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Presumption of Death

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
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.
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    • Publisher's Weekly

      June 16, 2003
      When lawyer Nina Reilly muses while swimming at the start of this book about how many years she has left to enjoy life's pleasures, she startles us by the revelation that she is in her mid-thirties. Is that all? The O'Shaughnessy sisters, Pamela and Mary, have packed so much adventure, romance, crime and law into their books starring Reilly that we'd swear she was at least 50. And their latest outing, number nine, is no exception. Staying with her lover, investigator Paul van Wagoner, in his Carmel Valley condo while she reexamines her life after the traumatic events of 2002's Unfit to Practice
      dislodged her from her South Lake Tahoe home and office, Reilly is torn between Paul's obvious sexual appeal and his irksome urging for some form of long-term commitment. Then the 21-year-old Native American son of Nina's former secretary, Sandy Whitefeather, winds up in the middle of a murder and arson investigation, and Nina and Paul barely have a moment free for cuddling or bickering. Plotting has never been an O'Shaughnessy strong suit (in an acknowledgment, the authors mention an editor "who, with this book especially, has shown her rare ability to catch the lags, the vagueness, and the illogic of our manuscript"—a few glitches still slipped through). But the series' real virtues are intact: well-rounded and likable characters set against a richly described backdrop of some of the loveliest country in the world. Agent, Nancy Yost.

    • Library Journal

      April 1, 2003
      Topnotch lawyer Nina Reilly flees home after her disbarment hearing, ready to give love a chance. Instead, she finds herself defending a former assistant's son, charged with murder in an arson case.

      Copyright 2003 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Library Journal

      July 1, 2003
      Nina Reilly, who is taking some time off after her clash with the California State Bar (recounted in Unfit To Practice), visits old haunts in Carmel Valley with her longtime boyfriend, investigator Paul Von Wagoner, and her dog, Hitchcock. When Willis Whitefeather is accused of murder, it quickly becomes apparent that Nina will have more to contend with than the bothersome case of poison oak she has been nursing. Nina and Paul are soon involved in the investigation of a series of arson fires in the Salinas area as they attempt to track down the real killer. Fans of the series will enjoy seeing Nina dabble in undercover work as she searches for leads in the case, and they will be relieved to learn that she has not lost her touch in the courtroom. Newcomers, however, may have to struggle to catch up with the details of Nina's current situation as they sort through the profusion of new characters and relationships that form the suspect pool. For collections where the series is popular. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 4/1/03.]-Nancy McNicol, Whitneyville Branch Lib., Hamden, CT

      Copyright 2003 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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