From Publishers Weekly
Fresh from her hard-hitting rural adventure in the Edgar-nominated A Hard Bargain , lawyer Laura Di Palma has returned to San Francisco to establish a solo practice. Her first client may be fellow lawyer Margaret Lenin, whose spiritual guru, Michael Hover, videotaped group sex-therapy sessions in which Lenin participated: the tapes are showing up for rent as "adult" videos. Just as Lenin drops the case, another of Hover's lawyer-disciples asks Di Palma to represent the guru himself, who is being sued by an exotic dancer who also appears on the tapes and is romantically linked with Lenin. A frantic 2 a.m. call drags Di Palma out of bed to meet Lenin outside a sex club. Di Palma arrives to see a man break into the locked, silent building; cautiously entering, she finds him shot, along with six dead dancers. Afraid for both her life and reputation, Di Palma leaves the scene of the crimes. With the assistance of PI Sandy Arklett, she explores Hover's unorthodox business, remaining haunted by the crimes she fled. Although it attempts to address serious issues of censorship and pornography, the story is busy and unengaging, and much of its cast remains faceless. The tense finale comes feebly and too late. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
This latest Laura Di Palma adventure is no exception to the tight plotting, good characterizations, and page-turning suspense that have typified the earlier entries in the series and that make Matera one of the best contemporary mystery novelists. Having been fired from her high-powered law firm over her pro bono work--the subject of A Hard Bargain (1992)--Laura starts her own law practice. Her first client is an old colleague who, along with several other professionals, has become involved with a New Age guru--Brother Mike--whose "spiritual guidance" includes videotaping group sex sessions and then "re-imaging" the participants to show their auras. Laura's client had no problem with all of this until the films, sans auras, began showing up in local video stores. Although the participants had signed releases allowing the taping, Laura agrees to see if they have a case--hopefully something that will get her new practice off the ground. It soon becomes clear, however, that the videos have triggered other activities, including murder. Laura calls on her old friend Sandy Arklett for help, and their ambiguous relationship, plus another distinctly odd client, makes an intriguing subplot. Highly recommended--and make sure Laura's earlier adventures are available, too. Matera is too good to miss. Stuart Miller

From Kirkus Reviews
Where on earth does Laura di Palma (``my primary areas of specialty are bankruptcy and corporate litigation'') get the weird criminal clients who keep her in business? After her high-powered San Francisco law firm lets her go, Laura (A Hard Bargain, 1992, etc.) finds herself with two unlikely clients in rapid succession: Margaret Lenin, another corporate lawyer who talks about suing her spiritual guru, Brother Mike, for computer-altering the sex-therapy free-for- alls she'd participated in and for putting the altered videotapes up for sale; and then, after Margaret backs down, Brother Mike himself, who arranges through Laura's old law-school classmate Gretchen Miller to hire Laura to defend a similar suit threatened by exotic dancer Arabella de Janeiro. Before she can sign a contract with Brother Mike, though, Laura makes two trips to Arabella's workplace, The Back Door, with searing results: first, a memorable trip through a hellish First Amendment rally, then a chilling confrontation with six dead strippers. And Brother Mike's behavior--when she catches up with him on a private island off the Washington coast--is just as bizarre: he offers unsolicited sexual advice to her and disappears moments after he's asked her to release him from the handcuffs a new follower clapped him in. Matera's look at the dehumanizing power of sexual manipulation- -the computer re-imaging plot here cuts much deeper than the gimmickry of Rising Sun--is so unblinking that you'll look right past the story's coincidences in your hurry to get to the hair-raising finale. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

ANNOTATION

Laura hangs out her shingle. She's ready to take any case, even a woman who claims that her New Age guru videotapes group sex sessions for therapeutic reasons--tapes that wind up at the local porno parlors. Laura's investigation takes her from a private fantasy island to kinky sex club back rooms to corporate boardrooms.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Hailed by critics for her brains, determination, and guts, San Francisco Bay Area lawyer and champion of not-yet-lost causes, Laura Di Palma, is back - and gutsier than ever. Laura's history of high-profile pro bono cases not only put her in the headlines but also recently cost her the position she had at a conservative law firm. Now, in Face Value, she is going it alone in private practice. Free from bureaucratic constraints at last, Laura takes on the most controversial - and dangerous - case of her career. When a distraught and disillusioned former devotee of northern California guru Brother Mike levels startling charges against him, a reluctant Laura eventually agrees to take the case. According to her new client, the spiritual leader was actually leading his unsuspecting flock into a terrible deceit, going so far as to tamper with video-tapes of his followers, which he then distributed as commercial pornography. Before Laura can even properly set up shop, her investigation sweeps her from the busy city streets of San Francisco to places beyond her wildest imaginings, where she meets a cast of mysterious people - all oddly influenced by Brother Mike. She begins at a striptease bar where, searching for clues, she instead finds herself face to face with seven murder victims. Her next stop is the guru's very own, very remote, but not-so private island, where she witnesses scenes almost as shocking as the mass murder itself. Back home she is "welcomed" by a series of deadly threats from someone eager to see her drop the investigation. But Laura has come too far to turn back now. With the help of private detective Sandy Arklett, her former colleague and close personal friend, Laura stays on course until she finds herself directly in the killer's line of fire and learns the final truth of this case: Nothing and no one can be taken at face value. Edgar Allan Poe Award nominee Lia Matera has pulled out all the stops in Face Value, her most dramatic and masterfully

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Fresh from her hard-hitting rural adventure in the Edgar-nominated A Hard Bargain , lawyer Laura Di Palma has returned to San Francisco to establish a solo practice. Her first client may be fellow lawyer Margaret Lenin, whose spiritual guru, Michael Hover, videotaped group sex-therapy sessions in which Lenin participated: the tapes are showing up for rent as ``adult'' videos. Just as Lenin drops the case, another of Hover's lawyer-disciples asks Di Palma to represent the guru himself, who is being sued by an exotic dancer who also appears on the tapes and is romantically linked with Lenin. A frantic 2 a.m. call drags Di Palma out of bed to meet Lenin outside a sex club. Di Palma arrives to see a man break into the locked, silent building; cautiously entering, she finds him shot, along with six dead dancers. Afraid for both her life and reputation, Di Palma leaves the scene of the crimes. With the assistance of PI Sandy Arklett, she explores Hover's unorthodox business, remaining haunted by the crimes she fled. Although it attempts to address serious issues of censorship and pornography, the story is busy and unengaging, and much of its cast remains faceless. The tense finale comes feebly and too late. (Feb.)

BookList - Stuart Miller

This latest Laura Di Palma adventure is no exception to the tight plotting, good characterizations, and page-turning suspense that have typified the earlier entries in the series and that make Matera one of the best contemporary mystery novelists. Having been fired from her high-powered law firm over her pro bono work--the subject of "A Hard Bargain" (1992)--Laura starts her own law practice. Her first client is an old colleague who, along with several other professionals, has become involved with a New Age guru--Brother Mike--whose "spiritual guidance" includes videotaping group sex sessions and then "re-imaging" the participants to show their auras. Laura's client had no problem with all of this until the films, sans auras, began showing up in local video stores. Although the participants had signed releases allowing the taping, Laura agrees to see if they have a case--hopefully something that will get her new practice off the ground. It soon becomes clear, however, that the videos have triggered other activities, including murder. Laura calls on her old friend Sandy Arklett for help, and their ambiguous relationship, plus another distinctly odd client, makes an intriguing subplot. Highly recommended--and make sure Laura's earlier adventures are available, too. Matera is too good to miss.

Kirkus Reviews

Where on earth does Laura di Palma ("my primary areas of specialty are bankruptcy and corporate litigation") get the weird criminal clients who keep her in business? After her high-powered San Francisco law firm lets her go, Laura (A Hard Bargain, 1992, etc.) finds herself with two unlikely clients in rapid succession: Margaret Lenin, another corporate lawyer who talks about suing her spiritual guru, Brother Mike, for computer-altering the sex-therapy free-for- alls she'd participated in and for putting the altered videotapes up for sale; and then, after Margaret backs down, Brother Mike himself, who arranges through Laura's old law-school classmate Gretchen Miller to hire Laura to defend a similar suit threatened by exotic dancer Arabella de Janeiro. Before she can sign a contract with Brother Mike, though, Laura makes two trips to Arabella's workplace, The Back Door, with searing results: first, a memorable trip through a hellish First Amendment rally, then a chilling confrontation with six dead strippers. And Brother Mike's behavior—when she catches up with him on a private island off the Washington coast—is just as bizarre: he offers unsolicited sexual advice to her and disappears moments after he's asked her to release him from the handcuffs a new follower clapped him in. Matera's look at the dehumanizing power of sexual manipulation—the computer re-imaging plot here cuts much deeper than the gimmickry of Rising Sun—is so unblinking that you'll look right past the story's coincidences in your hurry to get to the hair-raising finale.