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Lia Matera
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Designer Crimesby Lia MateraISBN 0671001965 (0-671-00196-5)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
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Face Valueby Lia MateraISBN 0671888404 (0-671-88840-4)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
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Good Fightby Lia MateraISBN 0345371070 (0-345-37107-0)
Softcover, Random House Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Good Fight'Book summary: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 [via] -
A Hard Bargainby Lia MateraISBN 0345380592 (0-345-38059-2)
Softcover, Random House Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Hard Bargain'Book summary:"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 [via]
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Havana Twist: A Willa Jansson Mysteryby Lia MateraISBN 0671004212 (0-671-00421-2)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Havana Twist: A Willa Jansson Mystery'Book summary:Too often, the tension in a mystery flows from the same source as in a horror movie: As the character walks alone toward the empty, sinister house at night (of course), the audience collectively wrings its hands and groans, "Don't go in there." One can't help but wish that she or he were endowed with a little more common sense. Carry a flashlight, call for backup--something, for God's sake.
Fortunately, Havana Twist offers an antidote to that cliche in Willa Jansson, a no-nonsense Santa Cruz lawyer whose good judgement is matched only by her wry sense of humor--though sometimes neither is enough to keep her out of trouble. And this time, it's her own mother who has put her there.
When Jansson's political-activist mom doesn't return from Cuba with her group of "Jewish mothers of politics, ready to chicken-soup the whole third world," Willa must travel to the Communist island in search of her "Superlefty" mother. Jansson keeps a low profile as she searches Havana's dilapidated neighborhoods, trusting few with the fact of her mother's disappearance--and with good reason. The city's ubiquitous hotel room bugs, vanishing informants, and tight-lipped locals create a shifty atmosphere in which the unspoken can be as revealing as the spoken.
While smartly pursuing her mother's whereabouts and trying to stay out of jail, Willa manages to find a little time for a romance of sorts, although she's not unaware of the irony in her attraction to the police detective who was once almost fired because of her mother's police protest.
Matera adeptly adds unforeseen twists and turns to the plot, though she leaves it up to the reader to ponder which clues are bona fide and which are dead-ends. Matera has a knack for characterization and dialogue, and her contrast between Cuba's bleak economy, Mexico City's gaudy commercialism, and the U.S.'s comparative wealth adds a little sociopolitical weight to the story. Smart, sensible Willa Jansson is a pleasure to accompany on her search for that grey-haired brigadista she calls Mom. --Kris Law [via]
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Hidden Agendaby Lia MateraISBN 0345371283 (0-345-37128-3)
Softcover, Random House Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Hidden Agenda'Book summary: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.... [via] -
Irreconcilable Differencesby Bill Pronzini, Joyce Carol Oates, Amanda Cross, Laurie R. King, John Lutz, Judith Kelman, Edna Buchanan, Jan Burke, Marcia Muller, Margaret Maron, Jeffery Deaver, Sarah Lovett, Julie Smith, Jeremiah F. Healy, Lia MateraISBN 0061097330 (0-06-109733-0)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Irreconcilable Differences'Book summary: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 [via]
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Irreconcilable Differencesby Lia MateraISBN 0060192259 (0-06-019225-9)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Irreconcilable Differences'Book summary:This collection of original stories from today's most successful, prize-winning writers of crime fiction proves that "irreconcilable differences" can't begin to describe the lethal results of a relationship gone wrong.
For this outstanding anthology, editor Lia Mcitera challenged a stellar list of contributors including National Book Award Winner Joyce Carol Oates, New York Times bestsellers Edna Buchanan and Jeffery Deaver, and award winners Laurie R. King, Julie Smith, Bill Pronzini, Margaret Moron, and Marcia Muller to use the phrase "irreconcilable differences" as a springboard for a story. Their responses make for irresistible reading. These twenty concoctions of mystery and suspense move from sharp and probing to humorous and sly, fully evoking the theme of discord most deadly.
Here are the clever twists and chilling turns of breakups, family feuds, broken partnerships, and lovers' quarrels. A coupletakes witty revenge on their honeymooning exes in Judith Kelmon's "Just Desserts." Gillian Roberts's "Heart Break" explores the dark side of staying together. In Sarah Lovett's "Buried Treasure," a hint-dropping stranger changes the life of an imperiled widow, while Jon Burke shows how a Good Samaritan can save a bad marriage in "An Unsuspected Condition of the Heart."
As this acclaimed cast of authors probes the minefield of intimacy, devotion, and trust upon which human lives are built, Irreconcilable Differences explodes with heart-stopping events. [via]
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Last Chantsby Lia MateraISBN 0671880969 (0-671-88096-9)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Last Chants'Book summary:In Last Chants, Willa Jansson jumps to the defense of Arthur Kenna, an eccentric mythologist. Suspected of having done away with his assistant, an Indian shaman who was helping him program a computer in the mystic arts, Arthur flees to a cabin in the Santa Cruz Mountains with Willa in tow. As she searches for clues at the scene of the crime, a magnetic power spot in the wilderness that attracts New Agers and computer junkies, she flushes out more than she bargained for, including two industrial spies, a family of mushroom hunters and a hairy, naked man who claims to be the demigod Pan. [via]
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Prior Convictionsby Lia MateraISBN 0345374452 (0-345-37445-2)
Softcover, Random House Publishing Group
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Radical Departureby Lia MateraISBN 0345371267 (0-345-37126-7)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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Smart Moneyby Lia MateraISBN 0345371275 (0-345-37127-5)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Smart Money'Book summary: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 [via] -
Star Witnessby Lia MateraISBN 0671004204 (0-671-00420-4)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Star Witness'Book summary:Remember the "Twinkie Defense," where a lawyer tried to get his client off on a murder charge on the basis of too much sugar in his diet? Fictional (but totally believable) San Francisco attorney Willa Jansson goes one step beyond in this addition to Lia Matera's lively series: Willa uses the "UFO Defense," based on her client's memories (revealed under hypnosis) of being in an alien spaceship when his sports car went off the road and killed another driver. Jansson finds four squabbling UFO experts to support this defense strategy, and not the least of Matera's many high points in a book full of them is her ability to convince us that it might just have happened. Previous Jansson cases in paperback include Last Chants, Hidden Agenda, Prior Convictions, and Radical Departure. [via]
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Where Lawyers Fear to Treadby Lia MateraISBN 0345371259 (0-345-37125-9)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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