WRIT OF EXECUTION
In the mountain resort town of South Lake Tahoe, Nina Reilly is known
for taking on the underdog cases, the kind that can make - or break -
her one-woman law practice. Her latest case begins in the middle of a
summer night when she is called away from a very personal visit to her
investigator Paul Van Wagoner's hotel room to meet with a desperate new
client at her office. The frightened young Washoe Indian woman gives her
name as Jessie Potter. She has just hit one of the biggest jackpots in
Nevada history, and the men in suits are waiting to hand her the
million-dollar first installment when they know her real identity. With
time running out, Nina helps her client devise a brilliant plan to
collect the money while keeping her true identity a secret. The check's
due to clear in ten days-and Nina's got her hands full as powerful
interests line up to grab the money. The Nevada Gaming Control Board is
looking into allegations that the jackpot was rigged. The man sitting on
the seat just before the jackpot hit says it's his, and he doesn't mind
going outside the law to get it. And the wealthy man stalking Nina's
client has managed to attack the jackpot winnings with the help of an
unscrupulous local lawyer, Jeff Riesner, using a legal maneuver called a
writ of execution. To fight it, Paul Van Wagoner flies to Hawaii and
digs up a dark moment in Jessie's past. The odds of Jessie ever
collecting are starting to look hopeless. For Nina, what began as a
fight for an underdog in federal court soon escalates into something
very different and far more dangerous. Jessie has a secret, and she
needs that money for a very good reason. By the time Nina discovers that
Jessie is withholding vital information, it might be too late for her
client and even for Nina herself. Because somewhere in the darkening
Tahoe night, people are dying. A killer is exacting chilling vengeance
in a case where the writ of execution has become more than a legal
maneuver; it's a death warrant.
UNFIT TO PRACTICE
As an attorney championing desperate people, Nina Reilly has skirted the
edges of legal ethics in pursuit of a just result but she has never
before broken the rule of absolute protection of her clients' secrets.
One September night at Lake Tahoe when her unlocked truck is stolen, her
life changes forever. Inside are her most sensitive cases, complete with
the sometimes brutally candid notes she took while interviewing her
clients. It's the event that every attorney most fears - one careless
moment that undoes a lifetime of building trust and respect. The worst
has happened - the secrets are being revealed one by one, in ways that
will cause the greatest harm. Nina's own clients complain to the State
Bar of California, and suddenly Nina is fighting for her license and her
livelihood in a Kafkaesque legal proceeding that may ultimately lead to
her disbarment. In desperation, Nina hires a top San Francisco lawyer,
Jack McIntyre, to represent her. She ought to know he's tough as well as
cynical and funny - he's her ex-husband. And as personal tensions erupt
between Jack and Nina's on-the-edge investigator Paul van Wagoner...as
reputations are ruined and people begin to die...a malign pattern of
rage and revenge comes into focus. Someone is bent on destroying the
lives of her clients and, in the process, destroying Nina Reilly.
