Writ of Execution - Hardcover

O'Shaughnessy, Perri

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 078623511X ISBN 13: 9780786235117

Publisher: Thorndike Pr, 2001

Synopsis

Book by O'Shaughnessy, Perri

About this title

Review

Nina Reilly's new client ought to be dancing in the streets. She's just won the biggest slot machine jackpot in Lake Tahoe history. But if Jessie Potter claims it, she's putting herself and her little boy in harm's way. Someone's out to get the young woman, and the only one who seems to be on her side is Kenny Leung, an awkward but likable techno-wizard who's about to go bankrupt. Nina comes up with a plan to help Jessie collect her jackpot without revealing her identity to the powerful man who believes she killed his son. But her client's pursuer is already on the sniff. Though he was unable to convince the police to charge her with homicide, he and his sleazy lawyer counter Nina's maneuver by filing a writ of execution that will deprive Jessie of her rightful winnings. And just to thicken the plot, there's someone else threatening Jessie--a very angry man who believes she stole the jackpot that should have been his. He will kill anyone who stands in the way of his claim.

Nina may be a crafty lawyer, but she's not quite as deft in juggling her personal and professional lives. Paul van Wagoner, her investigator, isn't happy with their romantic relationship, and Nina herself, still mourning the death of her husband, is reluctant to commit to more than a casual romance. Perri O'Shaughnessy doesn't devote a lot of ink to her heroine's emotional concerns, but she's good at plotting, excellent on the legal maneuvering, and handles her secondary characters well, particularly Leung, whose computer expertise illuminates the technical aspects of slot machine gaming. This is a series that keeps getting better. O'Shaughnessy fans who've stuck with Nina since her somewhat plodding earlier adventures will be glad they stayed the course. --Jane Adams

From the Inside Flap

Masterful storytelling ... gripping legal drama ... relentless suspense -- these are the hallmarks of Perri O'Shaughnessy's work. Critics hail her legal thrillers as "terrific ... will keep you turning the pages into the night" (USA Today) and "a real puzzler ... with twists diabolical enough to take to court" (The New York Times Book Review).

Now the New York Times bestselling author of Move to Strike returns with Writ of Execution, an electrifying tale that plunges attorney Nina Reilly into a shadowy world of high-stakes money and cold-blooded murder.

In the mountain resort town of South Lake Tahoe, Nina Reilly is known for taking on the underdog cases, the kind that can make -- or break -- her one-woman law practice. Her latest case begins in the middle of a summer night when she is called away from a very personal visit to her investigator Paul van Wagoner's hotel room to meet with a desperate new client at her office who gives her name as Jessie Potter. The frightened young woman has just hit a huge slot machine jackpot, and the men in suits are waiting to hand her the check just as soon as she tells them her real identity.

With time running out, Nina helps her client devise a brilliant plan to collect the money while keeping her true identity a secret. Unfortunately, powerful interests have lined up to grab the money. The gaming commission thinks the jackpot was rigged. The man sitting on the seat just before the jackpot hit says it's his, and he doesn't mind going outside the law to get it. And the wealthy man stalking Nina's client has retained an unscrupulous local lawyer, Jeff Riesner, to attack the jackpot winnings using a legal maneuver called a Writ of Execution. The odds of Jessie ever collecting are starting to look hopeless.

For Nina, what began as a fight for an underdog in federal court soon escalates into something very different and far more dangerous. Jessie has a secret, and she needs that money for a very good reason. By the time Nina discovers that Jessie is withholding vital information, it might be too late for her client and even for Nina herself.

Because somewhere in the darkening Tahoe night, people are dying. A cold-blooded, obsessed killer will stop at nothing -- including execution-style murder -- to get that jackpot in a case where the Writ of Execution has become more than a legal maneuver; it's a death warrant.

Sweeping from the glittering casinos of Tahoe to the drama of a packed courtroom to the darkness of a woman's secret past, Writ of Execution is spellbinding entertainment -- Perri O'Shaughnessy's most intricate and compelling novel to date.

Edition details

• Publisher: Thorndike Pr
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 078623511X
• ISBN 13: 9780786235117
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 621