Remember the "Twinkie Defense," where a lawyer tried to get his client off on a murder charge on the basis of too much sugar in his diet? Fictional (but totally believable) San Francisco attorney Willa Jansson goes one step beyond in this addition to Lia Matera's lively series: Willa uses the "UFO Defense," based on her client's memories (revealed under hypnosis) of being in an alien spaceship when his sports car went off the road and killed another driver. Jansson finds four squabbling UFO experts to support this defense strategy, and not the least of Matera's many high points in a book full of them is her ability to convince us that it might just have happened. Previous Jansson cases in paperback include Last Chants, Hidden Agenda, Prior Convictions, and Radical Departure.

From Library Journal
In the latest Willa Jansson mystery from Matera (Last Chants, LJ 6/1/96), the Scopes Monkey trial and the trial of O.J. Simpson haunt San Francisco business lawyer Willa when she unwisely takes on a vehicular manslaughter and felony hit-and-run case in nearby Santa Cruz. Her client's alibi: he was being abducted by aliens. Willa doesn't know what or whom to believe following a series of unexplained events, including crop circles, assassination attempts, and black-helicopter sightings, to name a few. Matera offers a fast-paced narrative stuffed with incident and characters. She has done her UFO homework and depicts the subculture of ture believers sympathetically. Willa's four expert witnesses present some current perspectives on UFOs?their bickering is both informative and funny?and Matera resists pat answers. The complex plot sometimes borders on the incoherent, however, featuring many red herrings and some undeveloped story lines, and not all members of the unpredictable cast are well integrated into the novel. Following the story, Matera offers an extensive bibliography and a video list. For general readers.?Linda Lee Landrigan, N.Y.Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Matera's sharp, scrappy Willa Jansson returns in her sixth adventure. Bored with her San Francisco firm specializing in cyberlaw, Willa is ready for a vacation when her old friend Fred, a Santa Cruz psychiatrist, calls in need of a favor. One of his patients is under arrest because his car landed on top of another car and killed its driver. Under hypnosis, the accused, Alan Miller, reveals that he was abducted by aliens who performed experiments on him. Put that with the crop circles near Alan's house, and Willa realizes that she may be forced to establish the possibility of alien abduction as a credible event in a court of law. Meanwhile, Fred's erratic behavior is alarming, as is the possibility that he may have become the target for murder. Matera's outstanding mix of humor and drama, appealing characters, and a solid plot make this another winner in an outstanding series. Stuart Miller

From Kirkus Reviews
Say this for Willa Jansson (Last Chants, 1996, etc.): She doesn't shrink from the big cases. This time she's down in Santa Cruz, repaying a favor to psychiatrist Fred Hershey by defending his client, mushroom expert Alan Miller, on charges of hit-and- run and vehicular manslaughter after his Fiat landed in a field of brussels sprouts on top of Francis Addenaur's Buick, crushing Addenaur to death. Res ipsa loquitur, says smug ADA Patrick Tober--the thing speaks for itself. Even though Miller wasn't found in the Fiat, it's full of his prints, and no one else's, and he's admitted driving it only an hour or two before the accident. Under hypnosis, though, Miller has given Hershey the wildest alibi imaginable: He was abducted by aliens who dropped the Fiat (which left no tracks through the brussels sprouts) on top of the Buick. When a hitchhiker Miller picked up earlier that evening tells an equally bizarre story about her own close encounter, it's off to the races for Willa, who ends up examining crop circles that may have been made by alien spacecraft, subpoenaing UFOlogists who keep bickering among themselves, keeping Miller away from Addenaur's grieving, well-armed widow, and sweating to protect her real-world job back in San Francisco. All right, the conclusion doesn't live up to Matera's bold, witty challenge to the most rational foundations of the mystery genre, but what could? Willa's sixth still supports her remarkable claim to have ``helped make Santa Cruz a flakier place.'' -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Review
Library Journal Matera offers a fast-paced narrative stuffed with incident and characters....Informative and funny....

Book Description
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 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....

About the Author
Lia Matera is a graduate of Hastings College of the Law, where she was editor in chief of the Constitutional Law Quarterly. She was also a Teaching Fellow at Stanford Law School before becoming a full-time writer of legal mysteries. Prior Convictions and A Radical Departure were nominated for Edgar Allan Poe awards. The Good Fight and Where Lawyers Fear to Tread were nominated for Anthony and Macavity Awards. She has written eleven novels, including the critically acclaimed Face Value, Designer Crimes, and Last Chants, available from Pocket Books. Matera lives in Santa Cruz, California, with her son.

FROM OUR EDITORS

San Francisco lawyer Willa Jansson has had her share of odd clients, but none so unusual as her latest, whose defense in a manslaughter case is UFO abduction. Matera knows her way around a courtroom, and she is just as adept at crafting an unpredictable tale.

—Dick Lochte

FROM THE PUBLISHER

They say no good deed goes unpunished ... and attorney Willa Jansson learns it the hard way when she agrees to represent the patient of psychiatrist Fred Hershey. She definitely owes him the favor but has no idea what it will eventually cost her. Alan Miller's sports car allegedly went over an embankment onto the coastal highway below, landing atop another car and killing its driver. But there are no tire tracks in the field above and no witnesses to the event. Nor are Miller's injuries consistent with a car crash. Miller wasn't around to defend himself when the police showed up at the accident. Worse yet, he doesn't remember where he was. When Miller is put under hypnosis, he does account for his whereabouts, but it seems so far-fetched, Miller himself doesn't want to believe it - and Willa knows it will never stand up in court.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly - Cahners\\Publishers_Weekly

In the wackiest of a lively series (Last Chants, 1996), plucky San Francisco lawyer Willa Jansson defends a man who says he was in a spaceship when his car fell on top of a Buick, killing the driver, Francis Addenauer. Alan Miller tells this story after having been put under hypnosis by psychiatrist Fred Hershey. At Fred's request, Willa returns to Santa Cruz to represent Alan, who's as embarrassed as she by his outrageous recovered memory. Skeptical but indefatigable, Willa finds four quarrelsome UFO experts to testify for Alan. Meanwhile, Alan and his support team are being harassed by Addenauer's grieving widow, Betty. Matera is skilled at creating singularly offbeat characters and hurling them into multilayered plots that play out on the fringes of popular culture. Here, exploring the many facets of Ufology, from crop circles to government cover-ups, she shows how tales of alien contact ("our fastest-growing oral tradition") foster sinister interpretations of ordinary events. It's the weirdest defense Willa's ever mounted, and in the end, readers, like Willa, will wonder where Alan really was that night. FYI: Includes a UFO bibliography and videographys.

Publishers Weekly

In the wackiest of a lively series (Last Chants, 1996), plucky San Francisco lawyer Willa Jansson defends a man who says he was in a spaceship when his car fell on top of a Buick, killing the driver, Francis Addenauer. Alan Miller tells this story after having been put under hypnosis by psychiatrist Fred Hershey. At Fred's request, Willa returns to Santa Cruz to represent Alan, who's as embarrassed as she by his outrageous recovered memory. Skeptical but indefatigable, Willa finds four quarrelsome UFO experts to testify for Alan. Meanwhile, Alan and his support team are being harassed by Addenauer's grieving widow, Betty. Matera is skilled at creating singularly offbeat characters and hurling them into multilayered plots that play out on the fringes of popular culture. Here, exploring the many facets of Ufology, from crop circles to government cover-ups, she shows how tales of alien contact ("our fastest-growing oral tradition") foster sinister interpretations of ordinary events. It's the weirdest defense Willa's ever mounted, and in the end, readers, like Willa, will wonder where Alan really was that night. (June) FYI: Includes a UFO bibliography and videographys.

Library Journal

In the latest Willa Jansson mystery from Matera (Last Chants, LJ 6/1/96), the Scopes Monkey trial and the trial of O.J. Simpson haunt San Francisco business lawyer Willa when she unwisely takes on a vehicular manslaughter and felony hit-and-run case in nearby Santa Cruz. Her client's alibi: he was being abducted by aliens. Willa doesn't know what or whom to believe following a series of unexplained events, including crop circles, assassination attempts, and black-helicopter sightings, to name a few. Matera offers a fast-paced narrative stuffed with incident and characters. She has done her UFO homework and depicts the subculture of ture believers sympathetically. Willa's four expert witnesses present some current perspectives on UFOstheir bickering is both informative and funnyand Matera resists pat answers. The complex plot sometimes borders on the incoherent, however, featuring many red herrings and some undeveloped story lines, and not all members of the unpredictable cast are well integrated into the novel. Following the story, Matera offers an extensive bibliography and a video list. For general readers.Linda Lee Landrigan, N.Y.

Kirkus Reviews

Say this for Willa Jansson (Last Chants, 1996, etc.): She doesn't shrink from the big cases. This time she's down in Santa Cruz, repaying a favor to psychiatrist Fred Hershey by defending his client, mushroom expert Alan Miller, on charges of hit-and- run and vehicular manslaughter after his Fiat landed in a field of brussels sprouts on top of Francis Addenaur's Buick, crushing Addenaur to death. Res ipsa loquitur, says smug ADA Patrick Tober—the thing speaks for itself. Even though Miller wasn't found in the Fiat, it's full of his prints, and no one else's, and he's admitted driving it only an hour or two before the accident. Under hypnosis, though, Miller has given Hershey the wildest alibi imaginable: He was abducted by aliens who dropped the Fiat (which left no tracks through the brussels sprouts) on top of the Buick. When a hitchhiker Miller picked up earlier that evening tells an equally bizarre story about her own close encounter, it's off to the races for Willa, who ends up examining crop circles that may have been made by alien spacecraft, subpoenaing UFOlogists who keep bickering among themselves, keeping Miller away from Addenaur's grieving, well-armed widow, and sweating to protect her real-world job back in San Francisco.

All right, the conclusion doesn't live up to Matera's bold, witty challenge to the most rational foundations of the mystery genre, but what could? Willa's sixth still supports her remarkable claim to have "helped make Santa Cruz a flakier place."