A Hard Bargain & Face Value — Lia Matera

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, he said. But Karen pulled the trigger instead, and now her family wants him arrested for murder. When they hire a San Francisco law firm to make the case to their small-town D.A., detective Sandy Arkelett treks there to investigate. But what he really wants is to lure his one-time partner, lawyer Laura Di Palma, back to the city. With families clashing and relationships crumbling, Laura and Sandy add their own conflicts to an emotional powder keg. The Chicago Tribune says, "The nerves of everyone involved are strung so tight that you wait tensely for the breaking twang."

Booklist says of FACE VALUE, "This latest Laura Di Palma adventure is no exception to the tight plotting, good characterizations, and page-turning suspense that have typified the earlier entries in the series and that make Matera one of the best contemporary mystery novelists… Highly recommend… Matera is too good to miss." The followers of San Francisco quantum physicist and guru "Brother Mike" thought they were exploring their sexuality and spirituality when he guided them through videotaped group encounters. They didn't know the tapes would end up in the XXX sections of their video stores. Now one former devotee, an old friend of lawyer Laura Di Palma, has come to her new office for advice. With the help of her former partner, detective Sandy Arkelett, she finds that new secrets have a way of getting old lovers killed. USA Today calls Face Value "Absorbing… A fine, intelligent story," and Newsday says that "Di Palma, a complex and very likable detective, is in top form in Face Value."