Designer Crimes
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
A high-profile San Francisco lawyer scrambles to save her career, her client, and her life in this mystery by the author of Face Value.
When a cash-cow client bails, attorney Laura Di Palma is certain her old boss is out to ruin her. She visits labor lawyer Jocelyn Kinsley to sue the creep for slander, but their meeting is cut short when Jocelyn is shot by an intruder. As she lays dying, she whispers a cryptic clue to Laura: “Designer crimes.”
Assisted by her friend and former flame, private detective Sandy Arkelett, Laura searches for the meaning behind Jocelyn’s last words. Meanwhile, she must defend her one remaining client, an old high school friend accused of murder. His girlfriend left town—a bucket of blood in her wake.
Sandy wonders if the bullet that killed Jocelyn was meant for Laura, and when someone tries to shoot her, she begins to agree. Now, Laura must decipher who’s out to kill whom and why—before someone makes certain her only client is her last . . .
“Complex and satisfying for Ms. Matera’s faithful readers, who have come to expect such brain-burners from her.” —The New York Times
“[Matera’s] skill and literary flair are everywhere on display. Every word counts, and the pieces of the puzzle fit together with exhilarating precision.” —ABA Journal
“Matera once again demonstrates her mastery of characterization, plotting, and pacing.” —Booklist
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.
