Perri O’Shaughnessy Books In Order

Nina Reilly Books In Publication Order

  1. Motion to Suppress (1995)
  2. Invasion of Privacy (1996)
  3. Obstruction of Justice (1997)
  4. Breach of Promise (1998)
  5. Acts of Malice (1999)
  6. Move to Strike (2000)
  7. Writ of Execution (2001)
  8. Unfit to Practice (2002)
  9. Presumption of Death (2003)
  10. Unlucky in Law (2004)
  11. Case of Lies (2005)
  12. Show No Fear (2008)
  13. Dreams of the Dead (2011)

Standalone Novels In Publication Order

  1. Keeper of the Keys (2006)

Short Story Collections In Publication Order

  1. Sinister Shorts (2006)

Anthologies In Publication Order

  1. Women Before the Bench (2001)

Nina Reilly Book Covers

Standalone Novels Book Covers

Short Story Collections Book Covers

Anthologies Book Covers

Perri O’Shaughnessy Books Overview

Motion to Suppress

Returning from her late shift as a barmaid at a casino in Lake Tahoe, Misty Patterson struck her violently jealous husband in self defense. She admits that but did she kill him? She says she can’t remember. Like so many times before, Misty blacked out and the rest of the evening is a blank. Now her husband has disappeared, leaving behind a trail of blood, and she’s the number one murder suspect with no one to turn to for help. San Francisco attorney Nina Reilly is also on the run from a bad marriage and a worse career setback. Relocated to Lake Tahoe, Nina is resolved to recover her spirit, give her young son a secure home, and build up a small solo practice. But, when Misty Patterson walks in the door, a blond Barbie doll of a cocktail waitress accused of murder, it triggers a harrowing series of events that will change both women’s lives forever. Common sense says Misty is lying. To win this case Nina will have to trust her own instincts, diving headlong into the dark convolutions of the human mind. This murder case teeming with sinister secrets, unspoken betrayals, and jolting revelations is going to change everything Nina Reilly believes about the law. It’s going to rock everything Misty believes about herself. And if they can learn to trust each other, it’s going to give both women their one and only chance to reclaim their shattered lives. In a spellbinding novel that doesn’t let go from the first page until the shocking unforgettable conclusion, Perri O’Shaughnessy delivers an electrifying legal thriller about two women risking all they have for the truth that could cost them their lives or set them both free.

Invasion of Privacy

Hard driving Attorney Nina Reilly returns from a near fatal gunshot wound in Motion to Suppress to take on the toughest and most intriguing case of her career.

Anxious to avoid the kind of case that almost killed her and determined to spend a restful winter at home in Lake Tahoe with her son Bobby, Attorney Nina Reilly vows to take on only the most uncomplicated cases. When filmmaker Terry London implores Nina to help her defend her documentary against charges of Invasion of Privacy, it seems an easy case to add to her work load. But Nina is soon wishing she’d never become involved, as it becomes clear that the film holds a crucial clue to a decades old unsolved murder and her new client poses a greater danger than any criminal Nina has ever come up against. Before the filmmaker can make good on her mysterious threats to harm Nina, she’s found murdered, and Nina finds herself in the middle of a full blown homicide homicide that is somehow connected to Nina’s past. When an old lover surfaces, he brings painful memories and new dangers as Nina fights to protect herself, her troubled son Bobby, and the delicate balance of their new life together from the destructive wake of a killer’s path.

From the Hardcover edition.

Obstruction of Justice

Lightning strikes twice.

Two people have died in Lake Tahoe in shocking accidents. In a nearly empty parking lot, a hit and run driver kills probation officer Anna Meade Hallowell. High up on a jagged mountain, wife abuser Ray de Beers gets what he deserves: he’s struck by lightning. Attorney Nina Reilly, hiking on a rare day off from her one woman law practice, sees him die. So does her date, Tahoe deputy DA Collier Hallowell. Still shaken from his wife’s violent death, Hallowell is hit hard by the accident. It’s a bad end to a first date…
and the start of a case that will test Nina’s ethics and her heart.

Nina is certain de Beers’s death is an act of God. But his aging father wants to exhume the body to rule out foul play. De Beers’s frantic wife and teenage twins hire Nina to stop the disinterment. What gets unearthed are secrets that raise new questions about Anna Hallowell’s death, an indictment against one twin for murder, and a damning piece of evidence that can convict the boy…
unless Nina obstructs justice by hiding it. No good lawyer will take that kind of risk. But a brilliant lawyer, one with a passion for truth, just might…
.

Breach of Promise

New York Times bestselling author Perri O’Shaughnessy has won the acclaim of critics nationwide for her complex, suspenseful legal thrillers that feature one of the most interesting hero*ines in legal suspense fiction today. Nina Reilly is a tough, tenderhearted, and unpredictable Lake Tahoe attorney with a one woman practice, a young son, a genuine sense of humor, and an interesting love life. Now, in Breach of Promise, Nina takes on the biggest case of her career, a high profile, high stakes palimony suit that could make her millions or ruin her financially. Little does she suspect that it will place her dead center in a bizarre and perplexing murder investigation. At glitzy Lake Tahoe, couples break up every day, but none quite so glamorous or successful as Lindy and Mike Markov. The scenario starts off in the standard way: Mike’s met a younger woman and wants out. The problem? Mike and Lindy built a $200 million business together and Mike claims he doesn’t owe Lindy a dime since they never married. Ready to fight, Lindy hires Nina Reilly to represent her in her palimony suit. Lacking the resources to handle a case with stakes this high, Nina hires an expert litigator in palimony law, who in turn brings in a jury consultant to ensure that the makeup of the jury is to their advantage. Now Nina’s working with a desperate, unstable client and slick big city legal professionals on the kind of case full of passion, raw emotion, and explosive secrets that could make a fortune for a struggling lawyer. Or drive someone to commit a shocking murder for love, money…
or the right verdict. With all of the storytelling power, authentic legal detail, and insight into the dark recesses of the human heart that have made her the hottest woman writer of legal thrillers, Perri O’Shaughnessy takes readers into the courtroom and far beyond it in her latest masterpiece of legal suspense.

Acts of Malice

Set amid the darker side of Lake Tahoe’s glamorous ski resorts, Acts of Malice has Nina taking on the case of Jim Strong, a member of South Lake Tahoe’s most prominent families and the owners of the posh Paradise Ski Resort. With his brother Alex recently killed in a headline making accident that occurred while they were skiing together, Jim fears he may be indicted in the death. When the coroner announces that Alex died from injuries unrelated to the accident, Jim is charged with murder.

As Nina prepares to defend her client, she has no idea that this case will lead her into a terrifying confrontation with a psychopath or threaten all that she holds most dear. She never expects to witness the perplexing and tangled set of loyalties and alliances among the Strong family.

Further complicating matters is Assistant District Attorney Collier Hallowell, back from sabbatical. Determined to put Jim Strong behind bars, he’s equally resolved to pick up romantically where he and Nina left off and to take their relationship in a completely new direction.

Move to Strike

Move to StrikeNew York Times bestselling author Perri O’Shaughnessy takes the courtroom thriller to breathtaking new heights in Move to Strike, a page turning masterpiece of suspense. Featuring Nina Reilly, hailed by critics as ‘one of the most interesting hero*ines in legal thrillers today,’ Move to Strike is a spellbinding tale of stolen treasure and twisted revenge set in the high desert of Nevada and the mountains of Lake Tahoe. An attorney and single mother, Nina Reilly runs her one woman law practice in South Lake Tahoe, balancing compassion and cunning with a passion for justice. But Nina is wholly unprepared for her latest client sixteen year old Nicole Zack, a rebel, a thief, and the best friend of Nina’s teenage son, Bob. Did Nikki steal something from her uncle, a prominent plastic surgeon, and then kill him with an ancient samurai sword? The district attorney is trying Nikki as an adult and the charge is first degree murder. With the stakes this high, Nina calls in private investigator Paul Van Wagoner, her ex lover and constant ally, whose bravado conceals a troubling personal secret. As Paul investigates the eerily coincidental death of the surgeon’s son killed in a plane crash the same night his father was murdered Nina sorts through the twisting lies surrounding Nikki, uncovering a bitter struggle over a mining claim, enraged former patients, and two old crimes. Finally, Nina must confront the central question she needs to answer in order to save her client: What did Nikki really see the night of her uncle’s murder?Taut, thought provoking, and utterly gripping, Move to Strike grapples with the profound question of what to do when the law does not suffice. It is a novel you won’t want to put down until the last twist is unraveled and the last satisfying page is turned. San Jose Mercury News

Writ of Execution

Masterful storytelling…
gripping legal drama…
relentless suspense these are the hallmarks of Perri O’Shaughnessy’s work. Critics hail her legal thrillers as ‘terrific…
will keep you turning the pages into the night’ USA Today and ‘a real puzzler…
with twists diabolical enough to take to court’ The New York Times Book Review. Now the New York Times bestselling author of Move to Strike returns with Writ of Execution, an electrifying tale that plunges attorney Nina Reilly into a shadowy world of high stakes money and cold blooded murder. In the mountain resort town of South Lake Tahoe, Nina Reilly is known for taking on the underdog cases, the kind that can make or break her one woman law practice. Her latest case begins in the middle of a summer night when she is called away from a very personal visit to her investigator Paul van Wagoner’s hotel room to meet with a desperate new client at her office who gives her name as Jessie Potter. The frightened young woman has just hit a huge slot machine jackpot, and the men in suits are waiting to hand her the check just as soon as she tells them her real identity. With time running out, Nina helps her client devise a brilliant plan to collect the money while keeping her true identity a secret. Unfortunately, powerful interests have lined up to grab the money. The gaming commission thinks the jackpot was rigged. The man sitting on the seat just before the jackpot hit says it’s his, and he doesn’t mind going outside the law to get it. And the wealthy man stalking Nina’s client has retained an unscrupulous local lawyer, Jeff Riesner, to attack the jackpot winnings using a legal maneuver called a Writ of Execution. The odds of Jessie ever collecting are starting to look hopeless. For Nina, what began as a fight for an underdog in federal court soon escalates into something very different and far more dangerous. Jessie has a secret, and she needs that money for a very good reason. By the time Nina discovers that Jessie is withholding vital information, it might be too late for her client and even for Nina herself. Because somewhere in the darkening Tahoe night, people are dying. A cold blooded, obsessed killer will stop at nothing including execution style murder to get that jackpot in a case where the Writ of Execution has become more than a legal maneuver; it’s a death warrant. Sweeping from the glittering casinos of Tahoe to the drama of a packed courtroom to the darkness of a woman’s secret past, Writ of Execution is spellbinding entertainment Perri O’Shaughnessy’s most intricate and compelling novel to date.

Unfit to Practice

It’s the moment every attorney fears most…
one careless moment that threatens careers, reputations, lives. For Nina Reilly, it will change everything and ignite a case where her own clients are witnesses against her…
and where the defendant is Nina herself. As an attorney championing desperate people, Nina Reilly has skirted the edges of legal ethics in pursuit of a just result, but she has never before broken the rule of absolute protection of her clients secrets. One September night in Lake Tahoe when her unlocked truck is stolen, her life changes forever. Gone are her most sensitive case files, complete with the sometimes brutally candid notes she took while interviewing her clients. It s every attorney s nightmare. And now the worst has happened: The secrets are being revealed, one by one, in ways that will cause the greatest harm. Nina s own clients complain to the State Bar of California, and suddenly Nina is fighting for her license and her livelihood in a legal proceeding that may ultimately lead her to disbarment. In desperation, Nina turns to her ex husband, celebrated San Francisco lawyer Jack McIntyre, to represent her. And as personal tensions erupt between McIntyre and Nina s sometime boyfriend, private investigator Paul van Wagoner…
as reputations are ruined and people begin to die…
a chilling pattern of rage and revenge comes into focus. Someone is bent on destroying the lives of Nina s clients and, in the process, Nina Reilly. From the Hardcover edition.

Presumption of Death

New York Times bestselling author Perri O Shaughnessy has garnered impressive acclaim for her tough, passionate thrillers set against the lush Lake Tahoe landscape and the world of one remarkable character: Attorney Nina Reilly. In this spellbinding new novel, O Shaughnessy delves deeper into the heart and psyche of her popular hero*ine as Nina journeys back to her hometown to heal old wounds, and instead discovers that old secrets can be the deadliest kind…
. Nina Reilly needs a fresh start. In three years, she’s taken on some of Lake Tahoe s most controversial cases and has turned her struggling one woman law firm into a thriving practice. Now she s ready to sort out her complex relationship with her boyfriend, Monterey P.I. Paul van Wagoner. So she s heading to the Carmel Valley, the place where she began her career and where her estranged father lives. It s also a place of dramatic contradictions and hidden tensions, of new wealth and old families. And, within days of her arrival, Nina is already feeling the heat, as a case of arson exposes some of the darkest secrets of her hometown. Two suspicious fires have already raged through the valley this summer, igniting suspicions of arson. When a third blaze ends in a fatality, police zero in on a suspect: Wish, the son of Sandy Whitefeather, Nina s ex assistant. The dead man is identified as Wish s childhood friend, a troubled local auto mechanic who hated the changes wealthy newcomers had brought to the valley. Nina and Paul are certain that there is more to this strange case than meets the eye. As they work together to clear Wish, new, more frightening questions are raised, and another fire is set. And out of the flames a terrifying picture emerges: a community steeped in secrets and rage, a tangled history between two men, and a killer whose motives are dark and wrenching. With the relentless page turning suspense that has become her trademark, Perri O Shaughnessy once again demonstrates her talent to enthrall. A haunting tale of crime and punishment, old grudges and second chances, Presumption of Death is suspense fiction at its finest instantly compelling and utterly impossible to put down. From the Hardcover edition.

Unlucky in Law

Nina Reilly takes on the most dangerous and difficult case of her career in New York Times bestselling author Perri O Shaughnessy’s latest thriller. An ingenious blend of forensic science, history, and gripping suspense, Unlucky in Law pits the tough but compassionate attorney against the most unbeatable adversary of all: the law. Nina has just received a last minute call from her old boss and mentor in Monterey County, California, where she is enjoying the breathtaking scenery and spending time with her boyfriend, P.I. Paul van Wagoner. Klaus Pohlmann is in desperate straits and begs Nina to take over a seemingly unwinnable case: A luckless two time felon named Stefan Wyatt has robbed a grave and made off with the long buried bones of a Russian migr . When he is caught and arrested, further devastating evidence found in the grave suggests that Stefan is guilty of a far more deadly crime.A young woman, a classmate of Stefan s, has been killed, and he is accused of her murder. Now, as a result of California s Third Strike law, Wyatt is looking at twenty five years to life whether he s convicted of grand theft or murder. Either way, he s in big trouble. With her client s blood DNA found in the dead woman s apartment, Nina faces an uphill battle. Suspecting that her hapless client has been set up, Nina brings in a brilliant forensic pathologist who comes up with a startling theory about the case that could rewrite a crucial page of European history. As the evidence mounts against Nina s client, Paul launches his own investigation into the shadowy past of the two decades old skeleton. But long held secrets nearly get him killed and reveal a more insidious evil at work and an extraordinary story dating back to tsarist Russia and the Romanov court. As Wyatt edges closer to the unluckiest verdict of his young life, Nina makes an astounding discovery that just might save her client or expose a killer who could bury them all. Brilliantly imagined and compulsively readable, Unlucky in Law is a beguiling mix of wrenching drama and gripping action. And it is Perri O Shaughnessy s most accomplished novel to date. From the Hardcover edition.

Case of Lies

No one writes legal suspense like Perri O Shaughnessy. Blending powerful human drama with legal thrills, mystery, humor, and unforgettable characters, the New York Times bestselling author has created a uniquely entertaining series of novels centered around lawyer and single mother Nina Reilly. Now, in a masterful new novel, Nina’s investigation into an unsolved murder takes her on a dark journey strewn with old crimes, bitter truths, and heart stopping danger. For Nina Reilly, the mountain town of Lake Tahoe is home. It s where she forged a successful career as a tough, resourceful attorney and raised her teenage son, Bob, alone. Back from a stint in Monterey, where her love life took a tumble, Nina has returned to her Tahoe law office with her old friends Sandy Whitefeather and Sandy s son, Wish. It isn t long before she has a new client whose wife was shot and killed during a casino district robbery two years before. The police have no suspects, and the robbery victims, three students, lied about their identities and are hiding outside California and the reach of the court. Two of the witnesses have fled to a village not far from the home of Bob s father, Kurt Scott, in Germany. As Nina tries to unravel the mystery of one violent Tahoe night, a harrowing journey begins one that takes her from the dark underworld of Tahoe s casinos to the halls of a prestigious East Coast university to Europe and an emotional reunion with Kurt. As old feelings are rekindled, Nina s case turns violent. Everyone has something to hide the brilliant but unstable mathematics student who has made an astonishing discovery, the owner of a motel where the shooting took place, and the shooter, who has turned the whole case into a gigantic lie. Filled with all the rich drama, stunning surprises, and ingenious twists we have come to expect from this incomparable storyteller, Case of Lies will grab you from the very first page and never let you go as it speeds to its incredible conclusion.

Show No Fear

In this eagerly anticipated, brand new Nina Reilly thriller, Perri O’Shaughnessy takes listeners back to Nina’s first murder investigation, to the case that ignites her passionate commitment to fighting for justice. Working as a paralegal and attending law school at night, Nina has her hands full. She’s fighting for custody of her young son Bob and overseeing a medical malpractice lawsuit on behalf of her mother, Virigina Reilly, whose health is rapidly declining after she suffered complications from an acupuncture procedure. But Nina’s personal stresses are ramped up when a local tragedy plunges Nina into a hunt for a killer a killer only she believes exists.

When a woman falls to her death off a bridge near Big Sur, Nina suspects there is more to the accident than the authorities are saying. Embarking on her solitary quest for the truth and stirring up trouble along the way, Nina catches the killer’s attention and the only official help Nina gets is from homicide cop Paul van Wagoner. Now, moving dangerously close to the shattering truth, Nina finds the missing link in the shadowy case only when she recognizes a crucial, overlooked fact: sometimes people bury their secret desires, even from those who love them the most.

Show No Fear illumines what makes the brilliant Nina Reilly tick and is a fascinating prequel that Perri O’Shaughnessy fans will love!

Dreams of the Dead

Perri O Shaughnessy will keep you turning pages into the night, applauds USA Today, in praise of the celebrated novels of suspense starring the audacious yet all too human defense attorney Nina Reilly. Now, in a spellbinding new thriller, O Shaughnessy plunges Nina back into the center of a murderous family game, and reawakens a very real nightmare she had every reason to believe was dead…
and buried. A mix of slick and seamy, South Lake Tahoe, California, is the perfect setting for adventurers, criminals and lawyers. In addition to coping with her demanding, sometimes creepy, clients, Nina Reilly is dealing with prickly personal issues involving her sixteen year old son Bob, his estranged father, and her investigator, confidante, and sometimes lover Paul van Wagoner. Then, in walks disaster. The millionaire owner of a Tahoe ski resort, Philip Strong is the father of Jim Strong, a sociopath who devastated many innocent lives, including Nina s. Two years earlier, she had to defend Jim against charges of murder. He shattered her life, then vanished. Paul van Wagoner made sure of it. Now in negotiations to sell his ski resort, Philip has received a letter purportedly from his fugitive son in extradition free Brazil, demanding his share of the profits. Philip is convinced it’s authentic. Nina s certain it s a con, but to prove that means exposing the secrets of someone very close to her. Then two local women are brutally murdered. Nina begins to question their links to her new client, and the truth about Jim Strong s sudden disappearance. As Nina s worst fears flood back, with time running out, she s about to discover that the Dreams of the Dead can still destroy the living. With its breakneck pace, pulsing human drama, and serpentine twists, Dreams of the Dead establishes once again why Perri O Shaughnessy has been hailed as a master of the legal thriller Vincent Bugliosi.

Keeper of the Keys

For ambitious, troubled architect Ray Jackson, the nightmare begins one sultry California night when his wife disappears. No phone call, no ransom note, no body, reveals whether Leigh is dead or alive.

Then, suddenly, a woman shows up on Ray’s doorstep demanding answers: Kathleen, an old friend of Leigh s. Ray wants answers, too, but his questions seem strange and shady to Kat. Suspected by his wife s friend and by the police, Ray launches a desperate and alarming search of his own. Using a collection of keys he has held on to since he was a boy keys to homes he and his mother once lived in Ray quietly yet boldly enters each house, one by one, hoping to unlock the secrets of his own past. As past and present collide, as a chilling mystery begins to unravel, Ray is suddenly confronted with the most agonizing decision of his life to face his own violence laden past, acting to prevent another horrendous act of violence, or not. His choice will leave nothing and no one the same.

From the Hardcover edition.

Sinister Shorts

The New York Times bestselling author of the acclaimed Nina Reilly thrillers brings her prodigious storytelling gifts to this first ever collection of short crime fiction. From desperate housewives to hard boiled PIs to an appearance by Nina Reilly herself, these chilling short mysteries many appearing in print for the very first time set the mood and ratchet up the suspense as only Perri O Shaughnessy can. Here are tales of love and betrayal, rage and revenge nineteen sizzling stories that run the gamut from classic whodunits to winding thrillers to an unusual cozy that casts Gertrude Stein as an unlikely Miss Marple. And here Perri O Shaughnessy has created some of her most sinister and compelling characters yet: a college student who devises an ingenious method for getting her sexy teacher’s attention…
a haunted ex homicide cop who takes a long walk into his blood shadowed past in a twisting tale of brutal murder and escalating violence…
a model wife who surprises both herself and a bothersome furnace man when she is confronted with an unacceptable ultimatum…
a lemon tree that plays a pivotal role in the tale of a woman who at long last asserts her independence…
. From a blood soaked scheme that s born at a slot machine in Vegas to the violence that ensues when the fat lady stops singing, Sinister Shorts shows us life at its most menacing, murderous, and unbearably suspenseful. And it proves once again the unique and captivating genius of Perri O Shaughnessy. From the Hardcover edition.

Women Before the Bench

Sharp, shrewd, and skillfully presented, this ingenious anthology of legal drama and suspense features all new stories by some of the top writers in the field and a special introduction from renowned attorney Linda Fairstein. Includes new, original stories by: Perri O’Shaughnessy Jonnie Jacobs Taffy Cannon Michael A. Kahn Claire Youmans Rochelle Krich Carroll Lachnit Sarah Caudwell Jeremiah Healy Margaret Coel Nora DeLoach Carolyn Wheat Margaret Maron

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