One Night Stand — Roland S. Jefferson

How did a street hustler, in and out of jail since he was ten, beat a murder rap -- no matter whether he did the crime or not? Meet Myra Cross, a thirty-one-year-old redheaded beauty with a take-no-prisoners reputation as a public defender. She confounds her colleagues and clients alike as she not only wins acquittal after acquittal for her clients but poses for Playboy spreads in her spare time. She has the face of an angel, the body of a goddess, and a mind like a steel trap -- but with secrets and demons, she neither pretends to be a Girl Scout nor to have all the answers. But this time, when she's once again assigned the defense of Napoleon T. Booker, aka Little Dog Nine, who's charged with another homicide, she gets much more than she bargained for.

"Street smarts stopped Myra Cross dead in her tracks. Napoleon Booker had reached inside her brain and ripped out her essence, dangled it in front of her like an item for sale at an eBay auction. Was she that transparent -- 'a coke-snorting, nymphomaniac basehead little freak?'"