A Radical Departure

Willa Jansson #2

by Lia Matera

"Has almost everytrhing a good mystery needs...a complex plot, social commentary, loads of atmosphere and a cast of unusual characters...The reader wants to hang out with Jansson and see more of her clear-eyed view of the world."
SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS
Working for a fat-cat San Francsico law firm, Willa Jansson thought she'd seen everything. Then her boss dies from hemlock poisoning. Things go from awful to outrageous when Willa's rad-lib mother, a former client of the deceased, is suspiciously named in his will to inherit his fantastic home in the hills. By now Willa is frantic to discover what's going on around her. Poking into the recent past and the apolitical present, she fishes out an old boyfriend she'd rather forget, a cop she hates on principle, and a famous law firm that can barely make ends meet. It's a pretty good catch for a first-year associate--considering that, in the meantime, someone is trying to kill her....

Genres: Mystery

149 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 1, 1988

About the author

Lia Matera is a graduate of Hastings College of the Law, where she was editor in chief of the Constitutional Law Quarterly. She was also a Teaching Fellow at Stanford Law School before becoming a full-time writer of legal mysteries. Prior Convictions and A Radical Departure were nominated for Edgar Allan Poe awards. The Good Fight and Where Lawyers Fear to Tread were nominated for Anthony and Macavity Awards. She has written nine novels, including the critically acclaimed Face Value. Matera lives in Santa Cruz, California.

Reviews

[Debra · Rating 3 out of 5]

When a San Francisco red diaper baby grows up and gets her law degree, stuff happens.

[Greta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun and far-fetched, a pleasure to read.

[LJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

RADICAL DEPARTURE (Ama Sleuth-Willa Janssen-California-cont)-G
Matera, Lia - 2nd in series

From Fantastic Fiction: Laura Di Palma finally has it made. Eleven years ago, she ran from a broken marriage and her small northern California town in search of fame and fortune. As the smartest and most controversial young defense attorney in her high-class law firm, she found it. But she's got an old grudge back home that she can't let die. So she's moving back to ruin her ex-husband's career by taking the job he wants as public defender - just long enough to make him squirm.

Once she evens up the score, Laura can go back to her big city life. Unfortunately, a few things get in the way, including two murders, a crazed killer on the loose, old wounds that haven't healed, and a forgotten feeling that Laura is almost afraid to name.

Cute, light, fun with lots of bodies.

[Kathy KS · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second volume of the Willa Jansson series and I'm still trying to figure out whether I like MC Willa. She irritates me often, although I do admit she has had a different type of upbringing with her 1960s+ activist parents, and some of her attitudes might make some sense during the late 1980s portrayed here. (I admit I was rearing four kids, etc. during the time, so our lives would have been different. And her parents are probably closer to my age).

But the story does pick up toward the final quarter, especially, and I begin to like Willa better again. The story involves murders surrounding Willa's liberal law firm and the Teamsters they represent; but the whole story reaches back to the 60s.

I kept waffling about whether to read the next volume all though my reading of this one. But, once again, I think Willa grew on me enough to continue.

[Jimmy Tarlau · Rating 2 out of 5]

A friend gave this to me because it was a mystery involving the Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) and she knows I am a union activist. I had never read any of the Matera mysteries but I gather she is an attorney and this is part of the Willa Jansson series. Willa is a young attorney in SF and the daughter of two 60s activists. I didn't mind the plot but found the book to be very jumpy and the character descriptions to be pretty lame. I doubt I'll read any more of her books.

[TJ · Rating 1 out of 5]

Really? No thanks.