Lia Matera: Prior Convictions (USA 2021)

From the Publisher:
A New York Times Notable Book: Sour parents, a sleazy ex, '70s radicalism, and murder spoil a California lawyer's homecoming in this mystery by the author of Hidden Agenda.

Working in the LA office of a Wall Street law firm, attorney Willa Jansson was drowning in bankruptcy codes and mourning the loss of her love life. But now, after almost a year in that purgatory of dull men in thousand-dollar suits, she's landed a new position clerking for a federal judge back in her hometown of San Francisco.

Driving up the coast, Willa should feel happy about her chance for a fresh start -- except her hippie mother's still upset with her for becoming a corporate sellout, her despicable ex needs her to do a favor for his new girlfriend, and her new boss is getting hate mail about her. Plus, she's not even sure she wants to be a lawyer anymore.

But when a murderer strikes, Willa is forced to set aside her self-reflection and dig into the victim's past, one full of lies, betrayal, and a few people holding grudges worth killing for...

Praise for the Willa Jansson Mysteries
"One of the most articulate and surely the wittiest of women sleuths at large in the genre." -- The New York Times Book Review
"Almost every paragraph is eminently quotable." -- The Plain Dealer
"Blessed with pungent prose, an affecting, funny, realistic heroine/detective and pressing moral and emotional issues." -- San Francisco Chronicle

Lia Matera: Prior Convictions. A Willa Jansson Mystery. Mysterious Press / Open Road Media, ISBN: 9781504066679 (June, 2021), eBook, 2107 KB (ca. 204 p.), $7.99.

Lia Matera: Prior Convictions (USA 1992)

From the Publisher:
"One of the most articulate and surely the wittiest of women sleuths at large in the genre." The New York Times Book Review
"Matera writes brilliantly... If you're unfamiliar with this author, PRIOR CONVICTIONS is a dandy place to start." -- The Cleveland Plain Dealer

Willa Jansson, a cynical ex-radical, figures the walking dead had more fun than she did last year. At least none of them were selling their souls to a corporate Los Angeles law firm, trying to make their résumés look good. After a year of misery. though, Willa has halfheartedly come home to San Francisco to clerk for a federal judge. If she's lucky, maybe she'll figure out how to get her life back on track.

But Willa fears that fate, as usual, has tricks up its sleeve. For starters, her own parents set her up to help her old boyfriend do a favor for his new girlfriend. And without even realizing what's hit her, Willa's embroiled in a case of conflicting inter- ests, slow-dying passions, and the kind of political grudges that can kill...

Lia Matera: Prior Convictions. A Willa Jansson Mystery. Ballantine Books, ISBN: 0345374452 (May, 1992), 196 p., $4.99.

Lia Matera: Prior Convictions (USA 1991)

From the Publisher:
Here is tough, savvy mystery entertainment from the author Newsweek says is "poised for a breakthrough."
1970: the Vietnam War blazed, ghettos exploded, police and demonstrators skirmished, students bombed banks... 1990: some people's convictions-both penal and moral-continue to haunt them... .

Christine Rugieri's past dogs her from the moment she puts blind acceptance aside and takes a long, hard look at the terrorist actions of her passionate young husband Tom's radical extremist cadre. Her damning testimony against them puts Tom in prison and sends Christine into exile. Changing identity, remarrying, and walling herself away in affluent conventionality fail to persuade her she did the right thing those many years ago. Nor wili they persuade her recently freed (and hell-bent-on-revenge) first hus- band -- if he succeeds in finding her.

Bay area lawyer Willa Jansson is the impatient offspring of radical lefty parents who don't know what to make of her -- she's a budding careerist in mid-transition from Bug to BMW who can never seem to avoid murder. When Willa is asked to mediate a seemingly typical domestic squabble for the newly yuppified Christine, the last thing she expects is to be thrust into a tangled skein of old betrayals and withered ideals. And when Christine's domestic drama turns into something far darker, Willa's own radical past threatens to shatter her hard-won professional facade and destroy her career.

Prior Convictions dramatically confirms Lia Matera's uncompromising talent and depth.

Lia Matera: Prior Convictions. A Willa Jansson Mystery. Simon & Schuster, ISBN: 0671685600 (March, 1991), 204 p., $17.95.