Lia Matera Books In Order

Willa Jansson Books In Order

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

Laura Di Palma Books In Order

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

Collections

  1. Counsel for the Defense (2000)
  2. Lovers And Lawyers (2012)

Anthologies edited

  1. Irreconcilable Differences (1999)

Willa Jansson Book Covers

Laura Di Palma Book Covers

Collections Book Covers

Anthologies edited Book Covers

Lia Matera Books Overview

Prior Convictions

Willa Jansson is a cynical ex radical who worked in an L.A. corporate law firm for a year and has the scars to prove it. Back home in San Francisco, her still activist parents ask her to do a favor for an ex boyfriend’s new girlfriend. And she quickly becomes embroiled in a case of conflicting interests, slow dying passions, and political grudges that can kill…
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Last Chants

Willa Jansson’s friend, Arthur, is under suspicion when his assistant is murdered a Kwakiutl shaman also working for a reclusive computer designer. Hiding out in a mountain cabin, Willa and Arthur barely evade arrest and the real killer long enough to learn that age old truths can come in high tech packages. Based on the June ’96 hardcover release from Simon & Schuster. 2 cassettes.

Star Witness

Just when attorney Willa Jansson is about to take a little time off from her job at a Son 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 to solve what she hopes will be a simple case of vehicular manslaughter and felony hit and run. But Willa is about to discover that nothing about this case or the town where it occurred is quite as it seems. Alan Miller’s sports car went over an embankment and onto the coastal highway below, landing atop another car and killing its driver. But there are no tire tracks, no witnesses, and Miller’s injuries aren’t consistent with a car crash. Unable to recall where he was just after the accident, Miller’s memory is jogged under hypnosis a recollection so far fetched that Willa knows it will never stand up in court. All of a sudden, seemingly idyllic Santa Cruz is rife with dangerous secrets, and Willa must outrun helicopters, snipers, reporters, her own interfering mother and try to maintain her credibility and her career by making the jury buy her client’s out of this world alibi. If she can just keep the witnesses alive long enough to testify…
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Havana Twist

Never before have the stakes been so high, or so personal, for ‘one of the most articulate and surely the wittiest of women sleuths at large in the genre’ ‘The New York Times Book Review.’ 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 mellow out. When Mom heads to Cuba with a band of graying ‘brigadistas’ Willa figures it’s just a pilgrimage to lefty Graceland. But then the rest of the group returns without her mother, and Willa fears the worst. Risking disbarment for ‘trading with the enemy’ she rushes to the rescue and discovers that her mother may have finally gotten herself into more trouble then she can get herself out of. In a deadly game of cat and mouse, Willa follows her mother’s path from Havana to Mexico City, from California back to Havana, getting manipulated, misled, and nearly arrested along the way. Soon she finds two angry governments, at least one ruthless killer, and her old flame, homicide Lieutenant Surgelato, are hot on her trail. Racing against time, Willa realizes that, much more than politics and police work, it is intuition that will help her find her mother and those things that only a daughter knows.

The Good Fight

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 when her sick lover, Hal, disappears from his hospital bed without a word. Then Sandy, the detective she works with and her former lover, begins pressuring her for a second chance. At work, she has a radical client who’s accused of murdering an FBI agent. It’s too much to handle, but Laura has no choice. Frantically searching for Hal, Laura also attempts to build her client’s controversial defense. Meanwhile, she must keep Sandy at a distance even as she needs his help. When a second man is murdered, Laura’s carefully tailored life begins to unravel before her eyes…
.’Ms. Matera proves a tough minded writer.’ The New York Times Book Review’Extraordinary, thought provoking.’ Baltimore Sun

Face Value

Laura hangs out her shingle. She’s ready to take any case, even a woman who claims that her New Age guru videotapes group sex sessions for therapeutic reasons tapes that wind up at the local po*rno parlors. Laura’s investigation takes her from a private fantasy island to kinky sex club back rooms to corporate boardrooms. HC: Simon & Schuster.

Designer Crimes

Suing her former boss when his slander costs her new solo law practice its most important client, Laura Di Palma witnesses a murder for which the only clue is the victim’s elusive dying words. K. PW. NYT. AB.

Irreconcilable Differences

This collection of original stories from today’s most successful, prize winning writers of crime fiction proves that ‘Irreconcilable Differences‘ can’t begin to describe the lethal results of a relationship gone wrong. For this outstanding anthology, editor Lia Mcitera challenged a stellar list of contributors including National Book Award Winner Joyce Carol Oates, New York Times bestsellers Edna Buchanan and Jeffery Deaver, and award winners Laurie R. King, Julie Smith, Bill Pronzini, Margaret Moron, and Marcia Muller to use the phrase ‘Irreconcilable Differences‘ as a springboard for a story. Their responses make for irresistible reading. These twenty concoctions of mystery and suspense move from sharp and probing to humorous and sly, fully evoking the theme of discord most deadly. Here are the clever twists and chilling turns of breakups, family feuds, broken partnerships, and lovers’ quarrels. A coupletakes witty revenge on their honeymooning exes in Judith Kelmon’s ‘Just Desserts.’ Gillian Roberts’s ‘Heart Break’ explores the dark side of staying together. In Sarah Lovett’s ‘Buried Treasure,’ a hint dropping stranger changes the life of an imperiled widow, while Jon Burke shows how a Good Samaritan can save a bad marriage in ‘An Unsuspected Condition of the Heart.’As this acclaimed cast of authors probes the minefield of intimacy, devotion, and trust upon which human lives are built, Irreconcilable Differences explodes with heart stopping events.

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