Nina Reilly takes on the most dangerous and difficult case of her career in New York Times bestselling author
Perri O’Shaughnessy’s latest thriller. An ingenious blend of forensic science, history, and gripping suspense,
Unlucky in Law pits the tough but compassionate attorney against the most unbeatable adversary of all: the
law.
Nina has just received a last-minute call from her old boss and mentor in Monterey County, California, where
she is enjoying the breathtaking scenery and spending time with her boyfriend, P.I. Paul van Wagoner. Klaus
Pohlmann is in desperate straits and begs Nina to take over a seemingly unwinnable case: A luckless two-time
felon named Stefan Wyatt has robbed a grave and made off with the long-buried bones of a Russian émigré.
When he is caught and arrested, further devastating evidence found in the grave suggests that Stefan is guilty
of a far more deadly crime.
A young woman, a classmate of Stefan’s, has been killed, and he is accused of her murder. Now, as a result
of California’s Third Strike law, Wyatt is looking at twenty-five years to life whether he’s convicted of grand theft
or murder. Either way, he’s in big trouble.
With her client’s blood DNA found in the dead woman’s apartment, Nina faces an uphill battle. Suspecting that
her hapless client has been set up, Nina brings in a brilliant forensic pathologist who comes up with a startling
theory about the case that could rewrite a crucial page of European history. As the evidence mounts against
Nina’s client, Paul launches his own investigation into the shadowy past of the two-decades-old skeleton. But
long-held secrets nearly get him killed and reveal a more insidious evil at work—and an extraordinary story
dating back to tsarist Russia and the Romanov court. As Wyatt edges closer to the unluckiest verdict of his
young life, Nina makes an astounding discovery that just might save her client—or expose a killer who could
bury them all.