Acts of Malice
Written by Perri O'Shaughnessy
Narrated by Laural Merlington
3.5/5
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About this audiobook
The New York Times bestselling Nina Reilly novels have dazzled both readers and critics with their crackling blend of legal suspense and taut human drama. Now Perri O'Shaughnessy, hailed as "smart", "gripping", and "complex" by the San Francisco Chronicle, brings us her best—and most explosive—Nina Reilly novel yet.
Amid the sparkling snow-swept mountains of Lake Tahoe, Nina Reilly has made a home, juggling the demands of her one-woman law practice and raising a teenage son alone. Now Nina has taken on a case that will threaten everything she holds dear, drawing her into a tangled web of loyalties and alliances within one of Lake Tahoe's most prominent families. Her client: a man accused of murdering his own brother—on the ski slopes of Tahoe. The law says Nina must give Jim Strong the best possible defense. But Strong's family has turned violently against him, and suddenly Nina is at the center of the storm. As she works a flawed and troubling case and gets swept into an unexpected love affair, the two sides of Nina's life come crashing together...in the ultimate act of malice.
Perri O'Shaughnessy
Perri O'Shaughnessy is the pen name for two sisters, Pamela and Mary O'Shaughnessy. Together they have written twelve Nina Reilly legal thrillers, a stand-alone thriller, KEEPER OF THE KEYS, and one short story collection, SINISTER SHORTS. Pamela, a graduate of Harvard Law School, practiced law in Monterey, San Pablo, and South Lake Tahoe, California, for sixteen years. She lives in northern California. Mary worked as a multimedia editor for many years. She lives with her husband and children near San Francisco.
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Related to Acts of Malice
Titles in the series (11)
Motion to Suppress Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Invasion of Privacy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Obstruction of Justice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Acts of Malice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Breach of Promise Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Move to Strike Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Writ of Execution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unfit to Practice Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Case of Lies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Presumption of Death Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Unlucky in Law Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
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Reviews for Acts of Malice
56 ratings5 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lawyer Nina Reilly works to defend Jim Strong who is accused of killing his brother on the ski slopes near Lake Tahoe. Nina does her best to get the charges dropped, but can't decide whether Jim is guilty or not and whether she should trust him. Jim's wife and family don't trust him and say that he destroys whatever his enemy loves most. When he finds out that Nina has betrayed him, he sets out to destroy what she loves most, her new husband. Now she fears for her son's life also, but her former colleague and boyfriend, Paul, assures her that she has nothing to fear. Jim won't ever bother her again. This book was slow at the start, but it picks up later to where you won't want to put it down.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A plot that keeps you reading on into the night.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5In Acts of Malice, Jim Stronghold hires attorney Nina Reilly to hire him when he is suspected of murdering his brother in a skiing accident. As Nina delves further into the case, she is conflicted when she develops a relationship with the prosecuting attorney. Even though she wants to believe in her client's innocence, more and more hints are appearing that he is not all that he seems to be and he has a nasty side to him. Despite being warned off, Nina persists and evnetually comes to realize the evil nature of her client, and by that time she is fighting for her family's life.There's a certain level of suspense that I enjoyed, but there was also a bit of ridiculousness and lack of believability, which stops it from being a good book instead of just a decent book. This book may hold more interest to skiers out there, since so much of the book involves skiing. By the end, the novel devolves a little and strays more into the area of ridiculousness.Carl Alves - author of Two For Eternity
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A good but not great mystery. This is the 5th book in the O'Shaughnessy's (Perri O'Shaughnessy is the pseudonym for a sisters writing team) Nina Reilly series, but the first I've read. I had no trouble starting with #5, as the books are all free-standing.At any rate, Reilly is a crack criminal defense attorney who lives in the mountainous Lake Tahoe region near the California/Nevada border. In Acts of Malice, she is defending the son of the owner of the oldest of the area's large ski resorts, who is accused of murdering his brother. The circumstances of the death make if very questionable as to whether this was murder or an accident, but the DA's office is adamant. The mystery and investigation are nicely done and the courtroom scenes are good as well. The handling of Reilly's personal life are well intentioned but, I thought, only so-so. It is Reilly's romantic life, handled, I thought, in a ham-fisted and fairly improbably manner, that brought the book down several pegs for me, especially the way in which the romance intertwines with the real business at hand. So while I enjoyed reading Acts of Malice, I won't be making a point to seek out any other of the Nina Reilly mysteries. I wish her well with her case-load, though.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5You know how you can turn on the TV and watch any episode of Law & Order and enjoy it regardless of whether you've seen the show before? Law & Order: SUV on the other hand requires more of an investment. One needs to know what has happened in the lives of the detectives and attorneys and how that relates to the case at hand. This book is more like Law & Order: SUV. I had never read a book by this author before, and I felt like I was jumping in halfway through the season. The authors refer frequently to events of past books without explaining why these events are relevant. They assume you already know. Nothing on either cover or the inner flap informs you that this might be a series you'd want to read from the beginning. The first half of the book read like a harlequin romance novel with multiple sexual encounters that were described lightly, leaving much to the reader's imagination. The second half of the book was more like the mystery novel this book purports itself to be.The ending left quite a bit to be desired. Although the main 'mystery' of the book was solved, the ramifications are more than I'd like my hero/heroine to have to experience. I may be judging this a little harshly, since it's really quite far from my favored genres. When my husband, who owned the book initially, saw that I was going to read this, he said I was in for a treat. Again, I think those who'd read the other books featuring this character would enjoy it more.