Can this marriage be saved? Oregon's take-no-prisoners defense attorney Barbara Holloway wed geologist John Mureau in her last book, and already things are looking bad. The problem isn't Barbara's lack of cooking skills: her father, Frank, has enough of those to spare and will whip up a gourmet meal for everyone in sight at the slightest pretext. Nor is it the crush of living and office space--renting two adjoining apartments in a new building in Eugene takes care of that. What really bothers John is the constant danger that Barbara's work conjures up for her, for her family, and now for his children, if they should be around when a case explodes.

Barbara Holloway is using every slick legal arrow in her quiver to make sure that her client, Maggie Folsum, gets to keep a large lump of cash that her career criminal husband left behind when he trashed Maggie's bed and breakfast and then was found beaten to death. The danger to Holloway begins when Maggie's brother-in-law is charged with the murder, even though the most obvious candidate is the crime boss who employed (and was double-crossed by) the late husband. Will Barbara fight off the IRS in time to defend the innocent brother-in-law? Will the mysterious mobster (powerful enough to make witnesses perjure themselves) actually give up his minions if pressed hard enough? Will John and Barbara stay together in those two terrific apartments, and will her white sauce ever work? Unlike most writers of legal thrillers, Wilhelm cares as much about her characters as she does about her courtrooms--which is why her books (including The Best Defense, For the Defense, The Good Children, and Justice for Some) are such genuine pleasures. --Dick Adler

From Publishers Weekly
"Evil infects some people... it gets into the system and stays like a virus that is never killed," seasoned criminal lawyer Barbara Holloway reflects, in the fourth thriller by Wilhelm (The Good Children) to feature the Eugene-based attorney. Maggie Folsum's abusive ex-husband, Mitch, has come tearing back into her life, threatening Maggie and ransacking the inn she operates. The dirt that Holloway's investigation turns up on Mitch piles higher and higher?until he's six feet under it and his good-guy brother Ray stands wrongfully accused of his murder. Holloway agrees to defend Ray, hoping to secure long-in-arrears child support from Mitch's stash of dirty money. She's up against a corrupt organization run by a man named Palmer, whose cleverness and casual violence are frightening, but she believes that she can outwit them. After Ray's trial, and as the tension mounts, Wilhelm employs an overused device for the disappointing denouement: Palmer's arrogance undermines his ingenuity. The nuances of courtroom procedure are compellingly presented, however, including a sophisticated look at the complex psychology of a jury. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Mitch Arno is a spouse abuser, small-time thug, and general ne'er-do-well. When he trashes wife Maggie's cozy Oregon B&B after his latest "job," she kicks him out, and he heads for his brother's house. Meanwhile, Maggie turns to attorneys Barbara Holloway and her father, Frank, to get a restraining order against Mitch and file for damages. Then Mitch turns up dead, and brother Ray is arrested for murder. Maggie persuades Barbara to defend Ray, placing her and her father in the middle of a deadly web of deception and greed involving the theft of a valuable computer code, a senator's opportunistic wife, and a software tycoon who wants to settle the matter with a gun. Wilhelm (The Good Children, LJ 2/1/98) is a masterful storyteller whose novels have just the right blend of solid plot, compelling mystery, and great courtroom drama. Barbara and Frank Holloway are a likable team whose work in this latest case will leave readers begging for more. Highly recommended.?Susan Clifford, Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, CACopyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
Murder once again conceals a host of even dirtier secrets in this latest case for Oregon attorney Barbara Holloway (Malice Prepense, 1996, etc.). Seventeen years after he returned to his teenaged wife Maggie only to beat and rape her and abandon her and her baby again, Mitch Arno has come back once more. But this time he's the one who's beaten. Hours after he blusters his way back into Maggie Folsum's life, Mitch is dead, tortured to death, presumably, by someone who was interested in the contents of the suitcase ($$$$) and briefcase (something potentially even more valuable) that he brought all the way from Miami to Eugene. Barbara, agreeing to act for Maggie, maneuvers adroitly among Russ Major (the software developer whose property is in the briefcase), R.M. Palmer (the urbane businessman who's had Major's property hijacked), and the authorities (who would impound the money as part of Mitch's estate if they knew the story behind it), winning a belated $210,000 in child support for her client by playing the players off against each other. Meantime, though, the clueless D.A. arrests Mitch's brother Ray for his murder, and Barbara, who can't defend Ray because of looming conflicts of interest, has to watch from the sidelines while a spineless lawyer runs his case into the ground. Anybody who's not with the justice system will see where the guilt lies hundreds of pages in advance; Barbara's challenge here instead is to puncture the airtight case against Ray Arno, rout the apparently unstoppable forces of evil, and keep her father and partner Frank and her lover John Mureau from danger. She manages all this and more with the barely-legal dexterity of the early Perry Mason. Despite the often faceless charactersRay's wife, for instance, is a cipher, and Ray himself barely moreWilhelm's skill in spinning out endless complications while keeping every subplot perfectly clear makes this legal thriller her best in years. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Attorney Barbara Holloway has taken on the sort of cases no one else wants - hopeless messes, all of them - and with the help of her father, Frank, she has pulled through each time. But even from the start, this new case is different. Mitch Arno always meant bad news for the coastal town of Folsum, Oregon. When they ran him out of town seventeen years ago, he left behind a wife with two daughters and a family that never wanted to see him again. When he returns, he brings trouble in the form of a lot of suspicious money. As Barbara attempts to counsel Mitch's wife about the money, a second form of trouble arrives: a corpse, Mitch's. And now Barbara is in a morass of conflicting interests, and the only way out could lead her straight into the arms of the devil.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

Mitch Arno is a spouse abuser, small-time thug, and general ne'er-do-well. When he trashes wife Maggie's cozy Oregon B&B after his latest "job," she kicks him out, and he heads for his brother's house. Meanwhile, Maggie turns to attorneys Barbara Holloway and her father, Frank, to get a restraining order against Mitch and file for damages. Then Mitch turns up dead, and brother Ray is arrested for murder. Maggie persuades Barbara to defend Ray, placing her and her father in the middle of a deadly web of deception and greed involving the theft of a valuable computer code, a senator's opportunistic wife, and a software tycoon who wants to settle the matter with a gun. Wilhelm (The Good Children, LJ 2/1/98) is a masterful storyteller whose novels have just the right blend of solid plot, compelling mystery, and great courtroom drama. Barbara and Frank Holloway are a likable team whose work in this latest case will leave readers begging for more. Highly recommended.--Susan Clifford, Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, CA

Kirkus Reviews

Murder once again conceals a host of even dirtier secrets in this latest case for Oregon attorney Barbara Holloway (Malice Prepense, 1996, etc.). Seventeen years after he returned to his teenaged wife Maggie only to beat and rape her and abandon her and her baby again, Mitch Arno has come back once more. But this time he's the one who's beaten. Hours after he blusters his way back into Maggie Folsum's life, Mitch is dead, tortured to death, presumably, by someone who was interested in the contents of the suitcase ($$$$) and briefcase (something potentially even more valuable) that he brought all the way from Miami to Eugene. Barbara, agreeing to act for Maggie, maneuvers adroitly among Russ Major (the software developer whose property is in the briefcase), R.M. Palmer (the urbane businessman who's had Major's property hijacked), and the authorities (who would impound the money as part of Mitch's estate if they knew the story behind it), winning a belated $210,000 in child support for her client by playing the players off against each other. Meantime, though, the clueless D.A. arrests Mitch's brother Ray for his murder, and Barbara, who can't defend Ray because of looming conflicts of interest, has to watch from the sidelines while a spineless lawyer runs his case into the ground. Anybody who's not with the justice system will see where the guilt lies hundreds of pages in advance; Barbara's challenge here instead is to puncture the airtight case against Ray Arno, rout the apparently unstoppable forces of evil, and keep her father and partner Frank and her lover John Mureau from danger. She manages all this and more with the barely-legal dexterity of the early Perry Mason. Despite theoften faceless characters-Ray's wife, for instance, is a cipher, and Ray himself barely more-Wilhelm's skill in spinning out endless complications while keeping every subplot perfectly clear makes this legal thriller her best in years. .