Forget about Grisham, Turow and all those other scribbling ex-lawyers. The best writer of legal mysteries working today is Kate Wilhelm of Eugene, Oregon. Her first two books about Barbara Holloway -- The Best Defense and Death Qualified -- were sleeper successes. Holloway is a marvelously dense and thorny character, and her father and legal colleague is equally interesting. "He resolutely denied himself awareness of the time clock ticking away, and while denying it, he tried to remember if she was thirty-nine or forty," Wilhem writes of father Frank thinking about his daughter. "In his head, she was sometimes a very young girl, and then a woman older and wiser than he was; he no longer knew which image was more accurate. He suspected she was both, and then a few others, too."

From Publishers Weekly
Wilhelm doesn't fool around: she writes clean, clear prose about real people in sometimes loopy legal situations. Returning from The Best Defense (1994), Eugene, Ore., lawyer Barbara Holloway and her 75-year-old father and partner, Frank, are hired to defend strapping Teddy Wendover, a severely retarded 28-year-old accused of murdering a congressman. Teddy, stuck at the mental age of eight after a childhood accident, is a wonderfully realized character, sweet without a drop of sentimentality. As the Holloways fight the legal-psychiatric establishment's efforts to institutionalize Teddy, who lives with his loving, well-off parents, the prosecution switches its focus to Teddy's father, Ted senior. It turns out that Ted's wife, Carolyn, had carried on a 15-year affair with the late congressman, providing the DA (and a pro-prosecution judge) with motive. Meanwhile, there are two other murders that Barbara is sure are connected with this one, but the judge blocks any linkage. The Holloways' investigation uncovers a large real estate development scheme (and links to the other murders), Barbara falls in love again (suddenly but believably) and there's a corker of a trial. As Wilhelm spins her riveting tale, she not only makes the legal system comprehensible and compelling but also makes her readers care about her characters, particularly the efficient yet vulnerable Barbara. Author tour. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
As the title implies, premeditation is the real key to solving the latest of Wilhelm's cerebral courtroom thrillers (following Flush of Shadows St. Martin's, 1995). Attorney Barbara Holloway is hired to defend a 28-year-old brain-injured man who is accused of murdering an Oregon Congressman. With only a pile of rocks found at the murder scene tying the young man to the crime, Holloway skillfully clears him, but her client's father then becomes the prime suspect. Her defense of the now-accused father is much more complex. She ultimately reveals a common thread between the congressman's death and three other unsolved murders, uncovers a shady land development scheme, and, of course, fingers the real culprit. Deftly skirting possible Washington repercussions, Holloway mounts her defense and provides nail-biting courtroom tension, revealing much about our society's perception of ethics, family values, and the capabilities of the mentally challenged. This is a worthy contribution to the courtroom thriller genre by an author who has many novels to her credit. Recommended for most collections.?Susan Clifford, Hughes Aircraft Co. Lib., Los AngelesCopyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Teddy Wendover, who is 28 but has the mental age of an 8-year-old, has been accused of three murders, including the brutal bludgeoning of an Oregon senator. Father and daughter attorneys Barbara and Frank Holloway take on the seemingly impossible task of proving Teddy's innocence. Accepting the yeoman's share of the job, Barbara slogs through a morass of dead ends, hearsay, and veiled clues before launching a superb and surprising courtroom performance that not only proves Teddy's innocence but also fingers the real murderer. Wilhelm proves yet again that she's one of the more talented writers in the genre, offering suspense, action, and tough, intelligent characters. A top pick for fans of the conventional mystery. Emily Melton

From Kirkus Reviews
Oregon lawyer Barbara Holloway is catapulted into her latest case, defending land management agent Ted Wendover on a murder charge, when her father Frank wins the acquittal of Ted's son Teddy. The case against Teddy, the Holloways agree, is preposterous. Teddy is 28 going on 9, a man who's been stuck in a happy, well-adjusted childhood since a head injury on a school field trip 15 years ago. Now someone has killed Lois Hedrick, a classmate who was on the field trip; Harry Knecht, a teacher who tried to save Teddy from his accidental fall; and retired school principal Mary Sue McDonald--and killed them all with what looks very much like the rocks Teddy loves to collect. But a lot has happened since 1980--Lois Hedrick has been writing a dissertation on Oregon gold mining, and Harry Knecht was elected to Congress- -and the Holloways (The Best Defense, 1994, etc.) are convinced their murders have a lot more to do with a crafty land grab than with Teddy's old injury. But when Frank unexpectedly discovers an alibi for Teddy, the case against him proves to be a mere curtain-raiser for the far more convincing one against his father, whose reasons for killing Congressman Knecht only begin with the possibility that he blames him for his son's permanent childhood. In order to defend Ted, Barbara will have to put Denver consultant John Mureau, AWOL from Knecht's murder scene, on the stand. Mureau, however, has a damning history of mental illness. And the judge who's drawn the case, former prosecutor Jordan Ariel, isn't about to let Barbara's high-minded, long- winded cross-examinations come between him and a swift verdict. As usual in the Holloways' cases, veteran Wilhelm serves up far too much for comfort: Teddy's inscrutable sunniness, his family's domestic problems, Barbara's affair with John Mureau, the ungainly gold-lust intrigue, and some of the most punishing courtroom scenes on record. You've gotta feel for that poor judge. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Someone has murdered one of Oregon's congressman, and it doesn't seem to be a coincidence that this politician led the field trip during which Teddy's accident occurred almost twenty years ago. Nor does it seem to be coincidental that the killer left rocks strewn about the murder site. Rocks just like the ones Teddy plays with. And the only thing that's for certain is that the person who cast the first of these stones is not without sin.