Forcing Amaryllis - Hardcover

Louise Ure

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1597220930 ISBN 13: 9781597220934

Publisher: Wheeler Publishing, 2005

Synopsis

Once Calla Gentry wore bright colors. Now she shrouds herself in the bleak shades of a desert landscape. But her current fashion choices are more than an instinct to blend with her present home in the Arizona desert. Like a female bird, she has learned to soften her sounds and colors for survival. It's been seven years since her sister Amaryllis was attacked and left for dead - not long enough to push the horror out of Calla's nightmares.

Available only in Wheeler Hardcover 6.

About this title

From Booklist:

Ure's debut so compellingly evokes the hot, dry Southwest, readers may want to have an icy-cold glass of water nearby while reading it. Trial consultant Calla Gentry loves living in Tucson, despite the triple-digit heat, and she doesn't mind her job--as long as she can stick to civil cases. Inevitably, Calla's demanding boss insists she take on a criminal case--working for the defense team of accused rapist and murder Ray Cates. For Calla, whose sister Amaryllis was raped and nearly killed, and now sleeps in a coma following a suicide attempt, this task is almost unbearable. However, she needs the job and begins checking into Cates' background. To her horror, similarities between Cates and the man who attacked her sister begin to appear. Ethically bound to be on Cates' side in the criminal case, Calla must nonetheless investigate him and prove to herself that he is not Amaryllis' attacker. In the process, she must reopen the deep wounds of previous rape victims, who are her only hope of proving Cates' guilt. Ure, a Tucson native, clearly adores the city, and she brilliantly depicts its landscape, citizenry, and culture. This could be the start of a very special series. Jenny McLarin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

From Publishers Weekly:

Despite a clunky and obvious plot, Ure's first novel offers a surprisingly tender tale of sisterly vengeance. Trial consultant Calla Gentry must help ensure that Raymond Cates, the son of a wealthy Tucson, Ariz., rancher, is acquitted of the brutal rape and murder of a young woman he met at a bar. Unfortunately, Calla suspects that not only is Cates guilty but he may also be the perpetrator of a never-reported assault on Calla's sister, Amy (aka Amaryllis), seven years earlier. While Amy lies in a coma brought on by a suicide attempt following the near-fatal attack, Calla remains haunted by the specter of the unknown assailant who may or may not be her new client. Rather than refusing the case, she decides to seize the opportunity to lay her demons to rest. With the help of a few old friends and a romantically promising private detective, Calla turns sleuth, hoping to discover and bring to justice the man responsible for destroying her sister's life. While some readers may find the climax in which Calla walks into peril a tad unlikely, the exciting action should carry most through to the tidy conclusion.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Wheeler Publishing
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1597220930
• ISBN 13: 9781597220934
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 408