Designer Crimes: A Laura Di Palma Mystery - Softcover
They say that living well is the best revenge. But attorney Laura Di Palma may not have the opportunity to find out. Her former boss keeps trying to torpedo her new solo law practice, and when his slanders cost Laura her most important client, this lawyer decides to sue. But her case hasn't even begun when labor lawyer Jocelyn Kinsley is shot before her eyes. Uttering the dying words "designer crimes," Kinsley offers Di Palma the only clue to her slaying. With the help of private detective Sandy Arkelett, Laura's friend and former lover, she goes to work untangling Kinsley's cryptic words. Meanwhile, she's also defending a high school friend accused of a grisly murder, and trouble follows closely at her heels -- before long she is shot at, nearly blown up, and even arrested.
Living well just may be the best revenge, but survival becomes Laura's first order of business. Unfortunately, her detours off the high road could cost her more than just her career....
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About the Author:
Lia Matera is a graduate of Hastings College of the Law, where she was editor in chief of the Constitutional Law Quarterly. She was also a Teaching Fellow at Stanford Law School before becoming a full-time writer of legal mysteries. Prior Convictions and A Radical Departure were nominated for Edgar Allan Poe awards. The Good Fight and Where Lawyers Fear to Tread were nominated for Anthony and Macavity Awards. She has written nine novels, including the critically acclaimed Face Value. Matera lives in Santa Cruz, California.
From Publishers Weekly:
In a brief prologue that works more as a spoiler, San Francisco lawyer Laura Di Palma is arrested for conspiracy to murder ambitious DA Connie Gold. The book proper soon clarifies that Gold is prosecuting Laura's sole client Brad Rommel, who has been charged with murdering his missing and presumed-dead ex-lover. The pursuit of another issue, trying to stop an ex-employer's slander, puts Laura at the scene of a murder: a masked man shoots lawyer Jocelyn Kinsley during her meeting with Laura. Kinsley's last words, "designer crimes," baffle Laura until her former (and possibly future) lover, PI Sandy Arklett (who wonders if Laura was the shooter's real target), discovers that someone in the office was tailoring extralegal revenge when the law would not suffice. Before long, Brad jumps bail, claiming that someone is trying to kill and frame him, and he echoes Sandy's suspicions that Laura is at the center of things. Matera (Face Value) creates a dark world in which insinuation looms large and the crimes stack up in rapid succession, requiring significant suspension of disbelief. Laura, particularly angry and uncertain in this complex plot, finds only small relief in the resolution.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherSimon & Schuster
- Publication date2007
- ISBN 10 1416572805
- ISBN 13 9781416572800
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages240
- Rating
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