Show No Fear

October 6, 2008
Set in 1990, O'Shaughnessy's intriguing 12th legal thriller to feature crusading lawyer Nina Reilly (after Case of Lies
) takes a look at Nina's early career. An attractive single mom, Nina lives with her preschool-age son, Bob, in Carmel-by-the-Sea, Calif., where she works as a paralegal while pursuing a law degree. She worries about her mother, Ginny, who's struggling with a circulatory disease and recovery from a botched acupuncture treatment. When Nina's ex-lover, criminal defense attorney Richard Filsen, resurfaces after four years, demanding a paternity test and shared custody of Bob, Nina seeks help from her current crush, Jack McIntyre, and his sexy girlfriend, Remy Sorensen, who's angling for a judgeship. Everything explodes when first Richard and then Ginny are murdered. The pseudonymous O'Shaughnessy (Pamela and Mary O'Shaughnessy) offers some surprising twists involving the ambitious Remy. Nina's first brush with a future love, detective Paul van Wagoner, adds spice.

Dagmara Dominczyk's sad, whispery voice and slow pace give authenticity to Nina Reilly's first murder investigation. Dominczyk portrays a multiplicity of believable characters--lawyers involved in a medical malpractice suit, disappearing witnesses, and Nina's future love, Detective Paul van Wagoner. Dominczyk captures all the stresses of Nina's life: being a single parent of a pre-school son, her ongoing fight for exclusive custody, and her care of her mother, who is recovering from a botched medical procedure. Somehow Nina finds time to prove that the woman who fell to her death from the bridge near Big Sir was murdered, not accidentally killed as the police insist. Narration is well done, but the plot is difficult to follow. G.D.W. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine