Lastly, you'll see links to ebook editions of the first four
novels in the Willa Jansson series and the first four in the Laura Di Palma
series. They've been repackaged, with fresh covers and a few format changes.
These are revised editions, a little different than the print versions from
Bantam, Ballantine, Simon & Schuster and Pocket. The plots are mostly the
same but some details are new. (The earliest books are the most changed.) In
the Previews, you'll find the opening chapters of each.
For more news, feel free to friend me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter.
Best wishes,
Lia
Here are the links I mentioned.
Champawat is in Amazon's Kindle Store, the iTunes
Store and Barnes & Noble's Nook
Store for $3.99.
The Children is in the Kindle Store, the iTunes
Store and the Nook
Store for $1.99. And The Children & Champawat is in the Kindle Store and the Nook
Store for $4.99. They are also available to read on computers and other
mobile devices with the free Kindle
app or Nook
app.
Lovers and Lawyers: Ten Stories is available for the first time, only in ebook format. The
stories originally appeared in anthologies edited by Scott Turow, Tony
Hillerman, Sara Paretsky, Jonathan Kellerman, Carolyn Hart, Marilyn Wallace
and Robert J. Randisi, and in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. Lovers and
Lawyers includes Shamus Award winner “Dead Drunk,” “The Children,”
“Destroying Angel,” “The River Mouth,” “Easy Go,” “Do Not Resuscitate,”
“Dream Lawyer,” “Performance Crime,” “If It Can’t Be True” and “Counsel for
the Defense.” It is in Amazon's Kindle
Store, the iTunes
Store and Barnes & Noble's Nook
Store.
The mystery novels are arranged from latest to earliest within
each series. (They can be read out of order if you prefer, none has whodunit
spoilers.) Each is available for Nook, Kindle, Apple and other devices for
$3.99.
Laura Di Palma Novels (latest to earliest):
Face Value is available in
Amazon's Kindle Store,
Barnes & Noble's Nook
Store and Apple's iTunes
Store.
USA Today calls it "Absorbing," and says,
"Multiple murders and delightfully complex characters help carry a plot
that moves from a striptease bar to the guru's mysterious island retreat…A
fine, intelligent story."
The followers of San Francisco quantum physicist and guru
"Brother Mike" thought they were exploring their sexuality and
spirituality when he guided them through videotaped group encounters. They
didn't know the tapes would end up in the XXX sections of their video stores.
Now one former devotee, an old friend of lawyer Laura Di Palma, has come to
her new office for advice. Laura turns for help to her former partner,
detective Sandy Arkelett. They haven't spoken since a falling out months ago.
But as the case takes them from banks to porn parlors to a private fantasy
island, Laura finds that new secrets have a way of getting old lovers killed.
A Hard Bargain is available at the iTunes
Store, Amazon's Kindle
Store and the Nook
Store.
Kirkus Reviews calls it a welcome respite from the
mystery-by-formula crowd," and Publishers Weekly says it "skillfully weaves
Laura's dissatisfaction with her own circumstances into the
investigation…taking a thought-provoking look at the dangers in relationships
that grow too close."
Karen McGuin survived her first grisly suicide attempt. Then
her husband started putting a loaded gun in front of her every day—to
urge her to choose life, he said. But Karen pulled the trigger instead, and
now her family wants him arrested for murder. When they hire a San Francisco
law firm to make the case to their small-town D.A., detective Sandy Arkelett
treks north to investigate. But what he really wants is to lure his one-time
lover, lawyer Laura Di Palma, out of a hard bargain with her new partner.
The Good Fight is available at the iTunes
store, the Kindle store
and the Nook
store.
The Daily News called the book "compelling," saying,
"Matera writes with passion about debts to old lovers and old
causes." The Baltimore Sun described it as "Extraordinary,
thought-provoking," and John Leonard, of NPR's "Fresh Air,"
called it "Sharply written, brilliantly observed."
Lawyer Laura Di Palma has been warned: she'll be fired if she
insists on defending a controversial new client. Famed activist Dan Crosetti
is accused of shooting his best friend, who turned out to be an undercover
FBI agent. Laura was with Crosetti years ago when a military truck ran over
protesters blocking its path. He lost his legs that day, and Laura won't see
him lose his freedom, too. But if she can't reconcile the person she used to
be with the lawyer she's become, she risks everything she's worked for and
everyone she loves.
The Smart Money is available at
Amazon's Kindle Store,
Apple's iTunes
Store and Barnes & Noble's Nook
Store.
This book introduces San Francisco litigator Laura Di Palma,
praised by The New York Times as "one of the smartest, most
open-minded sleuths in the lawyering trade." Booklist says, "Di Palma
certainly belongs in the same league as Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone and
Sara Paretsky's V.I. Warshawki when it comes to brains, determination, and
guts."
Laura got more than her share of death threats and bad
publicity after winning acquittal for the killer of two U.S. Senators. But
she's not back in her home town to hide, she's back for vengeance. Years ago,
her marriage ended when she walked in on her high school sweetheart with
another woman. She tried to rebound with that woman's husband but he left
Laura packed and waiting. Now, after fourteen years, Laura's learned he died
that night. She's certain her ex-husband murdered him. And she has the money
and fame these days to spotlight the old crime. But in a town run by her
uncle the mayor, Laura's ex isn't the only one who'll strike back hard to
keep a secret.
Willa Jansson Novels (latest to earliest):
Prior Convictions is available in the iTunes
Store, Amazon's Kindle
Store and Barnes & Noble's Nook
Store.
It was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and was also
nominated for the mystery genre's top prizes, the Edgar Allan Poe Award and
the Anthony Award. Publishers Weekly said, "Readers will be shaken by
Matera's rapier-sharp dissection of personal relationships and radical
ideologies," and Newsday called it "gutsy, grown-up crime-writing from
one of the best practitioners around."
Lawyer Willa Jansson spent the last year picking up the pieces
after an epic hit to her résumé. Since leaving her beloved San Francisco,
she's been smothered in bankruptcy codes, mourning a love life that's lying
somewhere with a stake in its heart. She should be glad to be back home. But
her family, her ex, and her new employer seem bent on reviving the ugliest
trauma of her life. And unless she can figure out why, she may end up dying
for a cause she no longer believes in.
Hidden Agenda is available in
the Kindle Store,
the Nook
Store and the iTunes
Store.
The Houston Chronicle said, "Willa's cases always top the
fun-to-read list." and Newsday called Willa "an unusually deep and complex
character for crime fiction--tough-minded, sexual, vulnerable, lonely,
morally alive."
Willa Jansson's new job search finds her obsessed with one
question: Who in the world is Bud Hopper? Why would a member of the
Republican administration pull strings on behalf of a lawyer who spent the
last two years in a firm of notorious San Francisco liberals? Willa's afraid
she has her answer when her new boss is killed in exactly the same way as her
last. But if the elusive Bud Hopper is out to frame her, who'll take her word
over a friend of the President's?
A Radical Departure is available in
the Kindle
Store, the iTunes
Store and the Nook
Store.
It was nominated for the mystery genre's two top prizes, the
Edgar Allan Poe Award and the Anthony Award. The San José Mercury News said it has
"Almost everything a good mystery needs...a complex plot, social
commentary, loads of atmosphere and a cast of unusual characters...The reader
wants to hang out with Jansson and see more of her clear-eyed view of the
world."
Willa Jansson has graduated from law school and taken the job
of her left-wing dreams. She is working for the renowned firm of an old
family friend, famous activist Julian Warneke. These days, the good liberals
in Warneke's firm seem more interested in social climbing than social
justice. But when Julian is murdered at a pricey working lunch, a Who's Who
of radicals—including Willa's mother—join Willa on San Francisco
Homicide's list of suspects.
Where Lawyers Fear To Tread is
available at Amazon's Kindle
Store, Barnes & Noble's Nook
Store and Apple's iTunes
Store.
This book introduces lawyer Willa Jansson, described by
the New
York Times as "One of the most articulate and surely the
wittiest of women sleuths at large in the genre."
All Willa has to do is finish her last year of law school in
San Francisco's Tenderloin district, and she'll snag the job of her
idealistic dreams. The lawyer who routinely keeps Willa's social activist
parents out of prison—or at least joins them on their jailhouse
soapbox—asks only that she graduate with honors and on law review. But
when the review's two top editors are murdered, Willa's not exactly thrilled
to be third in line for editor-in-chief.
Find out why "Fresh Air's" John Leonard said,
"I'm in love with Willa!"
