KNOCK OFF

Romance writer Pollero spins the hilarious tale of a paralegal whose loyalty to a client imperils her bargain-chasing.

Champion discount shopper Finley Tanner has never thought of her job in the Estates and Trusts Department of Dane, Lieberman and Zarnowski as anything but a means to keep her in last season’s Lilly Pulitzer—until Victor Dane makes her babysit estates client Stacy Evans, who’s convinced that her jeweler husband Marcus’s auto death was no accident. At first, Finley goes along with Dane’s wish to appease the client without really investigating her claim. But when she discovers that Marcus Evans served on a jury with the late José Vasquez and Graham Keller in a malpractice case brought by the estate of Brad Whitley against transplant surgeon Kent Hall and defended by Dane, Lieberman and Zarnowski, Finley is suddenly very attentive. Petty harassment at the office—on orders from above, Margaret the evil receptionist makes her sign in and out and logs her phone calls—and threatening notes pinned to her front door don’t deter her, and the chance to work with sexy p.i. Liam McGarrity, a stunning counterpoint to her loyal but boring boyfriend Patrick, is a bonus. But it’s her inner drive to close the deal that makes Finley track Evans’s killer with a focus she usually reserves for off-price Armani.

Finley’s firm sense of priorities and laser-accurate descriptions of the most banal circumstances will make readers eager for an encore.