Move To Strike - Softcover

OShaughnessy Perri

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0749932597 ISBN 13: 9780749932596

Publisher: Dell Pub Co, 2001

Synopsis

Nina's not sleeping much these days. She's recovering from a great loss, haunted by a killer who may still be tracking her, and working on a tough new case. Her client is a sixteen-year-old girl charged with first-degree murder. Nikki Zack is a rebel, a thief, and the best friend of Nina's son, Bob. Did she steal something from her uncle, a prominent plastic surgeon, and then kill him with an ancient samurai sword? To help find out, Nina calls in private investigator Paul Van Wagoner, her ex-lover and constant ally, whose bravado doesn't betray his own sleepless nights. As they work through the twisting lies surrounding Nikki, it becomes brutally clear to Nina that she must pull an ace out of her sleeve in the courtroom to save her client, and solve the mystery surrounding Paul to save herself.

About this title

Review

Defense attorney Nina Reilly has bad luck with men: one marriage ended abruptly, and another ended in tragedy. Still, her misfortunes with the opposite sex are nothing compared to the trouble she has finding a decent client. In her sixth outing, Move to Strike, Nina's defending a minor who's a major pain: Nikki Zack, a mouthy, rebellious teenager who's being tried as an adult in the murder of her uncle, a wealthy plastic surgeon. Like a lot of people in Lake Tahoe, Nikki disliked Bill Sykes, who showed both greed and snobbery to Nikki and her scatterbrained mother, Daria. He discouraged their familial overtures except when he cheated them in a land deal. Nevertheless, Nikki claims she didn't kill him, even though she was spotted sneaking around his pool on the night of the murder, and the prosecution's case against her is based on a blood sample that indicates she wielded the murder weapon. Nina is particularly struck by two strange facts: Sykes's son Chris was killed in a plane crash at almost the same time Sykes died, and Sykes's widow, Beth, is almost abnormally quick to front the money for her niece's defense, no questions asked.

Nina knows Nikki saw something or someone at Sykes's house, but she's not sure whether Nikki's protecting her sleazy, housebreaking boyfriend or Daria, whose vagueness is almost too extreme to believe. Nikki is placed under house arrest, but that's not enough to keep her--or Nina and her son Bob--safe when a stranger starts calling. When the treasure trove of unimpressive-looking rocks that Nikki took from Sykes's underwater hiding place turns out to be something completely unexpected, the ring of suspects widens and danger creeps closer. Nina teams with Paul van Wagoner, the investigator (familiar from Acts of Malice and previous Nina Reilly mysteries) she can't quite seem to disentangle herself from, to help sort the loose ends from the dead ends. And there are plenty of both.

The O'Shaughnessy sisters (Perri is a pen name for Pamela and Mary) are taking new risks and increasing the stakes with every book, and Move to Strike shows they can pull it off. The characters are deftly drawn and the plotting masterfully complex. The pacing falls a bit short of heart-stopping; the courtroom scenes serve to up the stakes for Nikki, yet don't really add much tension. But this series is still young and keeps getting better and better. Grisham and Turow, check your rear-view mirrors: there's a new writer in the fast lane. --Barrie Trinkle

From the Inside Flap

"New York Times bestselling author Perri O'Shaughnessy takes the courtroom thriller to breathtaking new heights in Move to Strike, a page-turning masterpiece of suspense that brings back attorney Nina Reilly, hailed by critics as "one of the most interesting heroines in legal thrillers today" ("San Jose Mercury News).
Nina Reilly thought she'd seen it all. An attorney and single mother, Nina isn't afraid to tackle the toughest cases and trickiest defenses. But she is wholly unprepared for her latest client -- sixteen-year-old Nicole Zack, rebel, thief, and best friend of Nina's teenage son, Bob.
Did Nikki steal something from her uncle, a prominent plastic surgeon, then kill him in cold blood? To find out, Nina calls in Paul van Wagoner, a P.I. and ex-lover whose bravado conceals a troubling personal secret.
As Paul investigates the eerily coincidental death of the surgeon's son -- killed in a plane crash the same night his father was murdered -- Nina sorts through the twisting lies surrounding Nikki, uncovering a seething mystery, some enraged former patients, and two very old crimes.
Finally, Nina must confront the central question she must answer in order to save her client: What did Nikki really see the night of her uncle's murder?

About this edition

• Publisher: Dell Pub Co
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0749932597
• ISBN 13: 9780749932596
• Binding: Paperback