Lovers And Lawyers: Ten Stories — Lia Matera

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. The tenth was the opening story in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine's 70th Anniversary issue (Sept/Oct 2011). As the anthology title suggests, most are stories about lovers and/or lawyers. The lawyer stories focus on the limits of the legal system, what it can achieve and what--or whom--it leaves battered or compromised. One of these, Dead Drunk, won the Private Eye Writers of America Shamus Award for best short story of 1996. The stories about lovers venture into the wild world outside courthouses and law offices.