|
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 toward becoming a three-time loser.
Reilly is further hampered by the fact that it appears as if virtually no trial preparation was done for the case and that she is ostensibly second-chair, or assistant, to Klaus Pohlmann, an eccentric but brilliant defense attorney and her former mentor. Pohlmann is behaving erratically, and Reilly is unsure as to whether he is simply exhibiting his idiosyncratic mannerisms or if encroaching senility has taken hold of him.
Van Wagoner, in his role as private investigator extraordinaire, is there to help, but his multiple relationships with Reilly keep getting them tangled up personally and professionally. Reilly is having second thoughts about leaving her practice and home in Lake Tahoe for Monterey and Carmel Valley, while van Wagoner --- and at least one reader --- is puzzled as to why she is having so much difficulty making up her mind. Van Wagoner's digging and Reilly's networking with forensic scientists soon uncover that Christina and the elder Zhukovsky shared a secret of earthshaking importance --- as well as an unforeseen link with Wyatt, who claims to have never met either of them. Reilly's courtroom revelations affect not only her client but also virtually everyone else in the novel, including Reilly herself.
O'Shaughnessy has never exhibited any reticence in turning Reilly's life upside down, and longtime readers of this fine series will have a good idea of what they can expect by the end of UNLUCKY IN LAW.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
• Click here now to buy this book from Amazon.
© Copyright 1996-2008, Bookreporter.com. All rights reserved.
Back to top.
|
