Writ of Execution (39 page)
Welcome to the exciting world of Nina Reilly, “one of the most interesting heroines in legal thrillers today.”*
*San Jose Mercury News
MOTION TO SUPPRESS
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 . . .
“A GRIPPING LEGAL THRILLER . . . A DELECTABLE MYSTERY . . . A HECK OF A READ.”
—San Francisco Chronicle Book Review
“A RAPID-FIRE SERIES OF SURPRISING REVELATIONS. JOHN GRISHAM HAS A NEW AND WORTHY COMPETITOR IN PERRI O’SHAUGHNESSY.”
—
BookPage
INVASION OF PRIVACY
LIGHTS, CAMERA, MURDER
The bloodstains on the courtroom floor belong to attorney Nina Reilly. Months earlier she’d been shot during a heated murder trial. She should have died that day. Instead, Nina has returned to the same Lake Tahoe court. Her only concession to her lingering fear is to give up criminal law. She figures that an invasion of privacy lawsuit is a nice, safe civil action that will help her support her young son and pay the bills for her one-woman law office. She figures wrong.
Nina’s client is Terry London, a filmmaker whose documentary about a missing girl is raising disturbing questions. The girl’s distraught parents believe the film invades their privacy. But Terry’s brutal murder changes everything. Breaking her promise to herself, Nina decides to defend Terry’s accused murderer, a man she’d known years before and hoped never to see again. Suddenly the secrets of Nina’s past are beginning to surface in a murder case that gets more dangerous every day. The evidence against her client is shocking and ironclad—a video of Terry’s dying words. The only chance Nina has to save the man may be illegal. And if it fails, Nina may lose the case, her practice . . . and even her life.
“[AN] EXCELLENT LEGAL THRILLER”
—
Library Journal
“[A] DEFT, MULTILEVELED TALE OF LEGAL AND CRIMINAL TREACHERY.”
—
Publishers Weekly
OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE
LIGHTNING STRIKES
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 . . .
“INTRIGUING.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“A ROLLER-COASTER RIDE . . . A TALE NOT TO BE MISSED.”
—The Midwest Book Review
BREACH OF PROMISE
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 that 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.
“INGENIOUS . . . MOVE OVER, KINSEY. NINA’S COME TO TOWN!”
—Monterey County Herald
“A LEGAL MYSTERY FOR THOUGHTFUL READERS . . . THE SURPRISE TWISTS ARE WONDERFULLY EFFECTIVE.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
ACTS OF MALICE
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
.
“PLEASANTLY TWISTY . . . [A] WHAM-BAM, HEART-RACING CLIMAX.”
—USA Today
“[O’SHAUGHNESSY’S] BEST COURTROOM THRILLER TO DATE.”
—Kirkus Reviews
MOVE TO STRIKE
Nina Reilly thought she’d seen it all. An attorney and single mother, Nina isn’t afraid to tackle the toughest cases and trickiest defenses. But she is wholly unprepared for her latest client—sixteen-year-old Nicole Zack, rebel, thief, and best friend of Nina’s teenage son, Bob. Did Nikki steal something from her uncle, a prominent plastic surgeon, then kill him in cold blood? To find out, Nina calls in Paul van Wagoner, a P.I. and ex-lover whose bravado conceals a troubling personal secret. As Paul investigates the eerily coincidental death of the surgeon’s son—killed in a plane crash the same night his father was murdered—Nina sorts through the twisting lies surrounding Nikki, uncovering a seething mystery, some enraged former patients, and two very old crimes. Finally, Nina must confront the central question she must answer in order to save her client: What did Nikki really see the night of her uncle’s murder?
“SUSPENSEFUL, ENTERTAINING READING.”
—BookPage
“COMPULSIVELY READABLE . . .
VERY POSSIBLY HER BEST . . .
A PAGE-TURNER THAT WILL
KEEP YOU UP AT NIGHT.”
—The Drood Review of Mystery
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
Move to Strike, Acts of Malice,
Breach of Promise, Obstruction of Justice, Invasion of
Privacy
and
Motion to Suppress
. Readers can contact Perri O’Shaughnessy at
[email protected]
.
Also by Perri O’Shaughnessy
MOTION TO SUPPRESS
INVASION OF PRIVACY
OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE
BREACH OF PROMISE
ACTS OF MALICE
MOVE TO STRIKE
Published by
Dell Publishing
a division of
Random House, Inc.
1540 Broadway
New York, New York 10036
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2001 by Mary O’Shaughnessy and Pamela
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. For information address: Delacorte Press, New York, N.Y.
Dell® is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc., and the colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2001028468
July 2002
eISBN: 978-0-307-42347-4
v3.0