Lia Matera

PLOT OR PREMISE:
Willa Jansson is the senior articles editor for a law school review when her editor-in-chief gets killed. She wants to know who did it, but doesn't figure it out before a couple more get bopped.
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WHAT I LIKED:
The law school aspect is well-done, perhaps reflective of the fact the author actually attended a law school, a nice change from some of the authors today. The story zips along at a good pace, and is enjoyable, once you get past the five-too-many characters / suspects and show more the obligatory "oops, I've written 50 pages and haven't killed anybody else off in order to sustain the suspense" technique.
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WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
The problem with the book is that there are too many pieces, and they all get equal weight: Willa's relationships with the various men running through the story (she's the protagonist but all you do sometimes is feel sorry for her), all of the various suspects (pretty much everyone), and a host of motives ranging from being petty to outright greed to the green-eyed monster of justified jealousy. The character development is mediocre, including some peripheral characters that wind up being key ingredients, and some main characters that turn out to be a complete waste of paper. Ironic that the protag is an editor because that is what this book really needed.
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BOTTOM-LINE:
Zips along at a good pace
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DISCLOSURE:
I received no compensation, not even a free copy, in exchange for this review. I am not personal friends with the author, nor do I follow her on social media. show less

Since Cuba has been in the news lately, I thought this would be informative, even if the story did take place in the late 1990s. It did provide some insight into life on that island nation, and I also found it an extremely entertaining tale. Audiobooks are so dependent on the reader/narrator's acting abilities, and Anna Fields, the narrator did one excellent job on this one with no mistaking one character's dialogue from another. I haven't read any other of Ms. Matera's books, but I really show more liked the main character, Willa Jannson, a smart, sassy lawyer, who's out to locate her mother, a peacenik-type activist, who doesn't return after a tour group's so-called "educational" trip to Cuba. The fast-paced storyline involves CIA agents, journalists, both good and evil Cubans, and a policeman (a former heartthrob of Willa's) to the cast. I won't be a spoiler about who the murder victims are and will only say that the story comes to a satisfying end. show less

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 show more 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.... show less

The stories cover quite a variety of styles. Some didn't seem like actual mysteries to me, but they all were very good. This is an excellent book to have around when you want to read something but only have a little time.