Before he quit his job to become the author of the excellent John Cuddy private-eye series, Jeremiah Healy was a law professor in his native Boston. In his first excursion beyond the Cuddy canon, Healy uses that background to give perfect pitch to this story about a top defense attorney stalked by the same creepy client she got off on murder charges. Quinn herself is an interesting combination of strength and vulnerability, and the stalker--a wealthy psychotic named Arthur Ketterson IV--is one of the most frightening fictional heavies of recent memory. Most of the Cuddy books--Act of God, Blunt Darts, Foursome, Invasion of Privacy, The Only Good Lawyer, Rescue, Right to Die, Shallow Graves, The Staked Goat, and Yesterday's News--are available in paperback. --Dick Adler

From Publishers Weekly
The Shamus-winning author of the Boston-based John Cuddy PI series pulls off a major genre shift in an electrically charged legal thriller that should expand his fan base considerably. The emphasis here is on "thriller" rather than "legal": the courtroom scenes are mercifully short on legalese and high on drama as ex-law professor Healy packs this twisty speed read with enough suspense, romance and hinky characters to keep the most jaded fan turning pages. Sheilah Quinn wins bail for her wealthy serial-killer client, Arthur Ketterson IV, due partly to her unintended effect on smitten, alcoholic judge Roger Hesterfield. The judge's ill-concealed admiration puts him in the path of Arthur, who's also taken a (much scarier) shine to his attorney. Meanwhile, Sheilah's carrying on a secret affair with African American homicide cop Frank SikesAthe guy who brought Ketterson to justice. Between assignations with Sheilah, Frank digs harder at the case to force the politically distracted DA to get Arthur back behind bars. Healy (Invasion of Privacy) reveals Arthur's guilt early and takes the reader down a wickedly winding road as the killer offs the people in Sheilah's life in an effort to reserve her for himself. The tricky, unpredictable ending of this character-driven thriller will have crowds lining up for the promised sequel. (July) FYI: Healy is v-p of the International Crime Writers Association.Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Arthur Ketterson is obsessed, and though he's been obsessed before, Sheilah is different. She is more than just his defense lawyer. She is so much more like his mother than any of the others. To repay her for getting him released on bail from a murder charge, Arthur becomes determined to free Sheilah of the "complications" in her life?a father whose stroke has left him an invalid in a nursing home, a slightly overbearing female law partner, and a judge who is sexually harassing her. His ultimate mission, though, goes much deeper. Can Sheilah survive the insurmountable obstacles and horrors thrown into her life? This legal thriller by Healy (whose The Staked Goat won the Shamus Award for Best Private Eye Novel in 1986) has the typical twists and turns, but no one could ever predict its climactic ending. Expect readers to start lining up for Healy's next book.?Stacey Reasor, ITT Technical Inst. Lib., Tampa, FLCopyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
In a break from his highly regarded John Cuddy series (The Only Good Lawyer, 1998, etc.), Healy makes his legal-eagle heroine more victim than detective. Nobody works harder than attorney Sheilah Quinn, and for what? Her father, confined to a nursing home, can barely recognize her half the time; she has to keep her steamy romance a dark secret; the Hon. Roger Hesterfield, presiding over her current trial, is ruling favorably on her procedural motions only so that he can hit on her after adjournment; opposing counsel is hungry for a conviction to launch his candidacy for state Attorney General; and her client, Arthur Ketterson IV, accused of strangling Jessica Giordano with her brassiere, fantasizes day and night about disposing of Sheilah in the same way. When a hung jury sets Ketterson free on bail to return to his estate, his faithful retainer, and his wine cellar (all of which seem to have tumbled out of a time warp), his good fortune is Sheilah's bad, since Rudolph Giordano, the bereaved father who's won the contract to demolish the Judge Hesterfield's old courthouse, is driven to a frenzy, and the client's new freedom doesn't bode well for his counsel, especially after he starts to sharpen his claws on her nearest and dearest. All this may sound like Friday the 13th with lawyers instead of campers, but Healy can't keep the line taut enough for successful pulp. His idea of menace is to show Ketterson savoring his Napoleon brandy, and the constant cutting back and forth from scene to scene comes across as a nervous twitch that makes you feel sorrier for the author than for his threatened characters. The macabre, unconvincing finale is one last embarrassment for all concerned, including the persistent reader. A waste of Healy's talent likely to appeal only to hardcore lawyer-haters. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

When wealthy Arthur Ketterson is accused of strangling the woman he was dating, he retains frontline litigator Sheilah Quinn. Sheilah is up for the job - even if it means confronting a host of professional problems. Her opposing counsel is a prosecutor who is running for attorney general and hopes the case will secure his position in the upcoming election. At the same time, she must deal with a judge who is sexually harassing her and defend a man who gives her a bad case of the creeps.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

The Shamus-winning author of the Boston-based John Cuddy PI series pulls off a major genre shift in an electrically charged legal thriller that should expand his fan base considerably. The emphasis here is on "thriller" rather than "legal": the courtroom scenes are mercifully short on legalese and high on drama as ex-law professor Healy packs this twisty speed read with enough suspense, romance and hinky characters to keep the most jaded fan turning pages. Sheilah Quinn wins bail for her wealthy serial-killer client, Arthur Ketterson IV, due partly to her unintended effect on smitten, alcoholic judge Roger Hesterfield. The judge's ill-concealed admiration puts him in the path of Arthur, who's also taken a (much scarier) shine to his attorney. Meanwhile, Sheilah's carrying on a secret affair with African American homicide cop Frank Sikesthe guy who brought Ketterson to justice. Between assignations with Sheilah, Frank digs harder at the case to force the politically distracted DA to get Arthur back behind bars. Healy (Invasion of Privacy) reveals Arthur's guilt early and takes the reader down a wickedly winding road as the killer offs the people in Sheilah's life in an effort to reserve her for himself. The tricky, unpredictable ending of this character-driven thriller will have crowds lining up for the promised sequel. (July) FYI: Healy is v-p of the International Crime Writers Association.

Library Journal

Arthur Ketterson is obsessed, and though he's been obsessed before, Sheilah is different. She is more than just his defense lawyer. She is so much more like his mother than any of the others. To repay her for getting him released on bail from a murder charge, Arthur becomes determined to free Sheilah of the "complications" in her life--a father whose stroke has left him an invalid in a nursing home, a slightly overbearing female law partner, and a judge who is sexually harassing her. His ultimate mission, though, goes much deeper. Can Sheilah survive the insurmountable obstacles and horrors thrown into her life? This legal thriller by Healy (whose The Staked Goat won the Shamus Award for Best Private Eye Novel in 1986) has the typical twists and turns, but no one could ever predict its climactic ending. Expect readers to start lining up for Healy's next book.--Stacey Reasor, ITT Technical Inst. Lib., Tampa, FL

Kirkus Reviews

In a break from his highly regarded John Cuddy series (The Only Good Lawyer, 1998, etc.), Healy makes his legal-eagle heroine more victim than detective. Nobody works harder than attorney Sheilah Quinn, and for what? Her father, confined to a nursing home, can barely recognize her half the time; she has to keep her steamy romance a dark secret; the Hon. Roger Hesterfield, presiding over her current trial, is ruling favorably on her procedural motions only so that he can hit on her after adjournment; opposing counsel is hungry for a conviction to launch his candidacy for state Attorney General; and her client, Arthur Ketterson IV, accused of strangling Jessica Giordano with her brassiere, fantasizes day and night about disposing of Sheilah in the same way. When a hung jury sets Ketterson free on bail to return to his estate, his faithful retainer, and his wine cellar (all of which seem to have tumbled out of a time warp), his good fortune is Sheilah's bad, since Rudolph Giordano, the bereaved father who's won the contract to demolish the Judge Hesterfield's old courthouse, is driven to a frenzy, and the client's new freedom doesn't bode well for his counsel, especially after he starts to sharpen his claws on her nearest and dearest. All this may sound like Friday the 13th with lawyers instead of campers, but Healy can't keep the line taut enough for successful pulp. His idea of menace is to show Ketterson savoring his Napoleon brandy, and the constant cutting back and forth from scene to scene comes across as a nervous twitch that makes you feel sorrier for the author than for his threatened characters. The macabre, unconvincing finale is one last embarrassment for all concerned,including the persistent reader. A waste of Healy's talent likely to appeal only to hardcore lawyer-haters.