Kate Wilhelm
Travis Morgan's case seems open-and-shut: a plot to kill his estranged father, fundamentalist preacher Arlie Morgan, goes awry and his bullet slays an innocent bookkeeper. Two eyewitnesses seal Travis' fate. But despite damning evidence, Travis staunchly maintains his innocence. Beseeched by his anguished mother, veteran defense attorney Barbara Holloway agrees to represent Travis. With the support of her father attorney Frank Holloway and crack
...A message from her father draws Barbara back to Eugene, back to the law practice she had abandoned in order to defend Nell Kendricks, accused of murdering her husband Lucas, who had been shot on the day he reappeared after an unexplained absence of seven years. Plunged into the mystery of his disappearance, chaos theory experiments, and computer disks with beautiful and strange Mandlebrot and Julia sets, Barbara has to battle not only the legal
...In this spirited story of an artists' colony in Maryland, we encounter a murder like a work of art: both subtle and dominating, graceful and discreet. From each new angle it shows a different face. Was it, then, the sculptress who strangled the editor? One of her students? Or did some other artist fashion this masterpiece of murder?
Charlie Meiklejohn and Constance Leidl probe a mystery whose origins lie beyond the Earth. A series of arson attacks—seemingly unrelated—are destroying old empty buildings across the country, and costing insurance companies dearly. The problem proves not so much to trace the perpetrator, but to understand and prevent the phenomenon which he has been tracking and trying to stamp out for five years: a series of outbreaks of sudden, murderous
...Roman Cavanaugh runs a small theater company in Ashland, Oregon, one that has gained a nation-wide reputation. When a new director comes to town, bringing with him an eccentric playwright, jealousies arise and tempers flare; suddenly a man is found murdered. Ro's niece, Ginnie, is accused, and private investigators Charlie Meiklejohn and his wife, Constance Leidl, are called in to clear his name. They uncover a trail of secrets that threaten to
...6) Torch Song
Charlie is being framed as a serial arsonist, fires that have resulted in five deaths so far. Their search settles on Peter Eisenbeis as the arsonist, a recently released convict that Charlie was responsible for convicting. Also, Charlie was part of the chase that caused massive brain injury to the man's infant son. Marla, the child's mother, has cared for the hopelessly bedridden boy for thirteen years with love and devotion. Only she can lead
...It started with an insurance fraud investigation that took Constance and Charlie to a luxurious resort hotel in Florida where they found their suspect being stalked by an enigmatic woman. It ended with the couple aboard a fishing boat alone with a ruthless killer, and fighting for their lives.
8) All For One
Charlie didn't want this case, working for three young people, all under twenty-five, who he suspected were setting him up. With one mother and two fathers, the trio had bonded with one another and presented a solid front when Sam, one of the fathers, was killed, but had they carefully plotted the murder in advance with their defense prearranged?
Quiet—that's what the town of Spender's Ferry is. The lake, the abandoned mill, the woods behind the house—everything is so rural and peaceful, not at all like the clamor and constant street noise of the Bronx. When Charlie and Constance are brought in to investigate a murder and the poisoning of a dog, they discover that the placid woods of Spender's Ferry muffle a teeming jungle of secrets—secret vices, secret pasts, secret
...10) Smart House
Gary Elringer, an eccentric young computer genius, had sunk most of his company's funds into the construction of Smart House—much to the dismay of stockholders, most of whom were family and friends. But, when Gary invited them all to a game of Assassin in the newly built house, he never dreamed he'd wind up dead for real. And, when one of the stockholders ends up dead, it's clear that nothing less than murder is afoot in Smart House. Constance
...11) The Gorgon Field
What is Ramón's hold on Carl Wyandot, one of the richest men in the country? Carl's daughter hires Constance and Charlie to find out why her father intends to give a hidden valley in Colorado to him. In the valley there is the mammoth formation called the Gorgon Field, red sandstone pillars that are unscalable, cover an area a mile and a half from front to back, and reach nearly two hundred feet in height. Why is Constance entranced by them? Why
...12) Sister Angel
Wanda believed her murdered husband was communicating with her, using Brother Amos as a go-between. Brother Amos and his daughter Sister Angel were moving into her life, into her home. Charlie and Constance were hired to expose him as a charlatan. The result of their investigation leads to explosive violence that threatens their relationship, their sanity, and even their lives.
In Kate Wilhelm's latest crime novel, a small Oregon town is rocked by a wheels-within-wheels case of art, fraud, and murder.
Silver Bay, Oregon, a small coastal resort town of under a thousand residents, is home to three generations of women: Marnie, the long-widowed owner of a small gift shop; Van, her granddaughter who is about to graduate from medical school; and Stef, mercurial and difficult, a brilliant artist who refuses to sell her
...Barbara Holloway is a low-key attorney in Eugene, Oregon, who left her father's high-powered firm to handle small legal problems for local residents and ponder her next move. But while trying to sort out her own future, two people, desperate for help, show up on her doorstep: former pro football player Martin Owens and his wife, Binnie. Binnie, who is mute, met her husband when she sneaked aboard his boat while it was docked in Haiti and smuggled
...Disappearances. Murder. The price of silence in a small town.
In dire need of a job, Todd Fielding accepts the offer to work at The Brindle Times—even if she has to move to the lackluster town of Brindle, Oregon. As she settles into her new home, Todd is fully prepared to adapt to the boredom of small-town life, but her preconceptions of Brindle are completely shattered when a local girl disappears. Even more shocking to Todd is the
...It started with a promise, a pact. It became a secret that no one must tell: that their parents were dead and gone, including the one they'd buried in the backyard.
When they move to a new home in Oregon, the McNair family knows they're where they belong. But when tragedy strikes the family, the children face the prospect of being separated by the state. Rather than being sent to different foster homes, the four children decide to lie. And
...17) A Wrongful Death
Who knew that being a Good Samaritan would lead Barbara Holloway to face her biggest challenge ever: being named prime suspect in a high-profile kidnapping?
Elizabeth Kurtz has taken her small son and fled her ex-husband and his mother after finding a file of explosive material incriminating the family. Although the wealthy family employs a detective agency to find her, she manages to elude them.
Defense attorney Barbara Holloway has
...Kate Wilhelm returns to the marvelous milieu of Death Qualified with this page-turning legal thriller.
The neighborhood in Eugene, Oregon, is blue-collar; the cafe holds only three tables and four booths. But it's the only place attorney Barbara Holloway feels both productive and peaceful. Laptop computer on the table, coffee refilled regularly by the cook, Barbara gets her work done and wants for nothing more—certainly not another
...Hiram Granville, a modern Leonardo, secured more than a thousand patents during his lifetime, often just ahead of others who had already been working the same ideas. His son John, an economics genius, never lost a cent in the stock market—or any other financial deal—and was investigated for insider trading on more than one occasion. Now Cat, a documentarian; her researcher, Mercy; and Cracker Jack, an electronics whiz, are doing a film
...When a seemingly simple case turns complicated, respected attorney Barbara Holloway must rethink her game plan.
Gregarious Las Vegas entertainer and ex-con Wally Lederer claims he's turned his life around, but when Jay Wilkins, a childhood friend, accuses Wally of stealing a valuable artifact, it's up to Barbara to ferret out the truth. Wally swears he's innocent. But when Wilkins is murdered and the police name Wally as their prime suspect,
...