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Rating: 
Summary: A Delightful Debut
Review: After a lifetime of family dysfunction attorney Hannah Dain has finally made the decision to leave the Arizona law firm where she has thanklessly toiled beside her neglectful father and hostile sister. Before she can leave though, she discovers a multimillion-dollar case of fraud involving a land deal with one of her shadier clients. As she works to clear the firm she discovers that there is someone working behind the scenes to destroy her family's firm and who doesn't mind killing to achieve that goal.Like the author, Hannah is a devoted cyclist who finds peace while riding in the Arizona desert. Which Hannah definitely needs, as she works in one of the most dysfunctional workplaces imaginable. Since the death of her mother following her birth Hannah's father ignores her while her beautiful sister openly shows distain for her. Thrown into this mix is a file clerk with a crush on Hannah and Cooper Smith, the firm's computer consultant who happens to have dated both sisters. Oh, and Hannah has to babysit a cat in the office as well. Twist Phelan has created a very likeable character in Hannah, a young woman who still desperately needs her family's approval even as she attempts to break free of them. Her attempts to please her father is at times painful to observe, as no matter how much she achieves her father still ignores her or assigns her trivial cases such as discovering who's stealing office supplies. The mystery of who's attacking the firm leads Hannah into looking closely at the secrets amidst her family and forces her into reevaluating her place in it. This is an enjoyable mystery that examines how a woman's family can influence her life's choices and how she struggles to gain her independence. This is a well-written novel with an ending that has Hannah battling the forces of Arizona's desert. Not to be missed.
Rating:
Summary: Sue Grafton & Michael Connelly are right!
Review: I am a sucker for cover blurbs, and Phelan's book lives up to hers. "This book sizzles and it's not just the Arizona heat," comments Sue Grafton. "Twist Phelan knows of what she writes," says Michael Connelly. "FAMILY CLAIMS is as full as a lawyer's briefcase with character and good storytelling. Phelan is on her way!" Phelan is indeed. FAMILY CLAIMS is a well-written legal and family thriller that includes a good mystery along with a touch of romance. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Sue Grafton & Michael Connelly are right!
Review: I am a sucker for cover blurbs, and Phelan's book lives up to hers. "This book sizzles and it's not just the Arizona heat," comments Sue Grafton. "Twist Phelan knows of what she writes," says Michael Connelly. "FAMILY CLAIMS is as full as a lawyer's briefcase with character and good storytelling. Phelan is on her way!" Phelan is indeed. FAMILY CLAIMS is a well-written legal and family thriller that includes a good mystery along with a touch of romance. Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent follow-up
Review: I enjoyed Twist Phelan's second Pinnacle Peak mystery, but Hannah Dain is the sort of person (like myself) who likes to be alone with her thoughts. Hannah bicycles through the Arizona desert to sort out her thoughts - which, at the moment, are worried. Her client's deal went out from under him - and she has to figure out who, what, where, when, and how. Little does she know that by finding the answers, she is setting up the firm and her family for major trouble. Ride along with Hannah to visit Pinnacle Peak - but watch out for road rash....
Rating:
Summary: Excellent follow-up
Review: I enjoyed Twist Phelan's second Pinnacle Peak mystery, but Hannah Dain is the sort of person (like myself) who likes to be alone with her thoughts. Hannah bicycles through the Arizona desert to sort out her thoughts - which, at the moment, are worried. Her client's deal went out from under him - and she has to figure out who, what, where, when, and how. Little does she know that by finding the answers, she is setting up the firm and her family for major trouble. Ride along with Hannah to visit Pinnacle Peak - but watch out for road rash....
Rating:
Summary: Sequel Time: " Family Claims: A Pinnacle Peak Mystery"
Review: In this sequel to "Heir Apparent" Hannah Dain is still dealing with her problem family and her unhappy life in the Arizona desert. While she is still at Dain & Dain, she is planning her escape from her father's law firm as well as the unrelenting heat. In thirty days, she will be leaving her aloof father Richard, her hostile sister Shelby, a painful legacy and the unrelenting desert all behind for Boston, Mass. She is waiting for the deal with Eddie Keene to close.
Eddie Keen had needed financing to build several strip shopping centers which would house businesses that provided auto detailing, oil changes, and the like. To get the financing, Hannah had taken his company public, creating and Initial Public Offering (IPO) worth around nine million dollars. Two million had been sent already to the title company to close the deal and the remaining seven million would be used to finance construction. That is until the deal suddenly collapses because the land had been sold out from under them to a third party.
Instead of reaping success and being able to prove her worth to her aloof and uncaring father, the collapsed deal means that she may have committed legal malpractice as the title company claims she didn't take care of all the details regarding the complicated transaction. With the law firm already in financial jeopardy, a fact that Hannah did not know about at all, her father takes the news of the collapsed deal as proof of her incompetence. While she knows she did everything correct, he does not want to listen to her. It is her problem and she must resolve it and do so quickly before it affects his long sought judicial nomination to a federal bench as well as possible cause the financial collapse of Dain & Dain.
Hannah begins digging into the problem and before long finds herself a target for vengeance. It isn't just a business deal gone bad and instead, a vehicle for personal retribution. The land scheme morphs into a daily nightmare that as the innocent around her fall victim threatens to destroy not just her but the entire family.
Filed with lush descriptions of settings and events, this novel quickly pulls the reader into the often emotionally painful world of Hannah Dain. Still trying to resolve her guilt over her mother's death shortly after giving birth to her, Hannah is desperate to connect with her family. Both Shelby and Richard simply aren't interested and the pain of her forced familial separation comes through loud and clear to the reader. So too does the humor, often by way of Hannah's colorfully opinioned assistant Clementine and her arch enemy, Melissa, who carries sycophant behavior to the extreme.
In short, this is a very enjoyable read and while marketed as a sequel, is equally enjoyable as a stand-alone. Some detail concerning the earlier book is given but nothing to a level that would detract from reading that one. This read features a strong plot, realistic characters and colorful scenery as well as a complex twisting mystery. The author thanks Sue Grafton in the introduction and her fans will revel in this character that reminds one of Kinsey Mahone. This enjoyable book is a fast fun read and this certainly is an author to keep an eye on.
Book Facts:
Family Circles: A Pinnacle Peak Mystery
By Twist Phelan
Poisoned Pen Press
www.poisonedpenpress.com
2004
Hardback
241 Pages
$24.95 US
ISBN # 1-59058-110-5
This review previously appeared online at The Mystery Morgue.
Kevin R. Tipple © 2005
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