WHERE NOBODY DIES
By
The author's second outing with spirited young Brooklyn lawyer Cass Jameson, introduced in a well-received debut (DeadMan's Thoughts, 1983). Cass is now in private practice in a heavily mortgaged brownstone, the top floor of which she rents to Linda Ritchie and 12-year-old daughter Dawn. Linda is also her client in an ongoing struggle with shiftless ex-husband Brad for Dawn's custody--a case now reactivated by Linda's upcoming move to Washington as secretary to newly elected Congressman Art Lucenti. When LiMa is found stabbed to death, Brad is promptly arrested for the murder; Dawn is relegated to Linda's coldly efficient sister Marcy; and Cass, convinced of Brad's innocence, discovers a trove of blackmailing material hidden in Linda's apartment. It involves big-shot builder Todd Lessek, slumlord Ira Bellfield, Congressman Lucenti himself, his wife Aida, and some lesser fry. Cass' battle to restore Brad to his loving daughter takes her into dangerous territory, while she continues the daily routine in Brooklyn's courts with her raunchy clients, all brought vibrantly to life in Wheat's talented hands. The denouement rings not quite true, the story is slightly overextended, but these are minor flaws here: the author is a natural storyteller and the promise of solid talent in her debut is vividly affirmed in Where Nobody Dies.