Rating: 
Summary: AGREEABLE LISTENING
Review: Attractive, highly intelligent lawyer Nina Reilly is a force to be reckoned with. However, in this the 10th story to star this in-your-face California gal there's a dark force that may just reckon with her.
Laural Merlington again gives compelling voice to a story that'll hold listeners until the final syllable.
Nina's enjoying some much deserved r&r with the man of her heart, private investigator Paul van Wagoner. Major interruption: a telephone call from her boss Klaus Pohlman handing her a nightmarish case. However, she can hardly say no to the honcho at her firm so she settles in to defend Stefan Wyatt, a known felon. Hardly an estimable track record!
Remember I said "nightmarish" - Stefan has been grave robbing, disturbing the eternal rest of a Russian emigre. Further, a second body was discovered in the grave, a woman whom Stefan knew and he's accused of murdering her. What jury will believe in his innocence or that what Nina and Paul eventually discover dates back to czarist Russia?
Imaginative plotting and likable lead characters make this a worthy listen.
- Gail Cooke
Rating:
Summary: Stick With It!
Review: Although "Unlucky in Law" takes a very long time to get to the point, and although I almost gave up several times, I'm so glad I didn't. Because once the tedious and long beginning is done with, the story is one of the best in the Nina Reilly series.
Nina has now moved down to be with Paul, and as always, she is conflicted about the relationship. What else is new? But this time, we see some things from Paul's perspective, and that is both interesting and unique to the series...and adds some real interest to their dynamic.
While Nina is, as always, grappling with her personal feelings, she gets pulled into a case that first appears to be a simple murder--and winds up embroiled in Russian history, all the way back to the last Czar! Nina's client, a hapless young man named Stefan, is accused of the brutal murder of a young woman of Russian descent whom he swears he never met. But his blood was found at the scene of the crime. And the DNA is conclusive.
Hopeless? Nina doesn't think so--something doesn't rub her right, and she's going to find out what. Even if it means destroying her personal life.
Worth the read, worth the series. Give it a try.
Rating:
Summary: interesting legal thriller
Review: Attorney Nina Reilly moved from Tahoe to Carmel, California to spend time with her lover private investigator Paul van Wagoner to see if they can make it. As Paul offers her diamonds and great sex, her mentor whom she once clerked for, Klaus Pohlmann, a terrific trial lawyer, asks for her help in court. However, Klaus is not what he once was as his mind wanders with his colleagues at Pohlmann, Cunningham, Turk wondering if the great man should retire.The client, two-time loser Stefan Wyatt, is accused of murder, grave robbing and grave burying as he is accused of stealing valuables from one corpse and interring a fresh body, that of a fellow student. If convicted of any of the counts, Stefan would become a long time guest of the State due to California's Third Strike law. Nina leads the inquiries with Paul's' help that connect back to Tsarist Russia; she also provides much of the legalese at the trial as she acts more like first seat than her befuddled mentor. UNLUCKY IN LAW is an interesting legal thriller due to Nina's dilemma to be married or not to be married that is the question and the deterioration of the keen mind of Klaus (even her son Bob waits breathlessly). However, the key courtroom drama seems off kilter and never quite hooks the jury (reader). Still the investigation is fun to follow with its ties to Tsarist Russia and Anastasia on top of whether Nina and Paul move on or move out. Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: Nina Reilly with a Russian twist
Review: Having read all the Nina Reilly books, I was happy to get my hands on this one. I wasn't disappointed. I loved the Russian history that was intertwined throughout the murder mystery.
SPOILER:
I did think the rocky relationship between Paul and Nina was getting old, and am glad it seems to be resolved. I'm surprised Paul put up with her poor treatment of him for so long. Although Nina doesn't need Paul romantically, she does need him professionally. It will be interesting to see if she can make it without him now.
Rating:
Summary: Great read
Review: hese sisters know how to write a gripping story. Read it; you'll like it.
Rating: 
Summary: An Unlucky book
Review: Nina O'Reilly is spending some personal time with her boyfriend, Paul van Wagoner in Monterey County. He old boss and mentor, Klaus Pohlmann calls on Nina to be second chair in a tricky case. Stefan Wyatt took a job digging up the bones of an old Russian émigré. As he was digging he came upon the body of a young woman. Stefan is now accused of her murder. Not only was Stefan at the scene of the crime, but his blood was found in her apartment. Nina's role in the case becomes bigger and more involved when Klaus is seemingly unprepared to handle the complex and at times bizarre case.
This book jumped right in to the courtroom with barely any set up of the case. We learn a lot of the facts from a courtroom perspective. Overall, it made the story seem disjointed and not suspenseful. As characters were introduced, it was confusing because we really did not know what was going on. I muddled through the book, but as I was reading along, I really felt I was wasting precious time. Don't waste yours.
Rating:
Summary: Intrigue and history-a satisfying mixture
Review: Nina Reilly has left Lake Tahoe to spend some time with her longtime lover and PI, Paul van Wagoner in Monterey, partly to sort out their future. She gets a call from an old mentor,Klaus Pohlman, who asks for her help on what appears to be a straightforward murder case. Nina agrees to help with the case and gets taken on a puzzling trip down "history" road. Her client, Stefan Wyatt, a neer-do-well young man, already has two convictions and,if convicted again, is headed for life in prison. He is accused of murdering a young woman,Christina Zhukovsky, and burying her body in her father's grave but removing the father's bones. According to DNA tests blood on glass shards found in Christina's home is Stefan's.
But things are not what they seem. Paul and Nina discover that Christina's father, Constantin Zhukovsky, has links to the Romanov dynasty which was overthrown by the Bolsheviks in 1918. We are led down meandering paths until the identity of the murderer is revealed in the last few pages. This is one of the best-plotted novels in the Nina Reilly series.
Rating: 
Summary: Let down ending
Review: This book started off very well, fascinating story, and kept my interest most of the way, but it came apart in the final fourth part. One is left twirling at the complexity of the case, plus the upheavel in Nina's ralationship with Paul. He's been hanging on for what? nine years. He deserves better.
Rating:
Summary: A Mess
Review: This story takes a long time to get to the point with a sputtering payoff. I found it difficult to be sympathetic to any of these characters because they are all so pathetic. An admitted grave robber is not sympathetic. Nina can't decide between her job, sex life of son. Willing to break any laws to get her client off. Really kind of sleazy look into the mind of defense attorneys. Yuk.
Rating:
Summary: Unwitting Grave Robber Unearths More than He Expects
Review: Twice-convicted Stefan Wyatt finds himself on trial for grand theft and murder. Stefan claims he was hired to dig up the bones from a 25-year old grave in the Monterey cemetery. Unfortunately for Stefan, in the process of digging up the grave, he encounters a fresh corpse wrapped in plastic garbage bags, shallowly buried above the casket he was hired to plunder. After removing the bones from the old grave (and leaving the fresh body where he found it), Stefan is apprehended by the Monterey police for a defective tail-light on his car, and the police find the skeleton in his back seat. One thing leads to another, and Stefan finds himself on trial for the murder of the woman found in the grave, as well as a grand theft charge for pocketing a valuable medal from the grave.
Enter attorney Nina O'Reilly, who has returned to Monterey at the request of her first employer, Klaus Pohlmann. Klaus is now well over eighty years old, and has asked Nina to sit as second chair on this trial. Nina decides to accept this temporary move back to her hometown of Carmel, in order to help out her old friend Klaus, as well as to test her relationship with longtime love Paul von Wagoner.
At the very beginning of the book, Paul proposes to Nina, and she tentatively accepts his ring, although she declines to give Paul a firm answer. Throughly this novel, Nina shares her conflicted emotions about marrying Paul and staying in Carmel permanently, leaving her beloved Tahoe behind her.
The legal case is an interesting one, although because Nina was given inadequate time to prepare for the trial, the defense strategy is quite jumpy. The most interesting part of the case is the alleged connection of the two murder victims to the Russian tsar Nicholas' family. There is a lot of detail here about the last days of the Romanov family, which was fascinating.
This is the tenth novel in the Nina O'Reilly series, and while I enjoyed the story very much, I felt that the authors didn't provide a whole lot of background on Nina's family and law practice in Tahoe, which I think would make this book less enjoyable for readers not familiar with the other books in this series. A must-read though, for veterans of the Nina O'Reilly series!
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