Perri O'Shaughnessy has with Nina Reilly created one of the more
interesting criminal defense attorneys presently on the
bookshelves. Reilly is conflicted and not entirely likable, yet is
undeniably driven and loyal to her clients, no matter how
reprehensible or guilty they might initially seem to be. All of
these elements are present in UNLUCKY IN LAW, O'Shaughnessy's
latest novel detailing the ever-evolving storyline of Reilly's life
and courtroom dramas.
UNLUCKY IN LAW finds Reilly back in the Monterey-Carmel area,
having uprooted herself from her fulfilling life in Lake Tahoe to
be with her love interest, Paul van Wagoner. Returning to her first
legal employer, the staid and legendary firm of Pohlmann,
Cunningham, and Turk, Reilly appears to have taken on an unwinnable
case on behalf of a client who it would seem is truly guilty of
murder. Stefan Wyatt is arrested in the middle of the night with a
bag full of human bones in the back seat of his car. He maintains
that he had been hired to retrieve the bones by Alex Zhukovsky, an
allegation that Zhukovsky vehemently denies.
But grave robbing is the least of Wyatt's problems. When the police
search the graveyard where Stefan had been digging, they find a
freshly murdered body. The grave is that of Zhukovsky's father ---
and the murder victim is Zhukovsky's sister, Christina. A search of
Christina's residence reveals blood splatters that contain DNA
matching Wyatt's own. Reilly clings desperately to a couple of
inconsistencies. Wyatt did not have any cuts on his body when he
was arrested, so it cannot be explained how he could have managed
to leave blood at the scene of the crime. Wyatt also insists that
it was Zhukovsky who hired him to disinter the bones. Wyatt,
however, has been in trouble with the law before, and he appears to
be headed to