Face Value
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
A lawyer is drawn into a dangerous case after a love guru shakes up San Francisco in this mystery by the author of A Hard Bargain.
Leaving an expensive firm and toxic work environment behind her, attorney Laura Di Palma has opened her own practice. She's eager for business, and she's not about to turn away fellow lawyer Margaret Lenin.
Margaret had been struggling with a midlife crisis. Full of deep questions, she sought answers from a spiritual master, a guru by the name of Brother Mike. He led videotaped group therapy sessions to help his followers explore their spirituality and sexuality. The trouble is those tapes are now available in the XXX sections of video stores . . .
Taking the case pushes Laura far out of her comfort zone. She needs help from her ex, PI Sandy Arkelett, and their investigation leads them from stuffy boardrooms to strip clubs, porno shops, a private fantasy island—and a grisly murder scene . . .
"Absorbing . . . Multiple murders and delightfully complex characters help carry a plot that moves from a striptease bar to a guru's mysterious island retreat. . . . A fine, intelligent story." —USA Today
"This latest Laura Di Palma adventure is no exception to the tight plotting, good characterizations, and page turning suspense that have typified the earlier entries in the series and that make Matera one of the best contemporary mystery novelists. . . . Highly recommend . . . Matera is too good to miss."—Booklist
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Fresh from her hard-hitting rural adventure in the Edgar-nominated A Hard Bargain , lawyer Laura Di Palma has returned to San Francisco to establish a solo practice. Her first client may be fellow lawyer Margaret Lenin, whose spiritual guru, Michael Hover, videotaped group sex-therapy sessions in which Lenin participated: the tapes are showing up for rent as ``adult'' videos. Just as Lenin drops the case, another of Hover's lawyer-disciples asks Di Palma to represent the guru himself, who is being sued by an exotic dancer who also appears on the tapes and is romantically linked with Lenin. A frantic 2 a.m. call drags Di Palma out of bed to meet Lenin outside a sex club. Di Palma arrives to see a man break into the locked, silent building; cautiously entering, she finds him shot, along with six dead dancers. Afraid for both her life and reputation, Di Palma leaves the scene of the crimes. With the assistance of PI Sandy Arklett, she explores Hover's unorthodox business, remaining haunted by the crimes she fled. Although it attempts to address serious issues of censorship and pornography, the story is busy and unengaging, and much of its cast remains faceless. The tense finale comes feebly and too late.
