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Books : Mystery & Thrillers : Authors, A-Z : ( M ) : Matera, Lia
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"Matera is a solid writer. Her dialogue is pungent and her plotting careful."Detroit Free Press
Everything Laura Di Palma owns she has earned -- including a resounding case of depression and job dissatisfaction as a rising young star in San Francisco's high-powered law circles. Taking off and taking stock, Laura has escaped to the country with her battered and taciturn lover, Hal.
But Laura's idyll doesn't last long. Her former lover, private detective Sandy Arkelett, shows up with the disturbing, emotional case of a young woman's suicide -- which may have been encouraged by her husband. As confused lives and twisted motives swirl around her, Laura discovers that morality and honesty are often at odds with each other, and may have nothing to do with the truth...
"With plenty of action and mystery, this is sensitive, thought-provoking writing."
Winston-Salem Journal
"Matera takes on social and moral issues. She also delivers the goods a mystery writer should, with intelligence, humor, and gutsy femininity."
Robert Campbell
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Suing her former boss when his slander costs her new solo law practice its most important client, Laura Di Palma witnesses a murder for which the only clue is the victim's elusive dying words. Reprint. K. PW. NYT. AB.
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Laura hangs out her shingle. She's ready to take any case, even a woman who claims that her New Age guru videotapes group sex sessions for therapeutic reasons--tapes that wind up at the local porno parlors. Laura's investigation takes her from a private fantasy island to kinky sex club back rooms to corporate boardrooms. HC: Simon & Schuster.
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Attorney Laura Di Palma is in complete control of her high-profile life -- she's about to become a partner, signed lithographs decorate the walls of her spectacular San Francisco apartment, and her Mercedes is paid for. But control turns to utter chaos when her sick lover, Hal, disappears from his hospital bed without a word. Then Sandy, the detective she works with (and her former lover), begins pressuring her for a second chance. At work, she has a radical client who's accused of murdering an FBI agent. It's too much to handle, but Laura has no choice.
Frantically searching for Hal, Laura also attempts to build her client's controversial defense. Meanwhile, she must keep Sandy at a distance even as she needs his help. When a second man is murdered, Laura's carefully tailored life begins to unravel before her eyes . . . .
"Ms. Matera proves a tough-minded writer." -- The New York Times Book Review
"Extraordinary, thought-provoking." -- Baltimore Sun
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Laura Di Palma finally has it made. Eleven years ago, she ran from a broken marriage and her small northern California town in search of fame and fortune. As the smartest and most controversial young defense attorney in her high-class law firm, she found it. But she's got an old grudge back home that she can't let die. So she's moving back to ruin her ex-husband's career by taking the job he wants as public defender -- just long enough to make him squirm.
Once she evens up the score, Laura can go back to her big city life. Unfortunately, a few things get in the way, including two murders, a crazed killer on the loose, old wounds that haven't healed, and a forgotten feeling that Laura is almost afraid to name . . . .
"Laura Di Palma is one of the most compelling characters in recent mystery fiction." -- The Baltimore Sun
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5 Books on 10 Cassettes: • Slaughter in the Ashes by William W. Johnstone • Tripwire by Jay Brandon • Last Chants by Lia Matera • Saint Mudd by Steve Thayer • The Last Suppers by Diane Mott DavidsonThe Best of Mysteries audio collection is the very first title in the Literate Listener(tm) series. An extraordinary value for the mystery fan! Join the investigations as you explore and enjoy these collected works of intrigue. This mystery collection presents 5 abridged, high-acclaimed audio book mysteries with which to match your wits. In your car, while jogging, or on an airplane, these audio books offer a unique experience, and allow today's time-pressed reader the opportunity to hear literature in a convenient and entertaining way.
15 Hours of listening time!
Slaughter in the Ashes by William W. Johnstone America has been brought to its knees by a nuclear apocalypse. Decent citizens have united and are praying for a leader who can protect them. Rebel leader Ben Raines created the Tri-States, but no system is perfect: criminal gangs still roam the land, spreading havoc and violence, especially in northern Maine. 2 cassettes, 180 minutes.
Tripwire by Jay Brandon Reacher's life is interrupted by a stranger who comes looking for him. When the stranger turns up beaten to death, Reacher follows the trail and confronts the people who dispatched the dead man: an elderly couple still mourning a son lost in Vietnam; a woman from Reacher's own haunted past; and at the center of the web, an opponent more vicious than any he's ever faced. 2 cassettes, 180 minutes.
Last Chants by Lia Matera Willa Jansson sees her old friend, mythology professor Arthur Kenna, about to be arrested for brandishing a gun. Throwing herself between him and the police, she gets them out of the situation-and under suspicion of brutally murdering Arthur's assistant, a Kwakiuti shaman also working for a reclusive computer designer. Hiding out in a mountain cabin near the crime scene, Willa and Arthur barely evade arrest. 2 cassettes, 180 minutes.
Saint Mudd by Steve Thayer Saint Mudd begins with a haunting double murder and ends with the discovery of the killers by Grover Mudd. In between, St. Paul, "the poison spot" of the Depression, comes teeming to life. The action moves through the pressure points, and is nonstop from beginning to end, in a clamor of high energy and stylized set pieces that will remind readers of Doctorow's Billy Bathgate and Kennedy's Legs. 2 cassettes, 180 minutes.
The Last Suppers by Diane Mott Davidson Goldy Bear, an extraordinary caterer, is about to walk down the aisle with her beau, the handsome and warm-hearted county homicide detective, Tom Schulz. But just as Goldy has put the finishing touches on her sumptuous reception feast, she receives an urgent phone call from the groom, himself. The wedding is off, and the reason is murder. 2 cassettes, 180 minutes
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Willa Jansson has always thought of herself as a right-thinking left-wing lawyer. But when her radical San Francisco law firm closes after the murder of its chief rabble-rouser, she does the next worst thing and takes a job as a high-priced corporate attorney. Willa has misgivings almost immediately, as she realizes all is not calm behind the firm's stately oak doors. After all, she's been around danger before, and she, can smell murder in the air.
Sure enough, two partners are killed. Unfortunately, the popular misconception is that the storm is blowing in from her direction. Hassled now by the police, her parents, and office politics of the murdering kind, Willa is forced to play hardball with the big boys, before the third strike is called on her....
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Editor Lia Matera has compiled an irresistible concoction of mystery and suspense filled with the clever twists and chilling turns of breakups, family feuds, broken partnerships, and lovers' quarrels. As this acclaimed cast of authors probes the minefield of intimace, devotion, and trust upon which human lives are built, Irreconcilable Differences explodes with heart-stopping mayhem.Joyce Carol Oates, Amanda Cross, Jeffery Deaver, John Lutz, Edna Buchanan, Bill Pronzini, Marcia Muller, Laurie R. King, Sarah Lovett, Jan Burke, Jeremiah Healy, Julie Smith, Judith Kelman, Margaret Maron, Gillian Roberts, Joan Hess, Sarah Shankman, Pete Hautman, Eileen Dreyer, Lia Matera
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Willa Jansson is a cynical ex-radical who worked in an L.A. corporate law firm for a year and has the scars to prove it. Back home in San Francisco, her still activist parents ask her to do a favor for an ex-boyfriend's new girlfriend. And she quickly becomes embroiled in a case of conflicting interests, slow-dying passions, and political grudges that can kill....
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"Has almost everytrhing a good mystery needs...a complex plot, social commentary, loads of atmosphere and a cast of unusual characters...The reader wants to hang out with Jansson and see more of her clear-eyed view of the world."
SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS
Working for a fat-cat San Francsico law firm, Willa Jansson thought she'd seen everything. Then her boss dies from hemlock poisoning. Things go from awful to outrageous when Willa's rad-lib mother, a former client of the deceased, is suspiciously named in his will to inherit his fantastic home in the hills. By now Willa is frantic to discover what's going on around her. Poking into the recent past and the apolitical present, she fishes out an old boyfriend she'd rather forget, a cop she hates on principle, and a famous law firm that can barely make ends meet. It's a pretty good catch for a first-year associate--considering that, in the meantime, someone is trying to kill her....
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Overworked, overcaffeinated, and as cranky as a sequestered jury, Willa Jansson has a law review to get out. As second in command to the brilliant Susan Green, the ideal law student and perfect editor, Willa's rank jumps up a step when Susan's head is bashed in over a brief at the law review office.
Everyone at Malhousie, the small San Francisco law school, is stunned by the crime -- including professors and the staff at the review. And none of them are above suspicion. Willa, now in charge and none too happy about it, launches a private investigation that succeeds not only in compromising her honor, but getting her arrested, as she chases one blind lead after another and comes face-to-face with the banality of evil....