Face Value

Laura DiPalma #4

by Lia Matera

Hailed by critics for her brains, determination, and guts, San Francisco Bay Area lawyer and champion of not-yet-lost causes, Laura Di Palma, is back - and gutsier than ever. Laura's history of high-profile pro bono cases not only put her in the headlines but also recently cost her the position she had at a conservative law firm. Now, in Face Value, she is going it alone in private practice. Free from bureaucratic constraints at last, Laura takes on the most controversial - and dangerous - case of her career. When a distraught and disillusioned former devotee of northern California guru Brother Mike levels startling charges against him, a reluctant Laura eventually agrees to take the case. According to her new client, the spiritual leader was actually leading his unsuspecting flock into a terrible deceit, going so far as to tamper with video-tapes of his followers, which he then distributed as commercial pornography. Before Laura can even properly set up shop, her investigation sweeps her from the busy city streets of San Francisco to places beyond her wildest imaginings, where she meets a cast of mysterious people - all oddly influenced by Brother Mike. She begins at a striptease bar where, searching for clues, she instead finds herself face to face with seven murder victims. Her next stop is the guru's very own, very remote, but not-so private island, where she witnesses scenes almost as shocking as the mass murder itself. Back home she is "welcomed" by a series of deadly threats from someone eager to see her drop the investigation. But Laura has come too far to turn back now. With the help of private detective Sandy Arklett, her former colleague and close personal friend, Laura stays on course until she finds herself directly in the killer's line of fire and learns the final truth of this case: Nothing and no one can be taken at face value. Edgar Allan Poe Award nominee Lia Matera has pulled out all the stops in Face Value, her most dramatic and masterfully

Genres: Mystery

272 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

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

[Avid Series Reader · Rating 1 out of 5]

Face Value by Lia Matera is book 4 of the Laura di Palma mystery series set in late 20th-century San Francisco. Earlier in the series, Laura lost her prestigious position in an upscale law firm, and her lifestyle changed dramatically. Now she's starting out on her own in a very modest private practice. Laura's keen insight: "It's easy to think the things you don't have are more 'real' than the things you do. Some are, most aren't."

Her first client is a woman who had regularly participated in group sex led by a charismatic guru, but now wants to sue him for publishing videos of their encounters. Laura is intrigued by the key concepts of the case, the use of technology to alter images vs. personal privacy. She travels to the guru's island estate, and reluctantly watches a group session.

Back in San Francisco, awakened in the middle of the night by a friend's distress call, Laura is unwittingly involved in a violent murder scene at a strip club.

To solve the mystery and keep herself safe, Laura needs to dig deep into details of the victims' lives as well as those of the guru's followers. She enlists Sandy's help (her long-term very dear friend and superb investigator).

The story is all about sex, from the group sex dynamics to the rights of sex workers at strip clubs and elsewhere (conspicuously absent is the portrayal of sex as an intimate romantic experience). The mildly suspenseful conclusion includes a sickening betrayal of trust in the basic decency we expect of a fellow human being.

[Jeff Dickison · Rating 2 out of 5]

A God awful book that is almost schizophrenic in its' presentation of a group of sex workers and the guru they follow. The author often defends the sex workers and then alternately condemns them. The story is very poorly developed and is often quite sleazy. Many people will probably be offended by the attitudes towards sex portrayed in this book. The lead lawyer in the story keeps an open mind to the extent that her brain appears to fall out of her head. Really a bad book. Not recommended.

[Sarah Nesset · Rating 2 out of 5]

Similar to Sue Grafton or Julie Smith.