Murder Among Us

Product Details

• Requirement: NEW
• Notes: Characterize New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• ISBN13: 9781575663982
• <a title='Condition Guide' href='/content/Condition_and_S hipping_Guide.htm' target='_blank'>Click here to vision our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices</a>

Description

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Customer Reviews

Excellent Interweaving of Plot....
"Murder Among Us" is Jonnie Jacobs' third book in the Kate Austen mystery series. In many ways, I found it to be "darker" than her previous two, but far more intriguing. The plot is suspenseful and takes the reader down many roads as well as through a few blind alleys!

In this riveting mystery, Kate is coping with a visit from her soon to be "ex-mother-in-law." While Andy is no longer living in the same household, he and Kate are still on friendly terms, largely for the sake of their daughter, Anna. Kate has no desire to stay married to her charasmatic, but flighty husband. Her affections are still for the dependable Dectective Michael Stone,who has been living with her - at least prior to her mother-in-law's visit!

Libby continues to live with Kate and continues to be beligerent and sullen in typical fashion of her teenage status. Anna continues to be 5 going on 21.

In addition to Kate's consulting job, she is also teaching art at the local high school. Unfortunately, her work is less satisfying when a student becomes the latest victim of a serial killer. Kate feels compelled to bring relevant information to the police - not only for justice of a dear student, but because she fears that Libby is also being targeted.

"Murder Among Us" shows the extent that Jacobs is excelling at her craft. I especially was appreciative that she more fully explained how Kate was making ends meet as well as her character's realism in dealing with her children. There were times that I found it really difficult to admire the "parenting skills" of the title character because I am more of a disciplinarian - but I have to say that Kate's character and laid-back attitude is FAR more realistic of our society! In the real world, teenagers and children talk back to their parents!

This is a very good mystery series, which keeps improving. I look forward to reading the next sequel, "Murder Among Strangers."

2004-04-14 | WIAPilot (Tucson) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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A good mix of humor, suspense, and great characters
This was a well plotted, suspenseful mystery. Again, the characters are well written and very likable. The relationships between Kate and her girls continues to grow, and the humor is still great. I was sure at the beginning of the story that I knew who was the murderer. Then came many twists and turns that had me guessing until the very end. Kate Austen is a wonderful heroine. It is enjoyable to watch her character grow with each book. Murder Amoung Us was intricate and a wonderful read! This is one of my favorite series.

2000-07-31 (Plano, TX USA) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 5

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an entertainig novel with substance
Kate Austen is an amateur sleuth, school teacher and mother, so I was expecting a light, maybe even frothy read. To my great delight, it wasn't. It offered more substance instead. The story moves along quickly and there are flashes of humor, but it's subtle humor. The characters seemed very real to me, and the storyline very believable. Kate's relationship with her daughters, her signifiant other and her mother-in-law were all developed and felt right. I intend to search out the author's other books.

1999-04-21 | Helpful Votes: 4 | Rating: 5

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Good character development
I really enjoyed this book. It was the first I read by Jonnie Jacobs although the last one written (so far!) by her. I went back a read her earlier 2 books in this series and enjoyed them as well. Reminds me of the Christine Bennett series by Lee Harris (amatuer slueth with policemen mates).

1999-03-17 | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 4

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Worth reading
I didn't think this was a great book, but I did think it was a good one. The characters are believable for the most part, and Kate is a down-to-earth person whom it was nice to spend some time with. I liked it well enough to order a book from her other series.

1999-02-22 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 3

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Shadow Of Doubt (Kali O'Brien Mysteries)

Product Details

• <a title='Condition Guide' href='/content/Condition_and_S hipping_Guide.htm' target='_blank'>Click here to contemplation our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices</a>
• Fit out: NEW
• Notes: Stigmatize New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• ISBN13: 9781575667973

Description

San Francisco attorney Kali O'Brien returns to her Sierra hometown because of her father's death and finds herself coping with a pregnant and grief-stricken dog, the murder of an old high-school friend, and a sexy local journalist.

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Customer Reviews

Shadow of Doubt
I discovered Jonnie Jacobs about 2 years ago and I wait with great anticipation for all new products from this author. I am an avid reader and she kept me spellbound with the first selection I purchased with this author and continues to keep me there.

2009-01-23 (Honolulu, HI) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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No doubt = very good!
This was a first read for me. Heroine was likeable. Mystery was interesting. Solution was not easy.
Kali goes home to clear up her father's estate without help from her siblings. Her 'boyfriend'was a jerk and you welcomed a new interest for her. Loretta was adorable. An old and dear friend inadvertently nets her into involvement with a murder and its solution.
This book was pleasant, a quick read. I might try another.

2002-11-25 | cajasu@aol.com (Massachusetts) | Helpful Votes: 3 | Rating: 4

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A great mystery!
What a great mystery! I like this book very much! Until the end, I couldn't find who the murderer was. It's the second book from Jonnie Jacobs I read, both are great. I will read all the others. (Please excuse my english, I'm French!)

2000-06-08 | pje92 (Paris, France) | Helpful Votes: 9 | Rating: 5

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The Only Suspect

Description

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Witness For The Defense

Description

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Customer Reviews

A Decent Mystery
Jonnie Jacobs' writing has gotten significantly more sophisticated since her first Kate Austen mystery more than a decade ago. With multiple plot turns, layered characters, and vivid descriptions, Witness for the Defense definitely holds its own. There are some issues with plotting (would a wealthy couple with money to burn really opt for a defense lawyer no one has ever heard of, and who handles adoptions as well as criminal defense? Is it a little too unlikely that several plot lines would be tied together so neatly?), but overall, the book kept me guessing on several fronts until the end. The final revelations were more than a little bit out of left field, but I'm willing to overlook them in favor of Jacobs' clear, compelling writing.

2007-01-18 (San Francisco Bay Area, CA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 3

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My first Jonnie Jacobs, but not my last!
This book held my interest & was quite engaging. Not exactly a page-turner that I could not put down, but one I certainly had no trouble coming back to. Kali O'Brien is a likeable heroine and I look forward to reading more in the series. Recommended reading in the legal mystery/suspense genre.

2003-07-19 | bookchick50 (Kentucky, USA) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 4

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To Adopt or Not to Adopt
A plot with issues straight from current events...adoption, rights of birth parents, what's best for the child, emotional issues of natural and adoptive parents. Throw in a murder and a trail without a clear cut idea of "who done it" and it's a good read.

A high profile couple has identified a young pregnant girl who is willing to allow them to adopt her baby. Shortly after the birth of the baby, Bram Weaver, a controversial talk show host, arrives on the scene claiming to be the father and insisting that he wants the baby himself. Kali O'Brien is the attorney of record for the couple because her former lover with excess emotional baggage is the brother of the adoptive mother. The talk show host is brutally murdered and Kali is left to defend the adoptive mother all the while trying to find out who actually did kill Bram Weaver.

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2002-08-09 | jackeroophillip (Bowling Green, Kentucky USA) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 4

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Entertaining courtroom drama
I thoroughly enjoyed my first outing with Jonnie Jacobs' legal heroine Kali O'Brien. Returning to San Francisco after her married lover returned to his wife, Kali is just putting her life back together when another former boyfriend, Steven Cross, refers his sister Terri Harper to Kali to handle a pending adoption. Harper lost a child earlier when a parent changed her mind before the adoption was final so she sought legal advice. Things go haywire when a controversial radio talk show host, Bram Weaver, claims the child is his and announces his intention to gain custody. When Weaver is brutually murdered, Terri is picked up as the most likely subject.

Throughout the development and conduct of Terri's defense, Kali seeks to find other explanations of the circumstantial evidence against her client but desperately tries to find out alternative suspects. There are several interesting side plots, including resumption of a love interest between Kali and Steven Cross and the uncovering of the hit and run killer of Cross's wife and daughter.

I thought I discovered the real murderer through several obsure clues and was pretty sure I was right until the very end. The ending was a bit disappointing as the conclusion of several plot lines unraveled all at once in an unbelievable way.

Still the story was intriguing, the characters--including Kali's senior citizen roommates--likable and interesting and I had a great weekend read.

2002-05-19 | mary1anne2 (Silver Spring, MD USA) | Helpful Votes: 5 | Rating: 4

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a real page-turner
This is a great book that kept me reading late into the night. Just when I thought the story had settled in to a certain direction, it took a twist that raised new questions and sent it off on a different path. The courtroom scenes were interesting and believable, the characters well-developed, and the writing smooth. I've enjoyed all this author's books, but Witness for the Defense is one of her best. A wealthy and well-known San Francisco couple, a hate-mongering radio host, a pregnant teenage girl with secrets of her own, a missing murder witness, and a sleuth whose involvement in the case isn't as straightforward as it first appears all add up to a winning combination.

2001-06-29 (Omaha) | Helpful Votes: 6 | Rating: 5

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The Only Suspect

Product Details

• Notes: Stigmatize New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• ISBN13: 9780786016693
• Environment: NEW

Description

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Customer Reviews

Well worth a read
This is my first Jonnie Jacobs novel & it won't be my last. It was a very enjoyable read with lots of twists & turns right up until the end. I did have a feeling who one of the guilty parties might be but I couldn't figure out how it would fit in to the plot. I wasn't disappointed. My next book is "The next Victim" & I am looking forward to another enjoyable read.

2010-03-16 (Aliso Viejo, CA United States) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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You can't go wrong with a book by Jonnie Jacobs
You can't go wrong with a book by Jonnie Jacobs. Previous reviewers have already given a summary, so I won't repeat. Who else could the cops suspect when Sam's second wife comes up missing? He was already found not guilty when a hung jury set him free in the murder of his first wife. Okay, I'm trying not to repeat. This book has deceit, betrayal, stolen identity (just who IS or WAS his second wife?), and maybe even murder??? Lots of twists and turns and the surprise ending will knock your socks off. I could not put this books down for more than 2 minutes. A great read.

2009-04-21 | bookmark (Florida) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Filled with twists and turns
This was my first novel by Jonnie Jacobs but I look forward to reading more by this author. The beginning chapters of this book started off on a solid foot. It had mystery and suspense right off the bat. By the second quarter, I was getting bored because it seemed that the police were never going to explore any other possible suspects and therefore the mystery angle would not develop. I almost put the book down, but decided to keep reading. By the half-way point, the author finally gets into more clues, more twists and turns and the suspense builds. The ending is somewhat unbelievable and hard to follow from time to time, but it is a FICTION novel, so readers should not expect a true to life scenario. Mostly, the author keeps the story line moving along and keeps the reader interested up to the very end with all the plot twists.

Sam Russell wakes up one morning in the middle of nowhere with no memory of how he got there or the past 24 hours. He soon discovers his wife is missing but he can not remember when he last saw her or what might have happened. The scene is all too familiar. His first wife disappeared one day too. Her body was found a few days later and Sam was accused of murdering her. Was history repeating itself and was Sam responsible for yet another woman's death? With no memory, and the police convinced he is guilty, Sam will have to unravel the mystery himself, or face the possibility that he is THE ONLY SUSPECT.


Is it worth buying?

For the price of the paperback, why not? It is not the best book I have read and readers who like a story line that is close to reality, may not enjoy this one. There are parts in it that seem extremely far fetched, but the pace only continues to build up to the end. So, I know my answer is a bit vague, but I'm still a little up in the air about this one. I liked it okay, but it probably isn't one I would keep in my library.

2008-12-27 (Arizona) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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The Only Suspect: Do you really know who you are married to?
Story:
Dr. Sam Russel is trying to move on with his life after his first wife was found brutally beaten and stabbed behind his house 7 years earlier. Of course with him being the only suspect the case turned into a bitter court battle that almost cost him his freedom and young his daughter. Sam is a free man only because one juror could not make up his mind which resulted in a hung jury. 7 years later Same has tried to move on with his life, he has a thriving medical practice, he has a new wife and it looks like smooth sailing ahead. That is until the day that Sam wakes up with his car in a ditch, blood under his finger nails and brusies on his face. Having no recollection of the past 24 hours, Sam assumes that he fell off the wagon, proably afer a fight with his new wife and drove around drunk until he ended up in the ditch. He figures that he will buy some flowers, apologize to his wife for driving off mad and all will be well again. Unfortunatley his wife is nowhere to be found and the local cops think that all signs are pointing to Sam being up to his old tricks again. With the walls closing in Sam will need the help of his AA sponsor (a retired lawyer) and the one cop that wants to give Sam a chance (and maybe a little more)to escape being the only suspect in a slam dunk murder case.
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This is a great murder mystery book. The characters are interesting and I did want to keep reading to find out more about them as the book continued. The author does a great job showing how Sam's panic makes him make bad decesions that drag him deeper and deeper into the killers game and makes him look more and more guilty to the police. The central mystery is a bit confusing and convulted (especially toward the end of the book, there where some scences that made me go *really?*)but in a reverse of most of these types of books the getting to the ending made up for it. I would recommend this books to anyone who likes fast paced murder mystery books and those that like complicated endings that (in my case) can make your head hurt.

2008-07-21 | so many books so little time (Delaware, USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Not Bad
This book isn't bad. It's not great but it's not bad. I enjoyed how the author developed the characters. I feel like Ms. Jacobs didn't fully explain the back story but that's ok you get enough of it to figure out what's going on. I felt the ending was a little too out of the blue. It was weird. I think a lot of people will think they couldn't figure it out because it comes out of the blue. I enjoyed the female lead detective and her back story. You feel really connected to her and want her to come through in the end. I just felt it was wrapped up too fast without much explanation. I enjoyed it but not as much as I could have.

2007-06-03 (WV United States) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Motion To Dismiss

Description

Scrupulous San Francisco defense attorney Kali O'Brien knows how to play the odds in a system where reality can be shaded. Despite apassion for justice that doesn't allow for compromise, her newest case is casting doubt on the one principle she cherished most: the absolute dead certainty that her client is telling the truth. Grady Barrett, a wealthy computer magnate married to Kali's best friend, has been arraigned in the rape of Deirdre Nicholas. Even if the sex was consensual, that doesn't acquit him, in Kali's eyes, of an indiscretion that has shattered his marriage, and further eroded his dubious reputation as a man of principle. Especially in the shadow of Deirdre's vivid, emotional, and thoroughly convincing deposition--damning testimony that Barrett maintains is a clever and manipulative web of lies spun to trap him. Despite his pleas of innocence, Kali's instincts tell her that Barrett may be as guilty as sin. Then Deirdre plunges to her death from a second-story balcony. A tragic accident? Or cold-blooded murder? Now, bound to a client she is afraid to trust, Kali finds herself straddling the razor-sharp line between crime and punishment. It isn't long before she finds her own life in jeopardy as a veil of lies is lifted, and the pasts of everyone from victim to victimizer, from illicit lover to faithless friend, unfold with their own provocative surprises.

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There's nothing hard-edged or particularly profound about Jonnie Jacobs's series of mysteries starring California lawyer Kali O'Brien, but--like good TV movies--the plots are convincing, the characters colorful, and the writing smooth and competent. The author's latest finds O'Brien handling a trial in her hometown in the Sierra foothills for a lawyer friend, Nina Barrett, who is five months pregnant and just diagnosed as having Hodgkin's disease.

When Nina's husband, Grady--a handsome and successful businessman with a history of sexual conquests--is accused of rape by a blowsy woman he met at a party, Kali very reluctantly agrees to defend him. She is virtually certain that the swaggering Barrett is guilty, and resents his betrayal of her sick friend. But as the investigation and trial proceed, Kali gradually begins to believe his claims of innocence--especially when two people die in suspicious circumstances. Jacobs succeeds in catching and holding readers' interest by setting up her characters as generic and then proceeding to fill in the relevant details that make them unique. Other Kali O'Brien books in paperback are Evidence of Guilt and Shadow of Doubt. --Dick Adler

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Customer Reviews

Average.
Easy reading. Mostly dialog. Good plot. Starts snappy but gets very draggy until the trial.

2003-11-30 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 2

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Good book
I don't normally like Jacobs books as I feel she tends to write in the "mystery" genre which I don't always care for.

I am glad I picked this one up though. It is written more in the form of a legal thriller and Jacobs brings us directly in the legal forum for a great close up look. This book has it all, murder, courtrooms and wonderfully fast pacing. Great summer read!

2001-05-23 | www.bookshipper.blogspot.com (Montreal, Quebec) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 3

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fascinating read
An interesting, fast-paced legal thriller with realistic characters. Kali defends the husband of a friend charged first with date rape (he's been cheating on her friend) and then with murder. At the same time, she's involved with an old boyfriend, who she begins to distrust. I'm going to go back and read the earlier novels in this series. Highly recommended.

2001-01-11 | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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gripping story with great characters
This is a new author for me, but am I ever glad I made the discovery. Motion to Dismiss is a well written page-turner with depth and realistic characters. Kali O'Brien is an attorney who reluctantly represents the husband of a friend when he is accused of date rape. Rape grows to murder and she again agrees to represent him for the sake of her friend. There are several subplots - an ex-lover law partner who seems impicated in the crime, a second death - and they all tie together at the end. Pick up the book and settle in for an afternoon (or evening) of good reading. Just don't plan on getting anything else accomplished.

2000-06-07 | Helpful Votes: 3 | Rating: 5

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Great Read
This was the best so far of the Jonnie Jacobs books that I have read. It grabs you from the very beginning and won't let go. I highly recommend this for everyone.

2000-06-01 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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