Dreams of the Dead

By: Perri O'Shaughnessy

Narrated by: January LaVoy

Perri O’Shaughnessy “will keep you turning pages into the night,” applauds USA Today, in praise of the celebrated novels of suspense starring the audacious yet all-too-human defense attorney Nina Reilly. Now, in a spellbinding new thriller, O’Shaughnessy plunges Nina back into the center of a murderous family game, and reawakens a very real nightmare she had every reason to believe was dead...and buried.

A mix of slick and seamy, South Lake Tahoe, California, is the perfect setting for adventurers, criminals—and lawyers. In addition to coping with her demanding, sometimes creepy, clients, Nina Reilly is dealing with prickly personal issues involving her sixteen-year-old son Bob, his estranged father, and her investigator, confidante, and sometimes lover Paul van Wagoner. Then, in walks disaster. The millionaire owner of a Tahoe ski resort, Philip Strong is the father of Jim Strong, a sociopath who devastated many innocent lives, including Nina’s. Two years earlier, she had to defend Jim against charges of murder. He shattered her life, then vanished. Paul van Wagoner made sure of it.

Now in negotiations to sell his ski resort, Philip has received a letter purportedly from his fugitive son in extradition-free Brazil, demanding his share of the profits. Philip is convinced it’s authentic. Nina’s certain it’s a con, but to prove that means exposing the secrets of someone very close to her. Then two local women are brutally murdered. Nina begins to question their links to her new client, and the truth about Jim Strong’s sudden disappearance. As Nina’s worst fears flood back, with time running out, she’s about to discover that the dreams of the dead can still destroy the living.

With its breakneck pace, pulsing human drama, and serpentine twists, Dreams of the Dead establishes once again why Perri O’Shaughnessy has been hailed as “a master of the legal thriller” (Vincent Bugliosi).

©2011 Perri O'Shaughnessy (P)2011 Simon & Schuster

once I got past the performance of the reader ...

I enjoyed the story once I was able to it passed the performance of the reader. It's an exciting story with great twists!

rousing

It has been sometime since I have read an O’Shaughnessy book. I enjoyed the Nina Reilly series. This apparently is the last book in the series and was released in 2011.

In this book Nina and Bob age 15, are living in Lake Tahoe. Jim Strong is back. He is a killer who killed his wife Heidi, his younger brother Alex and Nina’s husband Collier. Jim is also accused of embezzling over a million dollars from the Resort. This was all covered in the book “Acts of Malice.” Nina is contacted my Philip Strong (Jim’s father) to help in a court case in the sale of the Ski Resort. The company attorney does not appear in court cases and suggested Nina. Jim apparently has hired a local attorney to act for him to obtain his share of the sale of the Resort. He is hiding from the police in Brazil. But Nina has questions—Jim Strong is supposed to be dead –is he? If he is dead someone is committing fraud in attempting to claim his share of the sale. Two women are murdered and Nina wonders if the cases are all connected.

The author can weave an exciting story that twists and turns as it interweaves various plots. O’Shaughnessy can keep me guessing all the way to the end of the story. The author is the master of legal thrillers.

I do hope the author will continue with the Nina Reilly series. January LaVoy does a good job narrating the story.

Story good; narrator horrible

Would you consider the audio edition of Dreams of the Dead to be better than the print version?

Didn't read the print version.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Nina.

How could the performance have been better?

Hire the narrator from Case of Lies. It is very difficult to tell one character from another. They all sound alike. Very confusing. Case of Lies narrator, Laural Merlington, did an excellent job of the different voices. You could visualize Sandy as a Native American in Case of Lies, but in this book, she sounds like all the others in the book. She lost all her personality in this book. Very hard to listen to because you can't tell when the characters change. Very disappointed in the performance.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

No comment.

Any additional comments?

I am only in the 5th chapter but will try to listen to it all. I love the authors.

Narration Horrendous with a capital H!

All I can say is....where in the heck is Laural Merlington???? The person that narrated this book is not good...no, she is awful. The Nina Reilly saga was completely lost because of the different voice and lackluster (and that is being nice) performance. I just hope to get it through it at this point....