Nina Reilly

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. "A lively debut … the plot is a real puzzler, with twists diabolical enough to take to court."-New York Times Book Review

Two people have died in macabre accidents, one struck by lightning on Tahoe's highest mountain and one mowed down by a hit-and-run driver. In the middle of a controversial procedure to exhume one of the bodies, powerful businessman Quentin de Beers is killed. Charged with the murder, Quentin's angry grandson Jason won't talk, even to Nina, his defense attorney. To save her client, Nina must expose the truth about his troubled family and untangle the hidden connections that link all three deaths. And in order to prevent a terrible injustice, Nina makes a harrowing decision to "obstruct justice" by concealing crucial evidence in the trial. In the page-turning tradition of “Motion to Suppress” and the New York Times bestseller “Invasion of Privacy”, Perri O'Shaughnessy once again places attorney Nina Reilly in the backstreets of Lake Tahoe where she is up against some colorful and dangerous characters and where the action always goes beyond the courtroom.

Broken hearts. Broken promises. Deadly consequences. In glitzy Lake Tahoe, couples break up every day. But few are as successful as Lindy and Mike Markov, who built a $200-million business together-before Mike took up with a younger woman. Now he's claiming he doesn't owe Lindy a dime since they never married. Attorney Nina Reilly, struggling to make a living in her one-woman office and raise a young son alone, agrees to take Lindy's case. Nina knows winning is a long shot, even with a brilliant jury consultant and a palimony expert on her side. It's the kind of case-full of passion and explosive secrets-that could make a fortune for a young lawyer. Or drive someone to commit murder-for love, money . . . or the right verdict. New York Times bestselling author Perri O'Shaughnessy has created a wonderfully unique and unpredictable character in Nina Reilly, a tough, tenderhearted attorney and single mother who has been hailed by critics as "one of the most interesting heroines in legal thrillers today" (the San Jose Mercury News).

New York Times bestselling author Perri O'Shaughnessy has created a true American original in the character Nina Reilly, a tough but tenderhearted attorney who has been hailed by readers and critics as one of the most interesting heroines in legal thrillers today. Now, in Acts of Malice, Perri O'Shaughnessy has crafted her most spellbinding novel to date, raising the level of suspense and narrative tension to nail-biting new heights as Nina Reilly takes on a murder case that exposes the dark side of Lake Tahoe's glamorous ski resorts. With his brother Alex recently killed in a headline-making accident that occurred while they were skiing together, Jim Strong, the scion of one of South Lake Tahoe's most prominent families and the owners of the posh Paradise Ski Resort, fears he may be indicted in his brother's 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 the case will lead her to a terrifying confrontation with a psychopath or threaten all that she holds most dear. She never expects to witness a perplexing and tangled set of loyalties and alliances within the Strong family: a father obsessed with his dead son's ghost and who wants nothing to do with the surviving son; Alex's widow, a mercurial snowboarding champion who still carries a torch for Jim; and Jim's beautiful wife, Heidi, who may have been having an affair with Alex. 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. As Nina works a flawed and troubling case and gets involved in an unexpected love affair, the two sides of her life come crashing together...in the ultimate act of malice.

New 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 heroines 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--six- teen-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

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.

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.

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 émigré. 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.

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.

This Nina Reilly thriller takes listeners back to Nina's first murder investigation, to the case that ignites her passionate commitment to fighting for justice. As a single mom working as a paralegal and attending law school at night, Nina has her hands full fighting for custody of her young son Bob and overseeing a medical malpractice lawsuit on behalf of her mother. But when a woman falls to her death off a bridge near Big Sur and witnesses disappear, Nina suspects there is more to the "accident" than the authorities are saying. With the help of homicide cop Paul van Wagoner, she rushes to uncover the truth. Show No Fear illumines what makes the brilliant Nina Reilly tick-and, in this fascinating prequel to an illustrious career, begins a love affair for her fans and fans of complex, gripping thrillers everywhere!

A brand-new Nina Reilly thriller takes readers back to Nina's first murder investigation, to the case that ignites her passionate commitment to fighting for justice. As a single mom working as a paralegal and attending law school at night, Nina has her hands full fighting for custody of her young son Bob and overseeing a medical malpractice lawsuit on behalf of her mother. But when a woman falls to her death off a bridge near Big Sur and witnesses disappear, Nina suspects there is more to the "accident" than the authorities are saying. With the help of homicide cop Paul van Wagoner, she rushes to uncover the truth. Show No Fear illumines what makes the brilliant Nina Reilly tick -- and, in this fascinating prequel to an illustrious career, begins a love affair for her fans and readers of complex, gripping thrillers everywhere!

The latest spellbinding thriller featuring attorney Nina Reilly, now in mass market. Nina must defend herself from a vicious killer she had every reason to believe was dead...but her nightmare is far from over. A TANGLED LEGAL BATTLE. A MURDEROUS FAMILY GAME. A NIGHTMARE NINA REILLY BELIEVED WAS LONG BURIED. Two years ago, Nina Reilly had to defend Jim Strong against charges of murder, after which the sociopath-who devastated many lives, including Nina's-vanished and was presumed dead. Now Philip Strong, Jim's father and millionaire owner of a Tahoe ski resort, has come to Nina with a letter from his fugitive son, demanding his share of the profits from the pending sale of Philip's resort. 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, and Nina probes their ties to her new client. As Nina's worst fears flood back, she's about to discover that the dreams of the dead can still destroy the living. First-rate excitement, Dreams of the Dead holds readers spellbound with its breakneck pace, pulsing human drama, and serpentine twists.