DREAMS OF THE DEAD

This time out, attorney Nina Reilly’s nemesis is a defunct ex-client who might be more alive than dead.

Jim Strong frightened the daylights out of Nina, who, as followers of this series know, does not terrify easily (Show No Fear, 2008, etc.). Accused of murdering his brother, he hired Nina to represent him, and she ended up convinced not only of his guilt but that his capacity for evil was close to limitless. And then he vanished. It was a disappearance so convincing, a silence so complete, that after several years, all connected to him—father, remaining sibling, Nina, too—felt safe in presuming him dead. Now, suddenly, here’s Philip Strong, Jim’s father, pacing the floor of Nina’s South Lake Tahoe law office. It’s a matter of some urgency, he insists, having to do with the Paradise Ski Resort, which he’s attempting to sell. Much more significantly, it has to do with his presumed dead son, who it seems may have been prematurely presumed dead. From Brazil, Philip informs Nina, a certain legal-looking document has arrived making it clear that Jim wants a piece of the ski resort pie. “He’s dead,” says Nina. “This is fraud.” But if the document is indeed fraudulent, then as far as Philip’s concerned it’s up to Nina to prove it. Nina being Nina, she agrees and sets about the task. But as tough and smart as Nina is, is it possible that this time she’s outmatched? 

Feisty, funny Nina engages as always, but this is as much a romance novel as it is a thriller, which means, of course, occasional stretches of no-man’s land.