Motion to Suppress

Rating:
Summary: Interesting, albeit tiresome female-in-distress theme...
Review: A cocktail waitress comes home from her job in a noisy, glittering casino to find her husband in one his occasional needy moods. Rather than again submit to her marital obligations, she refuses by emphasizing her displeasure with the idea by slugging him in the head with a decorative household item. And then she blacks out. She wakes up to find her husband missing and no memory of what happened after her defense attack. Fearing that authorities will convict her of something that may or may not have happened, she pleads with a new lawyer in town to help her with her defense. Lawyer and dear reader are never quite sure of who is guilty or what happened until the very end!

Congratulations to the sisters who did quite a spectacular job of writing an interesting story of whodunnit. Dear reader does tire of the never-ending female in distress theme, but ignores it to solve a very complicated puzzle.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting, albeit tiresome female-in-distress theme...
Review: A cocktail waitress comes home from her job in a noisy, glittering casino to find her husband in one his occasional needy moods. Rather than again submit to her marital obligations, she refuses by emphasizing her displeasure with the idea by slugging him in the head with a decorative household item. And then she blacks out. She wakes up to find her husband missing and no memory of what happened after her defense attack. Fearing that authorities will convict her of something that may or may not have happened, she pleads with a new lawyer in town to help her with her defense. Lawyer and dear reader are never quite sure of who is guilty or what happened until the very end!

Congratulations to the sisters who did quite a spectacular job of writing an interesting story of whodunnit. Dear reader does tire of the never-ending female in distress theme, but ignores it to solve a very complicated puzzle.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent beginning to a promising series
Review: Having just read "Motion to Suppress", the first in a series of legal thrillers featuring main character Nina Reilly, I've got the other succeeding books already on my reading list. What I like about this book, aside from it's fast-pace and intriguing plot, is that Nina is depicted as an independent woman with smart business savy, yet one with shortcomings and insecurities. In other words, she's human.

Having just left her husband and a prestigious corporate law firm in San Francisco, Nina relocates to Lake Tahoe where she sets up a private practice. There, she takes her first criminal case, Misty Patterson, accused of murdering her abusive husband. In the meantime, Nina has her own personal issues to resolve, including a pending divorce, and warding off intimidation from a another defense attorney, drivin by male ego, who's use to having the run of the town's clientele.

Other bright and colorful characters include Nina's private investigator friend who has hinted at being more than just colleagues, a sassy and witty secretary who has friends and relatives in high places as well as referrals, and a supportive family with whom she takes temporary residence.

If "Motion to Suppress" is an indication of what's to come, I look forward to more of Perri O'Shaughnessy's books.

Rating:
Summary: Good idea bad book
Review: Having just read "Motion to Suppress", the first in a series of legal thrillers featuring main character Nina Reilly, I've got the other succeeding books already on my reading list. What I like about this book, aside from it's fast-pace and intriguing plot, is that Nina is depicted as an independent woman with smart business savy, yet one with shortcomings and insecurities. In other words, she's human.

Having just left her husband and a prestigious corporate law firm in San Francisco, Nina relocates to Lake Tahoe where she sets up a private practice. There, she takes her first criminal case, Misty Patterson, accused of murdering her abusive husband. In the meantime, Nina has her own personal issues to resolve, including a pending divorce, and warding off intimidation from a another defense attorney, drivin by male ego, who's use to having the run of the town's clientele.

Other bright and colorful characters include Nina's private investigator friend who has hinted at being more than just colleagues, a sassy and witty secretary who has friends and relatives in high places as well as referrals, and a supportive family with whom she takes temporary residence.

If "Motion to Suppress" is an indication of what's to come, I look forward to more of Perri O'Shaughnessy's books.

Rating:
Summary: Motion to Supress...Publication
Review: I'm not sure about the quality of the book, because I can't get past how bad the narration of Ms. Merlington is. She rushes through her words. She rushes conversations between characters, so that you can't tell who is talking. She has no sense at all of the dramatic. When a murder attempt is made on Nina, the narration just blithly continues as if she is just walking down Main street at noon. I'd like to give O'Shaughnessy another chance, but I pray that Ms. Merlington doesn't narrate any future books.

Rating:
Summary: OUCH!...These gals need to do their homework...
Review: I'm not trashing this. I found the book highly entertaining and fun to read. It introduces a keen female lawyer and takes us through her first murder trial. Actually, it was supposed to be a divorce case, but the husband being divorced managed to end up dead leaving his estranged wife the #1 suspect.

However, this book is full of factual errors. Other reviewers have pointed out some of these errors, but the one I spotted has to do with the church the accused wife's parents are active in and have worked for, Science Of Mind. The parents and therefore the authors have the church completely confused with Christian Science. Science Of Mind or Religious Science was founded by Ernest Holmes in Los Angeles, not Mary Baker Eddy in Boston. The church, although it, like Christian Science, has practioners does not discourage members from seeking medical treatment (many SOM ministers have their medical doctors, have been in the hospital, undergone surgery, etc.). And Science Of Mind like Christian Science does not believe in Hell and yet the wife's mother tells her daughter that she will burn in Hell because of the life she's led.

Okay, the above doesn't even have a heavy bearing on the story, but all of these errors about the church along with the geographical and other factual errors are presented as fact in the book. So how is one to trust these authors' legal knowledge? Indeed, there seem to me to be several large holes in the legalistic details of the story although I admittedly am no lawyer.

Again, the story itself is engrossing although the denouement had too many unrelated and coincidental elements to please me. So while the story itself is too good to give a one or two star rating, there's too much almost sloppy writing to give it four or five stars. If you're looking for a mystery that's fast and light reading and aren't bothered by factual errors & dubious legality, you'll likely enjoy it.

Rating:
Summary: A Feminist Legal Thriller for both Women & Men! Spectacular!
Review: Let me start by saying that I have absolutely nothing negative to say about this book! It was fast-paced, intelligent, suspenseful and exciting, all the way to the very last page!

I first became interested in this novel after reading the cover story of the August 2002 edition of BOOK PAGE about Mary and Pamela O'Shaughnessey ("Sisters in Crime: Career Crossroads turned Siblings into Co-Authors"). These two women are sisters who use the pen name "Perri O'Shaughnessey" in their wonderfully unique brand of legal thriller - one in which the main character is a female attorney. Even though the O'Shaughnessey sisters have written a number of these novels, I decided to get to know Nina Reilly from the beginning, which is MOTION TO SUPRESS.

I can't remember the last time I was so drawn to a character. Nina Reilly is intelligent and strong-willed while at the same time being as human as the next person in her faults, doubts and desires - this makes her seem so real that one can't help but want to see her succeed. I can't wait to read the next novel!

If you think you've had enough of the typical legal thriller, you'll be pleasantly surprised by this book. Kind of a feminine combination of Grisham, COLUMBO and QUINCY. Have fun with this one - and when you start it, give yourself long stretches of reading time. You won't want to put this one down!

Rating:
Summary: Motion to Suppress
Review: Sister-writing team, Pam and Mary O'Shaughnessy, team up in this first installment of the Nina Reilly series. The series must be a hit with readers and their publisher as the ninth book is set to be released later this year. In "Motion To Suppress," we are introduced to Nina as her career as a San Francisco attorney and her marriage to a fellow lawyer hit the skids. With her young son in tow, Nina packs up and heads to Lake Tahoe to visit her brother. She soon sets up shop and lands her first client -- a troubled woman seeking a restraining order from her abusive husband. When the husband is found at the bottom of Lake Tahoe and Nina's client accused of murder the fun really begins.

O'Shaughnessy is (are?!) proficient at piecing together a mystery, although it does get a bit bogged down in the middle. However, this lasts only for a short time as crackling courtroom scenes with a fair share of twists and turns keep readers quickly flipping the final pages. Character-wise, I never quite warmed up to our protagonist Nina. She does not seem to be the most fun person to be around but I certainly would not mind having her as my lawyer if I ever needed one! Despite all the unsavory folks lurking about, "Motion To Suppress" certainly made me want to visit this picturesque town on the California/Nevada border. Overall, the novel is an entertaining who-done-it. It is not likely to win any writing awards, but certainly worth a recommendation for a summer-time read. I am sure I will read more of O'Shaughnessy's novels in the future.

Rating:
Summary: Introducing Nina Reilly
Review: Sister-writing team, Pam and Mary O'Shaughnessy, team up in this first installment of the Nina Reilly series. The series must be a hit with readers and their publisher as the ninth book is set to be released later this year. In "Motion To Suppress," we are introduced to Nina as her career as a San Francisco attorney and her marriage to a fellow lawyer hit the skids. With her young son in tow, Nina packs up and heads to Lake Tahoe to visit her brother. She soon sets up shop and lands her first client -- a troubled woman seeking a restraining order from her abusive husband. When the husband is found at the bottom of Lake Tahoe and Nina's client accused of murder the fun really begins.

O'Shaughnessy is (are?!) proficient at piecing together a mystery, although it does get a bit bogged down in the middle. However, this lasts only for a short time as crackling courtroom scenes with a fair share of twists and turns keep readers quickly flipping the final pages. Character-wise, I never quite warmed up to our protagonist Nina. She does not seem to be the most fun person to be around but I certainly would not mind having her as my lawyer if I ever needed one! Despite all the unsavory folks lurking about, "Motion To Suppress" certainly made me want to visit this picturesque town on the California/Nevada border. Overall, the novel is an entertaining who-done-it. It is not likely to win any writing awards, but certainly worth a recommendation for a summer-time read. I am sure I will read more of O'Shaughnessy's novels in the future.