Bitter Business - Hardcover

Hartzmark, Gini

3.98

47 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0449909891 ISBN 13: 9780449909898

Publisher: Ballantine Books, 1995

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Gini Hartzmark has become a master of legal suspense. The San Francisco Chronicle praised her last book, Final Option, as "explosive...a cleverly plotted and convincing look at freewheeling crooks and wizards." Now Hartzmark returns with another high-stakes novel that could have been torn from the headlines, a tale of the worst kind of greed in the best of families.
It's no secret that Chicago corporate attorney Kate Millholland went to law school to avoid the gauntlet of parties and shopping that in her parents' wealthy world fills the gap between debutante and bride. But once Kate began her studies, she found herself falling in love with the law--and forever fighting the cozy, privileged image cast by the shadow of her family tree.
Now, at the request of a dying colleague, Kate Millholland agrees to represent the Cavanaugh family business and finds a nest of vipers. Patriarch and CEO Jack Cavanaugh, who built Superior Plating & Specialty Chemicals into a stunning success, runs a tight ship and sails it intrusively into the lives of his four children, all of whom have problems of their own. The oldest son, Philip, the heir-not-so-apparent of the company, wrestles with agonizing guilt and a shameful secret; his sister, Dagny--a polished, educated, charismatic executive--is not as loyal as her father thinks when it comes to taking over the helm; Eugene, a tough-talking ex-marine, may never outgrow a tragedy from his past; and Lydia, the baby of the family with the loudest scream, loves trouble. As Kate enters the picture, Lydia is threatening to sell her shares of stock and the family be damned.
Kate finds her hands full with this fierce clan. But when murder strikes, she must delve into a dark and twisted family history--where she uncovers oily opportunists, emotional scars, and fatal passions on a collision course with disaster and unexplained death.
Brilliantly plotted with unforgettable characters and shocking suspense, A Bitter Business hails the hardcover debut of a major new work of fiction by an author who gets better with every book she writes.

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Review:

Kate Millholland, Gini Hartzmark's High Society dropout turned hotshot Chicago lawyer, is an upscale version of Sara Paretsky's V. I. Warshawski--smart, tough, and endlessly resourceful, but with humanizing moments of weakness. In her third outing, Kate goes against her better judgement when a dying colleague asks her to help defend one of his clients. Millholland finds herself tangled in the smelly affairs of a rich, extremely nasty family who run a chemical company. Hartzmark's legal and business expertise provide a solid foundation for a finely tuned structure of suspense. Also available in paperback are Millholland's first two outings: Final Option and Principal Defense.

From the Publisher:

After reading my first Kate Millholland novel--Bitter Business--Gini Hartzmark had me hooked. Not only did she give me a dazzling heroine to follow, but she dropped her into a rich brew of a plot featuring a feuding, back-stabbing clan that made the folks of Melrose Place seem as tame as kittens. I appreciate Hartzmark's enormous talent for creating intricate, complex characters--there are no cartoon heroes and villains here, but real flesh and blood characters. Bravo Gini!

Grant Neumann, Copy Director

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