Nina Reilly
11 primary works • 15 total works
Book 1
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.
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.
Book 2
Twelve years ago, a young girl disappeared. Now a filmmaker has made a movie about it. The girl's parents call it invasion of privacy. A woman lawyer calls it murder.
The bloodstains on the courtroom floor belong to attorney Nina Reilly. Months earlier she'd been shot during a heated murder trial. She should have died that day. Instead, Nina has returned to the same Lake Tahoe court. Her only concession to her lingering fear is to give up criminal law. She figures an invasion of privacy lawsuit is a nice, safe civil action that will help her support her young son and pay the bills for her one-woman law office. She figures wrong.
Nina's client is Terry London, a filmmaker whose documentary about a missing girl is raising disturbing questions. The girl's distraught parents believe the film invades their privacy. But Terry's brutal murder changes everything. Breaking her promise to herself, Nina decides to defend Terry's accused murderer, a man she'd known years before and hoped never to see again. Suddenly the secrets of Nina's past are beginning to surface in a murder case that gets more dangerous every day. The evidence against her client is shocking and ironclad--a video of Terry's dying words. The only chance Nina has to save the man may be illegal. And if it fails, Nina may lose the case, her practice...and even her life.
The bloodstains on the courtroom floor belong to attorney Nina Reilly. Months earlier she'd been shot during a heated murder trial. She should have died that day. Instead, Nina has returned to the same Lake Tahoe court. Her only concession to her lingering fear is to give up criminal law. She figures an invasion of privacy lawsuit is a nice, safe civil action that will help her support her young son and pay the bills for her one-woman law office. She figures wrong.
Nina's client is Terry London, a filmmaker whose documentary about a missing girl is raising disturbing questions. The girl's distraught parents believe the film invades their privacy. But Terry's brutal murder changes everything. Breaking her promise to herself, Nina decides to defend Terry's accused murderer, a man she'd known years before and hoped never to see again. Suddenly the secrets of Nina's past are beginning to surface in a murder case that gets more dangerous every day. The evidence against her client is shocking and ironclad--a video of Terry's dying words. The only chance Nina has to save the man may be illegal. And if it fails, Nina may lose the case, her practice...and even her life.
Book 3
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 . . . .
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 . . . .
Book 4
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).
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).
Book 5
The New York Times bestselling Nina Reilly novels have dazzled both readers and critics with their crackling blend of legal suspense and taut human drama. Now Perri O'Shaughnessy, hailed as "smart", "gripping", and "complex" by the San Francisco Chronicle, brings us her best--and most explosive--Nina Reilly novel yet.
Amid the sparkling snow-swept mountains of Lake Tahoe, Nina Reilly has made a home, juggling the demands of her one-woman law practice and raising a teenage son alone. Now Nina has taken on a case that will threaten everything she holds dear, drawing her into a tangled web of loyalties and alliances within one of Lake Tahoe's most prominent families. Her client: a man accused of murdering his own brother--on the ski slopes of Tahoe. The law says Nina must give Jim Strong the best possible defense. But Strong's family has turned violently against him, and suddenly Nina is at the center of the storm. As she works a flawed and troubling case and gets swept into an unexpected love affair, the two sides of Nina's life come crashing together...in the ultimate act of malice.
Amid the sparkling snow-swept mountains of Lake Tahoe, Nina Reilly has made a home, juggling the demands of her one-woman law practice and raising a teenage son alone. Now Nina has taken on a case that will threaten everything she holds dear, drawing her into a tangled web of loyalties and alliances within one of Lake Tahoe's most prominent families. Her client: a man accused of murdering his own brother--on the ski slopes of Tahoe. The law says Nina must give Jim Strong the best possible defense. But Strong's family has turned violently against him, and suddenly Nina is at the center of the storm. As she works a flawed and troubling case and gets swept into an unexpected love affair, the two sides of Nina's life come crashing together...in the ultimate act of malice.
Book 6
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 that brings back attorney Nina Reilly, hailed by critics as "one of the most interesting heroines in legal thrillers today" (San Jose Mercury News).
Nina Reilly thought she'd seen it all. An attorney and single mother, Nina isn't afraid to tackle the toughest cases and trickiest defenses. But she is wholly unprepared for her latest client—sixteen-year-old Nicole Zack, rebel, thief, and best friend of Nina's teenage son, Bob.
Did Nikki steal something from her uncle, a prominent plastic surgeon, then kill him in cold blood? To find out, Nina calls in Paul van Wagoner, a P.I. and ex-lover 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 seething mystery, some enraged former patients, and two very old crimes.
Finally, Nina must confront the central question she must answer in order to save her client: What did Nikki really see the night of her uncle's murder?
Nina Reilly thought she'd seen it all. An attorney and single mother, Nina isn't afraid to tackle the toughest cases and trickiest defenses. But she is wholly unprepared for her latest client—sixteen-year-old Nicole Zack, rebel, thief, and best friend of Nina's teenage son, Bob.
Did Nikki steal something from her uncle, a prominent plastic surgeon, then kill him in cold blood? To find out, Nina calls in Paul van Wagoner, a P.I. and ex-lover 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 seething mystery, some enraged former patients, and two very old crimes.
Finally, Nina must confront the central question she must answer in order to save her client: What did Nikki really see the night of her uncle's murder?
Book 7
Nina Reilly, local lawyer at Lake Tahoe hears all the gamblers stories - stories of their wins, divorces, bankruptcies and overdoses. Then one gambler is murdered, and suspicion falls on the winner of the biggest jackpot in Tahoe's history, Nina's client - a girl who won't tell anyone her name.
Book 8
One careless moment that threatens careers, reputations, lives...For Nina Reilly, it will change everything - igniting 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. 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.
Book 9
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 heroine 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.
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.
Book 10
In California, if a person is convicted of two serious crimes and is then found guilty of any subsequent crime, he or she is automatically subject to a prison sentence of twenty-five years to life. This is called the Third Strike law. Nina Reilly's new case is difficult from the start: her young client is facing his Third Strike, and stands accused of grave robbingand of killing the fresh corpse found on top of the coffin. He insists he is innocent of both crimes, and claims he was hired to dig up the grave of Constantin Zhukovsky, who, according to his headstone, was once 'Page to the Tsar'. But who is Zhukovsky, and could he possibly have a connection to the Russian royal family, murdered during the revolution? The sudden disappearance of his bones causes further problems for Nina, and her client's denial is on shaky ground when the murder victim turns out to be one of his classmates. With her client remaining tight-lipped about why he was at Zhukovsky's grave and evidence piling up against him, Nina's got a tough battle aheadone that stretches from the law courts and classrooms of modern-day California, to the intrigues of the Russian Revolution
Book 11
Back from a stint in Monterey, where her love life took a tumble, Nina Reilly has returned to her South Lake Tahoe law office. Two years earlier, the wife of a new client had been killed during a robbery at the Aces High motel. The robbery victims, three students staying at the hotel, disappeared without a trace and the police still have no suspects and no leads. Nina's first port of call is to track down those witnesses. Her search leads her to Europe where she finds two of the missing students in a town not far from the home of Kurt, her ex-lover and the father of her teenage son. As Nina unravels the events of the night of the murder, she begins to expose the secrets and lies lurking behind the tragedy. But, threatened with exposure by her activities, someone sets in motion a string of violence to silence Nina, and those close to her, for good...
In a spellbinding new thriller, New York Times bestselling author Perri O’Shaughnessy plunges the audacious yet all-too-human Nina Reilly 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.
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 when she defended Jim again charges of murder two years earlier.
He shattered her life, then vanished. Paul van Wagoner made sure of that.
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. Nina is certain it’s a con, but to prove that means exposing the secrets of someone very close to her. But when two local women are murdered, Nina begins to question their links to her 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 once again establishes why O’Shaughnessy has been hailed as “a master of the legal thriller” (Vincent Bugliosi).
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 when she defended Jim again charges of murder two years earlier.
He shattered her life, then vanished. Paul van Wagoner made sure of that.
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. Nina is certain it’s a con, but to prove that means exposing the secrets of someone very close to her. But when two local women are murdered, Nina begins to question their links to her 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 once again establishes why O’Shaughnessy has been hailed as “a master of the legal thriller” (Vincent Bugliosi).
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, Virginia Reilly. Nina knows the emotional toll a lawsuit can take, but Virginia is determined to sue her doctor she wants to leave some money for Nina and her troubled brother Matt when she dies. 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. With the only help coming for Detective Paul van Wagoner Nina embarks on her solitary quest for answers, stirring up trouble along the way, she moves dangerously close to the shattering truth and catches the killer's attention herself.
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. With the only help coming for Detective Paul van Wagoner Nina embarks on her solitary quest for answers, stirring up trouble along the way, she moves dangerously close to the shattering truth and catches the killer's attention herself.
The disappearance of his wife, Leigh, sends obsessive and brilliant architect Ray Jackson on a quest to discover the truth about the incident, while Leigh's best friend launches an investigation into Ray that hints at dark secrets from his past.
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