’s ready to sort out her complex relationship with her boyfriend, Monterey P.I. Paul van Wagoner. So she’s heading to the Carmel Valley, the place where she began her career and where her estranged father lives. It’s also a place of dramatic contradictions and hidden tensions, of new wealth and old families. And, within days of her arrival, Nina is already feeling the heat, as a case of arson exposes some of the darkest secrets of her hometown.

Two suspicious fires have already raged through the valley this summer, igniting suspicions of arson. When a third blaze ends in a fatality, police zero in on a suspect: Wish, the son of Sandy Whitefeather, Nina’s ex-assistant. The dead man is identified as Wish’s childhood friend, a troubled local auto mechanic who hated the changes wealthy newcomers had brought to the valley. Nina and Paul are certain that there is more to this strange case than meets the eye. As they work together to clear Wish, new, more frightening questions are raised, and another fire is set. And out of the flames a terrifying picture emerges: a community steeped in secrets and rage, a tangled history between two men, and a killer whose motives are dark and wrenching.

With the relentless page-turning suspense that has become her trademark, Perri O’Shaughnessy once again demonstrates her talent to enthrall. A haunting tale of crime and punishment, old grudges and second chances, Presumption of Death is suspense fiction at its finest--instantly compelling and utterly impossible to put down.


From the Hardcover edition....

Authors: Perri O'Shaughnessy.
Mass Market Paperback, 544 pages
Publisher: Dell
Publication Date: 2008-10-28


Reviews :

    Hard-driving Attorney Nina Reilly returns from a  near-fatal gunshot wound in Motion to Suppress to  take on the toughest and most intriguing case of  her career.

Anxious to avoid the  kind of case that almost killed her and determined  to spend a restful winter at home in Lake Tahoe  with her son Bobby, Attorney Nina Reilly vows to  take on only the most uncomplicated cases. When  filmmaker Terry London implores Nina to help her  defend her documentary against charges of invasion of  privacy, it seems an easy case to add to her work  load. But Nina is soon wishing she'd never become  involved, as it becomes clear that the film holds  a crucial clue to a decades-old unsolved murder  and her new client poses a greater danger than any  criminal Nina has ever come up against. Before the  filmmaker can make good on her mysterious threats  to harm Nina, she's found murdered, and Nina finds  herself in the middle of a full-blown  homicide--homicide that is somehow connected to Nina's past.  When an old lover surfaces, he brings painful  memories and new dangers as Nina fights to protect  herself, her troubled son Bobby, and the delicate  balance of their new life together from the  destructive wake of a killer's path.


From the Hardcover edition....

Authors: Perri O'Shaughnessy.
Mass Market Paperback, 480 pages
Publisher: Dell
Publication Date: 2008-10-28


Reviews :

    The suspect confessed. Now her only hope is a lawyer who believes she lied.

Misty Patterson only remembered the fight, the polar bear statue she used as a bludgeon, a trail of blood, and the comatose sleep that followed. When she awoke, her husband and the statue were missing. Only the blood was left. She had come to attorney Nina Reilly's office seeking a divorce. But when Anthony Patterson was found on the bottom of the frigid lake, Misty needed a miracle.

Barely a week before, Nina Reilly had been a happily married San Francisco lawyer. Suddenly she's a single parent, opening a shoestring practice in Lake Tahoe. And now Nina finds herself embroiled in a case that's going to change everything she believes about the law.  It's going to rock everything Misty Patterson believes about herself. And it's going to give both women a look at the damning piece of evidence that will challenge their faith in each other. Or give them their one and only chance to win...


From the Hardcover edition....