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Hidden Agenda & Prior Convictions — Lia Matera
For the first time, the third and fourth Willa Jansson mystery novels are together in an omnibus edition.
HIDDEN AGENDA is the third adventure of attorney Willa Jansson, praised by Newsday as "an unusually deep and complex character for crime fiction -- tough-minded, sexual, vulnerable, lonely, morally alive."
Who is Bud Hopper? That's the question troubling Willa (Where Lawyers Fear To Tread, A Radical Departure) when a mysterious Republican starts pulling strings on her behalf. First he gets her hired by a staunchly conservative law firm. How did he convince the partners to hire a graduate of "Merely Malhousie" Law School? And how did he persuade them to ignore her last job, with notorious San Francisco liberals? Not to mention the small matter of some murders and a scandal involving most-wanted radicals.
Soon the elusive Bud Hopper strikes again, getting Willa invited to a weekend retreat with her new firm's top partners and clients. When her new boss is murdered there in exactly the same way as her last, it's clear to Willa that Hopper is out to frame her. But who'll take her word over that of a friend of the President of the United State?
PRIOR CONVICTIONS was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and was nominated for the mystery genre's top prizes, the Edgar Allan Poe Award and the Anthony Award. Publishers Weekly said of it, "Readers will be shaken by Matera's rapier-sharp dissection of personal relationships and radical ideologies. Matera again demonstrates that she is one of today's best mystery writers."
Attorney Willa Jansson spent the last year picking up the pieces after an epic hit to her résumé. In the L.A. office of a Wall Street firm, she was buried under bankruptcy codes, mourning a love life that was lying back home with a stake in its heart. Now that she's made 347 chalk marks on the wall, it's finally time to return to San Francisco.
But Willa finds no warm welcome there. Her mother is still furious about her corporate sell-out. Her despised ex demands an outrageous favor. And her new boss, a federal court judge, is already getting hate mail about Willa's supposedly radical past.
It soon appears that Willa's family and her oldest friends are conspiring to sabotage her. What happened in her absence to turn everyone against her? If Willa can't figure out what's at stake for those closest to her, she may end up dying for a cause none of them believes in anymore.
Find out why The Wall Street Journal said, "With sharp descriptions and crisp dialogue, Prior Convictions admirably delivers the complex situations and memorable characters of a 'real novel' while still managing to let the detective story have its day in court," and why Newsday said, "Prior Convictions is gutsy grown-up crime-writing from one of the best practitioners around."
HIDDEN AGENDA is the third adventure of attorney Willa Jansson, praised by Newsday as "an unusually deep and complex character for crime fiction -- tough-minded, sexual, vulnerable, lonely, morally alive."
Who is Bud Hopper? That's the question troubling Willa (Where Lawyers Fear To Tread, A Radical Departure) when a mysterious Republican starts pulling strings on her behalf. First he gets her hired by a staunchly conservative law firm. How did he convince the partners to hire a graduate of "Merely Malhousie" Law School? And how did he persuade them to ignore her last job, with notorious San Francisco liberals? Not to mention the small matter of some murders and a scandal involving most-wanted radicals.
Soon the elusive Bud Hopper strikes again, getting Willa invited to a weekend retreat with her new firm's top partners and clients. When her new boss is murdered there in exactly the same way as her last, it's clear to Willa that Hopper is out to frame her. But who'll take her word over that of a friend of the President of the United State?
PRIOR CONVICTIONS was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and was nominated for the mystery genre's top prizes, the Edgar Allan Poe Award and the Anthony Award. Publishers Weekly said of it, "Readers will be shaken by Matera's rapier-sharp dissection of personal relationships and radical ideologies. Matera again demonstrates that she is one of today's best mystery writers."
Attorney Willa Jansson spent the last year picking up the pieces after an epic hit to her résumé. In the L.A. office of a Wall Street firm, she was buried under bankruptcy codes, mourning a love life that was lying back home with a stake in its heart. Now that she's made 347 chalk marks on the wall, it's finally time to return to San Francisco.
But Willa finds no warm welcome there. Her mother is still furious about her corporate sell-out. Her despised ex demands an outrageous favor. And her new boss, a federal court judge, is already getting hate mail about Willa's supposedly radical past.
It soon appears that Willa's family and her oldest friends are conspiring to sabotage her. What happened in her absence to turn everyone against her? If Willa can't figure out what's at stake for those closest to her, she may end up dying for a cause none of them believes in anymore.
Find out why The Wall Street Journal said, "With sharp descriptions and crisp dialogue, Prior Convictions admirably delivers the complex situations and memorable characters of a 'real novel' while still managing to let the detective story have its day in court," and why Newsday said, "Prior Convictions is gutsy grown-up crime-writing from one of the best practitioners around."
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