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A Hard Bargain (The Laura Di Palma Mysteries) Kindle Edition

by Lia Matera (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
3.4 3.4 out of 5 stars 4 ratings
See all formats and editions

A burned-out attorney investigates a strange small-town suicide in this mystery from the author of The Good Fight.

Laura Di Palma’s days as a high-profile San Francisco lawyer are behind her. Four hundred miles north of the city in her peaceful hometown, she now spends her days hiking in the woods and helping her lover cope with his war injuries. But their retreat is soon interrupted by a private detective—Laura’s former flame—who’s looking for help with his disturbing new case . . .

Karen McGuin was a troubled woman. Her husband, Ted, claims that, after her first suicide attempt, he’d leave a loaded gun in front of her every day to force her to choose life. But one day she finally chose the gun. Now Karen’s family wants Ted charged with murder.

As Laura examines Karen’s past, she’s forced to question the status of her own life. But self-reflection quickly takes a backseat after Ted almost dies in an explosion. Suspicious of foul play, Laura knows she must uncover the truth before a killer strikes again . . . 

“Matera skillfully weaves Laura’s dissatisfaction with her own circumstances into the investigation of Karen’s death, taking a thought-provoking look at the dangers in relationships that grow too close.” —Publishers Weekly

 “[A] welcome respite from the mystery-by-formula crowd.” —Kirkus Reviews

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Previous page
  1. Book 3 of 5
    The Laura Di Palma Mysteries
  2. Print length
    227 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  5. Publisher
    MysteriousPress.com/Open Road
  6. Publication date
    June 15, 2021
  7. File size
    3269 KB
  8. Page Flip
    Enabled
  9. Word Wise
    Enabled
  10. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  11. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Matera's skillfully woven tale intertwines attorney Laura DiPalma's dissatisfactions and the problems of a woman whose death she investigates.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

A grim third novel from the skillful Matera, who, here, examines noncommunication--with oneself and with everyone else--and its disastrous outcome. Bay Area lawyer Laura DiPalma, on an extended retreat with her cousin/lover Hal, is inveigled into working on a case with a former lover/partner, low-ideals man Sandy Arkelett. They're trying to find out what went wrong with the marriage of chronic depressive Karen Clausen McGuin, who left a tape for her husband, Ted, about committing suicide with the gun he purposefully handed her. Did he want to kill her? Or could she just not live any longer with the deformities caused from previously stabbing at her face and eye with an ice pick? Ted's in-laws hate him because he's black; Karen's despairing nephew hates him because he thinks he killed her; and Ted's eccentric family hates the Clausens for their long-time destruction of Karen and her nephew. Furthermore, Hal and Sandy loathe each other; Laura comes to truly dislike Sandy and to feel alienated from Hal; and the only one making any contact at all is the viper who poisoned Ted's scuba gear, blew up his boat, and torched his house. The resolution, when it comes, hardly frees anyone. From one of the more interesting new voices in detective fiction: a downbeat but welcome respite from the mystery-by-formula crowd. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B091BWNQZW
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ MysteriousPress.com/Open Road (June 15, 2021)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 15, 2021
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 3269 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 227 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.4 3.4 out of 5 stars 4 ratings

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Lia Matera

Lia Matera

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Customer reviews

3.4 out of 5 stars
3.4 out of 5
4 global ratings

Top review from the United States

R. Trosper
1.0 out of 5 stars Unbelievable characters doing ridiculous things
Reviewed in the United States on August 16, 2021
Run, don't walk, away from this book. It doesn't require a suspension of disbelief, it requires throwing out the CONCEPT of believability. If your preference is for cardboard cutouts whose every action is unconnected to every other action wrapped up in what the author evidently thinks Northern California is like, but most definitely isn't, then by all means go ahead. One family, Leave it to Beaver if Ward and June had had their brains knocked loose and Wally and the Beav were glue sniffers, another with two sisters and a house full of textile art and a prodigal husband on sabbatical from his guru spouting the most ridiculous aphorisms ever put to paper. Throw in a disillusioned lawyer, a non-verbal PTSD 'woodsman" and war veteran, a gas lighting EMT/scuba diver and, the only SANE person in the book, a PI for the lawyer's former firm and mix it up with a suicidal "cutter" (though NO CUTTER EVER SLASHES HERSELF WITH A KITCHEN KNIFE) and a plot full of elements mixed up in a blender, and there you have it. Had there not been only 20% of this mess left I would never have bothered finishing it. Really - don't bother. Badly written, ridiculously plotted, thank god I checked it out from the library and didn't buy it. Don't waste your money. Goodness knows if the other books in this series are any better, but I'm not about to find out.
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