Trial by Fire »

Brilliant, hard-driving Stella Cataloni is the star of the Dallas District Attorney's office, with an amazing 100 percent conviction rate. But the conviction she most desperately wants agonizingly eludes her. The fire that years ago killed her parents and scarred her life remains unsolved. When her ex-boyfriend Tom Randall, who Stella is convinced set the fire, suddenly reappears in Houston, Stella vows revenge. But when Randall is brutally murdered, his death puts the arson case in a new light and gives Houston D.A. Holly Oppenheimer the ruthless opportunity to put Stella behind bars for both crimes. Once Stella's friend, Holly becomes a formidable adversary, willing to use her knowledge of Stella's personal secrets to her own advantage. As headlines scream BATTLE OF THE WOMEN D.A.'S and the media circus begins, Stella's key hope of proving her innocence is to do what the police cannot or will not do: find the killer who has mocked the law not once but twice. Stella finds herself in a maze of intrigue and corruption stretching back fifteen years - and leading to ugly revelations behind flawless masks of innocence. Plagued by suspicions that seem too horrible to be true yet refuse to be denied, she realizes she is being shadowed by a murderer as she seeks the truth in her own defense. Even as she uses every tool - from forensic animation to virtual reality - to turn the tide of the courtroom battle, Stella must apply every ounce of her nerve and brains to escape the unseen enemy who will stop at nothing to see her dead.

Publishers Weekly

An unpopular girl new to the California coast dares to ride the waves with the best of the neighborhood bayboys in this surprisingly assured debut from veteran surfer Nicholson. Teenaged narrator Medina Mason escapes the grim spectacle of her parents' breakup to watch her beautiful twin brother, Jim, surf the hardest waves Palos Verdes has to offer. But when Jim (a latter day Billy Budd in a bathing suit) takes their mother's side against their philandering father, he proves less able to navigate the pressures of his new role as man of the house. Nicholson sketches Medina's parents with a convincingly adolescent eye for family dynamicsthe sulky mother eats potato chips and canned cheese; the chipper heart-surgeon dad has a hungry eye for California tennis ladiesyet these caricatures take on flesh as Nicholson builds her oddly dramatic story scene by postcard-length scene. The family story is, in a sense, secondary. What really drives this coming-of-age tale is Medina's love for her troubled brother and for the ocean that challenges and briefly protects them; the book's most moving passages describe the twins' love for each other and for the beach they share. Readers who hope for no more than a few sunny capers to stave off autumnal doldrums are in for an unexpectedly affectionate, moving treat. (Oct.)