No Defense - Hardcover

Wilhelm, Kate

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312209533 ISBN 13: 9780312209537

Publisher: Minotaur Books, 2000

Synopsis

A seven-month marriage that ends in a suspicious car crash leaves the husband, Vinny, dead and the widow, Lara, a murder suspect with seemingly no defense--until Barbara Holloway takes the case

About this title

About the Author

KATE WILHELM is the author of dozens of novels and story collections that range across the fields of fiction. Her short fiction has appeared in such magazines as Redbook, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Her novels have been honored with the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, and the Prix Apollo. Among her recent works are The Good Children, Defense for the Devil, and her popular "Constance & Charlie" mysteries have recently been collected in two omnibus editions. Born in Toledo, Ohio, she has lived in Eugene, Oregon, for many years where she is currently at work on a psychological thriller entitled The Deepest Water.

Reviews

The murder case against young widow Lara Jessup appears airtight after her wealthy, much older, and terminally ill husband Vinny is shot on a twisting Oregon mountain road, and legal eagle Barbara Holloway struggles mightily to construct a defense for Lara in the first half of Wilhelm's latest legal thriller. Holloway is certain that the mountain of evidence indicating that Lara shot Vinny and then tried to make it look like a suicide is part of a setup by Harris McReady, an ambitious candidate for the Oregon Supreme Court who was also involved in an earlier "accident" in which Vinny's son from a previous marriage was shot. But Holloway travels down a series of dead ends in her efforts to unearth clues in the Oregon desert town where McReady is using his ties with a powerful rancher, Thomas Lynch, to press his case, and a conviction seems imminent as depositions are taken before the trial. The resourceful lawyer hits pay dirt, though, when the final leg of the investigation leads to McReady's gorgeous but damaged wife, who is also Lynch's daughter, and the pace picks up considerably as she dissects her opponent's marriage of convenience and the Lynch family history, revealing a hornet's nest of shady deals and coverups. Wilhelm spends considerable prose developing her quirky cast of characters, using the eerie milieu of the Oregon high desert to set off the oddness of this likable group. The attention to detail slows things up a bit, but once the depositions start, the action turns electric as the story races to an intriguing ending. Her carefully crafted approach to the legal thriller continues to separate Wilhelm from the competition, and those who prefer both style and substance in their courtroom dramas will find this a satisfying read. (Jan.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A lockstep, by-the-numbers legal procedural with all too few thrills. Wilhelm overcomes overwritten early scenes in which sunlight glints like an Aztec signal on a shard of a mirror and moves resolutely to an attention-grabbing opening in a new case for Oregon attorney Barbara Holloway (Malice Prepense, 1996, etc.). Its a hot summer in eastern Oregon when 33-year-old nurse Lara Jessup awakens to her worst nightmare: Her 60-ish husband, Vinny, an established lawyer dying of bone cancer, has been found dead in a van on a treacherous road. An accident, suicide, or murder? Thats what Holloway needs to find out when Lara becomes the prime suspect. But there are a lot of people in the small town of Salt Creek who want to stop Holloway from discovering the truth. Primary among them are the unhappily married Judge Harris McReady and his wife, Babe, treasured daughter of prime mover and shaker Thomas Lynch. McReady is in line for a Supreme Court position and doesnt want his reputation damaged by another murder that goes back many years. Vinnys son, Lewis, was accused of a double homicide, then mysteriously disappeared. Vinny was certain McReady had something to do with it. Holloway does a slick but unspectacular job of ferreting out the culprits in a meticulously presented pre-trial deposition process. A minor subplot involving Barbaras father, Frank, and his attempt to publish a book on cross-examination provides comic relief; his cooking skills offer tasty side dishes. There is also a heartfelt treatment of the emotional and moral bonds between various and sundry parents and children. But by the time Wilhelm returns from these digressive matters to trot out the solution to the mystery, the amused, well-fed reader has pretty much outguessed Holloway. Best for its regional details, fast-paced dialogue, and solid character delineation. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Prominent Oregon attorney Vinny Jessup is found dead in his truck at the foot of a cliff near his home in Bend, and Lara, his young wife, is promptly indicted for murder. Could this have been a suicide, or was Lara out to collect on Vinny's insurance? Enter Barbara and Frank Holloway, Wilhelm's (Defense for the Devil) popular father-daughter legal team. Lara swears she's being framed by a big rancher with Supreme Court aspirations, and when she produces a puzzling dossier on the good Judge McReady, the Holloways are truly stumped. McReady and the other big money ranchers are an intimidating, tight-mouthed bunch, but their stories are fundamentally credible. No one can vouch for Lara's actions on the night in question except for her young son. Typical of Wilhelm's many other excellent legal thrillers, a riveting story ensues as Barbara threads her way through a labyrinth of legal intricacies and tiny shreds of evidence. Throughout, Wilhelm's characters are believable, the setting attractively portrayed, and each subplot perfectly crafted and intertwined. This is her best work to date, superb enough to stand with the best of the genre. Highly recommended.
-Susan Gene Clifford Braun, The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, CA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Minotaur Books
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0312209533
• ISBN 13: 9780312209537
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 376