Designer Crimes.Lia Matera Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster U.S. publishing company. It was founded in 1924 by Richard L. Simon (1899–1960) and M. Lincoln Schuster (1897–1970), whose initial project, the original crossword-puzzle book, was a best-seller. , Rockefeller Center Rockefeller Center, complex of buildings in central Manhattan, New York City, between 48th and 51st streets and Fifth Ave. and the Ave. of the Americas (Sixth Ave.). The project was sponsored by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. , 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , NY 10020. 240 pp., $21. Reviewed by Laura Ariane Miller Designer Crirnes needs a better tailor. The author had a great idea several in fact-but seems to have rushed to put the ensemble together. Lia Matera's ninth novel, fifth in her series of Laura Di Palma Palma or Palma de Mallorca (päl`mä thā mälyôr`kä), city (1990 pop. 325,120), capital of Majorca island and of Baleares prov., Spain, on the Bay of Palma. mysteries, never quite measures up. Designer Crimes features separate strands, but no satisfying weave. In the first of the book's two plots, Di Palma, part-time criminal lawyer, part-time civil litigator lit·i·gate v. lit·i·gat·ed, lit·i·gat·ing, lit·i·gates v.tr. To contest in legal proceedings. v.intr. To engage in legal proceedings. , and part-time any other kind of lawyer, takes on the task of defending an old high school classmate who has been accused of his girlfriend's murder. A bucket of the murder victim's blood has been discovered, but no body has been found. The second plot emerges in the midst Adv. 1. in the midst - the middle or central part or point; "in the midst of the forest"; "could he walk out in the midst of his piece?" midmost of the first. Our heroine is primed to sue a partner at the large San Francisco law firm where she previously worked. She finds herself in the office of a labor lawyer she is about to retain. Suddenly, shots ring out, the labor lawyer is dead, and the words "designer crimes," which are whispered by the lawyer as she lies dying on the floor, provide the only available clue. The latter plot indudes intricate machinations involving computer codes and electronic surveillance and holds considerable promise for the reader. This section of the book is fast-moving and engaging. The author, however, appears to have grown bored with the second plot, and she spends most of the novel's remainder resolving the bucket-of-blood murder. Once that mystery is explained, Matera leaves herself only a few pages to disentangle the "designer crimes." She does so in a thoroughly unsatisfying fashion. In short, the author seems to have lost interest just as the reader is poised for resolution. This easy read could have been a great yarn; instead it fails to go the whole nine yards. Laura Ariane Miller is a partner in the Washington, D.G, of fice of Nixon, Hargrave, Devans & Doyle, where she practices whste-coUar criminal defense law and complex civil litigation An action brought in court to enforce a particular right. The act or process of bringing a lawsuit in and of itself; a judicial contest; any dispute. When a person begins a civil lawsuit, the person enters into a process called litigation. . |
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