Defense for the Devil - Hardcover

Wilhelm, Kate

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 031219854X ISBN 13: 9780312198541

Publisher: St. Martin's Press, 1999

Synopsis

A spellbinding courtroom thriller follows aggressive Oregon lawyer Barbara Holloway as she risks her career and her very soul when she defends a woman who has been framed for the murder of her errant husband. 30,000 first printing.

About this title

About the Author

Kate Wilhelm published her first novel in 1963 and has gone on to publish twenty-eight more novels and a dozen collections of short fiction. Among her many books are the science fiction classic Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang, the Constance and Charlie mysteries, and three previous Barbara Holloway legal thrillers--Death Qualified, The Best Defense, and Malice Prepense. Her most recent novel, The Good Children, was recently optioned for film by DreamWorks SKG. Among the many honors her fiction has won are the Prix Apollo, the Hugo Award, three Nebula Awards, and the Kurd Lasswitz Award. In 1996 she and her husband, Damon Knight, received honorary degrees of Doctor of Humanities from Michigan State University in recognition of their many years of contributions to science fiction.

Reviews

"Evil infects some people... it gets into the system and stays like a virus that is never killed," seasoned criminal lawyer Barbara Holloway reflects, in the fourth thriller by Wilhelm (The Good Children) to feature the Eugene-based attorney. Maggie Folsum's abusive ex-husband, Mitch, has come tearing back into her life, threatening Maggie and ransacking the inn she operates. The dirt that Holloway's investigation turns up on Mitch piles higher and higher?until he's six feet under it and his good-guy brother Ray stands wrongfully accused of his murder. Holloway agrees to defend Ray, hoping to secure long-in-arrears child support from Mitch's stash of dirty money. She's up against a corrupt organization run by a man named Palmer, whose cleverness and casual violence are frightening, but she believes that she can outwit them. After Ray's trial, and as the tension mounts, Wilhelm employs an overused device for the disappointing denouement: Palmer's arrogance undermines his ingenuity. The nuances of courtroom procedure are compellingly presented, however, including a sophisticated look at the complex psychology of a jury.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Murder once again conceals a host of even dirtier secrets in this latest case for Oregon attorney Barbara Holloway (Malice Prepense, 1996, etc.). Seventeen years after he returned to his teenaged wife Maggie only to beat and rape her and abandon her and her baby again, Mitch Arno has come back once more. But this time he's the one who's beaten. Hours after he blusters his way back into Maggie Folsum's life, Mitch is dead, tortured to death, presumably, by someone who was interested in the contents of the suitcase ($$$$) and briefcase (something potentially even more valuable) that he brought all the way from Miami to Eugene. Barbara, agreeing to act for Maggie, maneuvers adroitly among Russ Major (the software developer whose property is in the briefcase), R.M. Palmer (the urbane businessman who's had Major's property hijacked), and the authorities (who would impound the money as part of Mitch's estate if they knew the story behind it), winning a belated $210,000 in child support for her client by playing the players off against each other. Meantime, though, the clueless D.A. arrests Mitch's brother Ray for his murder, and Barbara, who can't defend Ray because of looming conflicts of interest, has to watch from the sidelines while a spineless lawyer runs his case into the ground. Anybody who's not with the justice system will see where the guilt lies hundreds of pages in advance; Barbara's challenge here instead is to puncture the airtight case against Ray Arno, rout the apparently unstoppable forces of evil, and keep her father and partner Frank and her lover John Mureau from danger. She manages all this and more with the barely-legal dexterity of the early Perry Mason. Despite the often faceless charactersRay's wife, for instance, is a cipher, and Ray himself barely moreWilhelm's skill in spinning out endless complications while keeping every subplot perfectly clear makes this legal thriller her best in years. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Mitch Arno is a spouse abuser, small-time thug, and general ne'er-do-well. When he trashes wife Maggie's cozy Oregon B&B after his latest "job," she kicks him out, and he heads for his brother's house. Meanwhile, Maggie turns to attorneys Barbara Holloway and her father, Frank, to get a restraining order against Mitch and file for damages. Then Mitch turns up dead, and brother Ray is arrested for murder. Maggie persuades Barbara to defend Ray, placing her and her father in the middle of a deadly web of deception and greed involving the theft of a valuable computer code, a senator's opportunistic wife, and a software tycoon who wants to settle the matter with a gun. Wilhelm (The Good Children, LJ 2/1/98) is a masterful storyteller whose novels have just the right blend of solid plot, compelling mystery, and great courtroom drama. Barbara and Frank Holloway are a likable team whose work in this latest case will leave readers begging for more. Highly recommended.?Susan Clifford, Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, CA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 031219854X
• ISBN 13: 9780312198541
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400