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Unlucky in
Law
By Perri O'Shaughnessy
Delacorte Press
Reviewed by: Rob
Holden
On the off chance that anyone reading this isn’t aware of it, Perri
O’Shaughnessy is actually two people -- a sister act, if you will -- Pam and
Mary O’Shaughnessy, who write legal mystery/thrillers starring their signature
character, attorney Nina Reilly. Their current release, Unlucky in Law,
is the tenth novel of this series and is the best thus far in a series that has
never failed to please.
Stefan Wyatt is a loser. A two-time felon whose criminal career has been marked
more by some of the worst luck in the world than by stupidity on his part,
Stefan is arrested for robbing a grave, and is later charged with the murder of
a young woman based on DNA evidence. Stefan proclaims his innocence -- at least
as far as the murder is concerned -- but even if he is acquitted of that he
still faces life in prison for robbing the grave under California’s three
strikes law. Stefan’s attorney, the elderly Klaus Pohlmann, calls on his former
protégé Nina Reilly to take over this seemingly unwinnable case. Nina, whose
practice is located in Lake Tahoe, has been in the Monterey, California area for
a while, trying to get the relationship with her boyfriend -- private
investigator Paul van Wagoner -- straight, and can’t say no to her old boss and
mentor. As she does with every case she takes on, Nina jumps in with both feet
-- bringing Paul with her -- and together they find that this case is about
something far more dark and sinister than a grave robbing and a simple
murder.
In a recent interview with ReadersRoom.com, the O’Shaughnessy sisters said of
Unlucky in Law: “The novel began with a dark thought -- we wanted to
start our story with someone digging up a grave. One day, while visiting a
graveyard in Monterey, California, we discovered a person buried there allegedly
connected to the Romanovs. That set us off ...We couldn't resist playing with
this Russian historical angle, asking ourselves, what if?”
And what if is just what you get in this action packed thriller. What if history
didn’t happen the way everybody thinks it did? What if a member of the Tzar’s
family survived, and there are forces worldwide who want to make certain that
the truth never sees the light of day? What if a secret that has been kept for
generations culminates in the arrest of a two time loser for a crime that he
might not have committed. But, as is the case with every O’Shaughnessy novel,
there is also every chance that the client really is guilty as hell.
Blending extensive historical research with state of the art forensics, Perri
O’Shaughnessy takes readers from the present to the past, and a good way into
the future in Unlucky in Law. Extensively researched, beautifully written
and packed full of twists and turns that you will never see coming, Unlucky
in Law is one of this summer’s must reads.
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