Martha “Marty” Nickerson, an assistant district attorney on Cape Cod, speaks for victims of crime and their families and sees the system as a means for doing right. The case of Manuel Rodriguez is a prime example. Rodriguez is accused of brutally murdering a college student, a kind young man with a bright future. Marty has worked hard on this case. As the mother of a teenage son, she feels a deep obligation to the murdered boy’s grieving parents. Her case against Rodriguez is so solid that even public defender Harry Madigan, the champion of the Cape’s underdogs, expects a conviction. And, on Memorial Day, a year after the crime, the verdict comes in: guilty as charged. But soon, another body turns up in disturbingly similar circumstances, and Marty begins to question her victory. Did she and her colleagues target the wrong man?

Her supervisor refuses to reopen such a high-profile case. Why should they? The prosecutors played by the rules and won big. But Marty fears that the real killer will strike again. With her career on the line and lives at stake, Marty must rely on her own moral compass, legal savvy, and gut instinct as she matches wits with a twisted killer. The system itself is on trial as Marty tries to serve justice, not merely the law.

What does a lawyer do with a client who may be a liar–or worse? Marty Nickerson struggles with that very issue as she defends two men who are surely guilty–or are they?

Charles Kendrick, the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, has been named a “person of interest” in connection with the disappearance of his twenty-five-year-old spokesperson, Michelle Forrester. A multistate manhunt is already underway, and the district attorney is pressuring Kendrick for an interview, which his lawyer, Marty, doesn’t want to grant. Meanwhile, Marty and her law partner and lover, Harry Madigan, are defending ex-con Derrick Holliston, who stands accused of murdering a popular local priest on Christmas Eve. He admits to the killing but claims, improbably, that he acted in self-defense. Both clients are lying, but to whom?

Michelle Forrester’s body is found the day Derrick Holliston’s trial begins, which leaves Marty and Harry facing two mounting legal battles and two clients whose stories don’t make sense. Together they must confront the law in all its maddening complexity, battling for–or maybe against–their own cagey clients in order to see that justice is served.

The winner of the 2002 Mary Higgins Clark Award returns with Cape Cod attorney Marty Nickerson in another riveting legal thriller.

Is it ever wise for an attorney to defend her lover’s ex-lover?

At the request of her law partner and lover, Harry Madigan, attorney Marty Nickerson agrees to defend the beautiful Louisa Rawlings against the charge of first-degree murder in the bludgeoning death of her wealthy husband. Marty is both intrigued and disturbed by Louisa–she used to be Harry’s girlfriend but is her own polar opposite. The DA believes Louisa was motivated by greed, but Marty’s gut tells her the murderer was driven by something far more personal.

As Marty builds her client’s defense, she encounters Louisa’s handsome ex-husband, her surly stepdaughter, and the girl’s deadbeat boyfriend. With the evidence against Louisa mounting, Marty finds she can’t count on help from her male associates, who are dangerously bewitched by Louisa. Marty must rely on her own well-honed legal instincts and passion for justice to make sure a brutal killer doesn’t go free.

Illuminating the law even as she entertains, Rose Connors is a consummate storyteller whose legal expertise and literary skills shine through on every page.

Martha “Marty” Nickerson, a Cape Cod district attorney turned defense lawyer, must defend a man who shot his son’s presumed killer–on live television. The only possible defense is insanity, but the grieving father refuses to say he was crazy when he pulled the trigger.

Marty and her partner in love and law, Harry Madigan, are already stretched thin when, on the eve of Buck’s trial, a bleeding woman staggers into their office. Her attacker has just been found–dead– and he’s an officer of the court. Now Marty has two seemingly impossible–and seemingly unrelated–cases on her slate. However, a losing verdict may be the least of Marty’s worries, as her harrowing hunt for the truth leads to shocking revelations and possible links that bring devastating twists to Buck’s trial–and may put Marty in the sight line of a vengeful and all too capable killer.