ACTS OF MALICE

The O’Shaughnessy sisters writing team (Perri is the pen name for Pamela and Nancy) produces its best courtroom thriller to date. When champion skier Alex Strong goes hurtling off a cliff, his death is ruled accidental. Days later the coroner reverses himself, and suddenly Jim Strong, Alex’s brother, is up to his ski bibs in problems, because as far as the South Tahoe PD is concerned, Jim was the last to see his brother alive. And now the coroner is insisting that some of Alex’s injuries weren—t related to his fall. Beleaguered Jim does what troubled people in South Tahoe are getting used to doing: he turns to Nina Reilly for help. Nina, who has steadily garnered a reputation as the toughest, most resourceful criminal attorney in the area (Breach of Promise, 1998, etc.), is at first convinced of her new client’s innocence. On the other hand, his father, sister, and wife seem not to be. Nina begins to worry: Is she defending a clever psychopath or is he, rather, the unlucky, unloved product of a dysfunctional family—a gallant, blameless survivor? And she has other, distinctly nonlegal worries. Does Assistant District Attorney Collier Hallowell represent merely a sexual itch? Or are her feelings for him deep enough for a life beyond scratching? In the meantime, evidence continues to mount against her client, who continues vehemently to proclaim the existence of a conspiracy. There’s a climactic courtroom battle, a ferocious clash of wills, and a slick bit of legal maneuvering that would have won the day for Nina if the fates had been kinder. Still, the villain does get his—in a denouement that meanders a bit along the way but is a smash when it finally arrives. The O’Shaugnessys are too readily—and almost always unwisely—drawn to bathos. Nina, however, is likable enough to save them from their sins. ($300,000 ad/promo; author tour)