Lia Matera

Author Information
Lia Matera's Latest Book

Newest Release

  • Bibliography:
    26 Books (2 Series)
  • First Book:
    January 1987
  • Latest Book:
    June 2021
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Full Series List in Order

A Laura Dipalma Mystery

1 - Smart Money (1988)
2 - The Good Fight (Feb-1990)
3 - A Hard Bargain (May-1992)
4 - Face Value (Feb-1994)
5 - Designer Crimes (Jun-1995)

A Willa Jansson Mystery

1 - Where Lawyers Fear to Tread (1987)
2 - A Radical Departure (Mar-1988)
3 - Hidden Agenda (1988)
4 - Prior Convictions (Mar-1991)
6 - Last Chants (Jun-1996)
7 - Star Witness (Jun-1997)
8 - Havana Twist (May-1998)

Book List in Order: 26 titles

  • Where Lawyers Fear to Tread

    • / Police Procedural
    • Buy Buy
    A Willa Jansson Mystery - 1

    Murder of the First Part Overworked, overcaffeinated, and as cranky as a sequestered jury, Willa Jansson has a law review to get out. As second in command to the brilliant Susan Green, the ideal law student and perfect editor, Willa's rank jumps u...

  • Hidden Agenda

    • / Police Procedural
    • Buy Buy
    A Willa Jansson Mystery - 3

    Sudden Stop on the Fast Track Willa Jansson has always thought of herself as a right-thinking left-wing lawyer. But when her radical San Francisco law firm closes after the murder of its chief rabble-rouser, she does the next worst thing and takes...

  • Smart Money

    • / Police Procedural
    • Buy Buy
    A Laura Dipalma Mystery - 1

    Laura Di Palma finally has it made. Eleven years ago, she ran from a broken marriage and her small northern California town in search of fame and fortune. As the smartest and most controversial young defense attorney in her high-class law firm, she f...

  • A Radical Departure

    A Willa Jansson Mystery - 2

    REQUIEM FOR A RADICAL San Francisco lawyer Julian Warneke used to defend draft resisters and Black Panthers--until the copyright protection of their fitness books became more lucrative. After lunching at a chichi restaurant, Julian drops dead o...

  • The Good Fight

    A Laura Dipalma Mystery - 2

    Attorney Laura Di Palma is in complete control of her high-profile life--she's about to become a partner, signed lithographs decorate the walls of her spectacular San Francisco apartment, and her Mercedes is paid for. But control turns to utter chaos...

  • Prior Convictions

    A Willa Jansson Mystery - 4

    Willa Jansson, a cynical ex-radical, figures the walking dead had more fun than she did last year. At least none of them were selling their souls to a corporate Los Angeles law firm, trying to make their resumes look good. After a year of misery, tho...

  • A Hard Bargain

    A Laura Dipalma Mystery - 3

    A burned-out attorney investigates a strange small-town suicide in this mystery from the author of The Good Fight.Laura Di Palma’s days as a high-profile San Francisco lawyer are behind her. Four hundred miles north of the city in her peaceful home...

  • Face Value

    A Laura Dipalma Mystery - 4

    It's been ten months since Laura Di Palma was fired from her high powered-San Francisco law firm for doing pro bono work--without the firm's consent. Now, the tenacious attorney has come back a solo act. With an office too far south of Market Street ...

  • Designer Crimes

    A Laura Dipalma Mystery - 5

    They say that living well is the best revenge. But attorney Laura Di Palma may not have the opportunity to find out. Her former boss keeps trying to torpedo her new solo law practice, and when his slanders cost Laura her most important client, this l...



  • Performance Crime

    in Women On the Case

    Crime and detection are women's work for twenty-six great writers in this second brilliant collection of mystery fiction edited by Sara Paretsky. From wicked irony and white-collar crime in Amanda Cross's "The Baroness," to the chilling "Only a Woman...

  • Last Chants

    A Willa Jansson Mystery - 6

    Helping a family friend who’s been framed for murder has a San Francisco lawyer living like a fugitive in this mystery by the author of Prior Convictions.Attorney Willa Jansson’s found a new position in the growing field of multimedia law -- itâ€...

  • Star Witness

    A Willa Jansson Mystery - 7

    Just when attorney Willa Jansson is about to take a little time off from her job at a San Francisco multimedia firm, a friend calls in a special favor. So, on her first day of what should have been her well-earned vacation, Willa's off to Santa Cruz ...

  • Havana Twist

    A Willa Jansson Mystery - 8

    As she investigates the mysterious disappearance of her own peacenik mother, Willa finds herself doing the HAVANA TWIST Attorney Willa Jansson has finally managed to unload some of her sixties baggage, but her rebellious mother can't seem to mello...

  • Irreconcilable Differences

  • Counsel for the Defense and Other Stories

  • The River Mouth

    in A Moment on the Edge

    "

    “An absolutely first-rate anthology. . . a thoughtful and intelligent paean to crime fiction.” — New York Sun

    #1 New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth George serves up a century''s worth of superb crim...

  • The Children

  • Lovers And Lawyers: Ten Stories

    LOVERS AND LAWYERS collects ten short stories that were published over twenty years. Nine first appeared in anthologies edited by Scott Turow, Tony Hillerman, Jonathan Kellerman, Sara Paretsky, Marilyn Wallace, Carolyn Hart, and Robert J. Randisi. Th...

  • Champawat

    The novella Champawat placed third in the vote for Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine's Readers Award for 2012. This ebook edition adds the prequel short story The Children, which opened Ellery Queen's 70th Anniversary issue (Oct/Nov 2011).Champawat begin...



  • The Children & Champawat

  • Where Lawyers Fear To Tread & A Radical Departure

    For the first time in an omnibus edition, the first two novels in Willa Jansson legal mystery series.WHERE LAWYERS FEAR TO TREAD introduces Willa, described by The New York Times as, One of the most articulate and surely the wittiest of women sleuths...

  • Hidden Agenda & Prior Convictions

    For the first time, the third and fourth Willa Jansson mystery novels are together in an omnibus edition.HIDDEN AGENDA is the third adventure of attorney Willa Jansson, praised by Newsday as "an unusually deep and complex character for crime fiction ...

  • The Smart Money & The Good Fight

    THE SMART MONEY introduces San Francisco litigator Laura Di Palma, who Booklist says "certainly belongs in the same league as Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone and Sara Paretsky's V.I. Warshawksi when it comes to brains, determination, and guts."A year o...

  • A Hard Bargain & Face Value

    Kirkus Reviews calls A HARD BARGAIN "a welcome respite from the mystery-by-formula crowd." Karen McGuin survived her first grisly suicide attempt. Then her husband started putting a loaded gun in front of her every day -- to urge her to choose life, ...

  • Politics Is Murder

    POLITICS IS MURDER is an omnibus edition of two novels, Prior Convictions (1991) and The Good Fight (1990), originally published by Simon & Schuster. PRIOR CONVICTIONS was nominated for the mystery genre's top prizes, the Edgar Allan Poe Award and th...

  • Lovers and Lawyers

    Twelve suspenseful stories from the author of the Willa Jansson and Laura Di Palma mystery series.A killer’s using freezing weather and plenty of water to eliminate the city’s homeless population, and a lawyer must identify the culprit before her...

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Lia Matera has published 26 books.

Lia Matera does not have a new book coming out soon. The latest book, Lovers and Lawyers, was published in June 2021.

The first book by Lia Matera, Where Lawyers Fear to Tread, was published in January 1987.

Yes. Lia Matera has 2 series.
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