Just a quick note to let you know about this!
Summer 2022 is the time to pick up the first 5 Dana Hargrove novels in ebook.
Less than a buck each, marked down from $4.99.
Tell your friends!
Here are the links for my author pages at these booksellers:
Here’s the sale schedule!!»»»»»»
“Informed, thrilling action in and out of the courtroom, and few can portray it better than V.S. Kemanis. Highly recommended.” — The San Francisco Review of Books
Today, Seven Shadows goes live.
Little did I suspect that Dana Hargrove would be hanging around this long. I wrote the first draft of Thursday’s List in the mid-nineties, during a period of stay-at-home momming after years of working a big investigation at the NY State Organized Crime Task Force. Dana was born but didn’t see a bookshelf until 2013. In the years since, her world keeps growing—a web of fascinating cases, intriguing colleagues, complex adversaries, and family dramas.
Here are Dana’s stories and the years in which they take place: Thursday’s List (1988), Homicide Chart (1994), Forsaken Oath (2001), Deep Zero (2009), and Seven Shadows (2015). The sixth novel, planned for 2022, will bring Dana into the present. As for the time gaps between the stories, one reviewer calls this “a bold strategy to show how much a lawyer can change over the course of her career” (Kirkus Reviews). I call it, simply, interesting and fun.
In a lifetime, the delicate balance between career and family is in perpetual flux, just as societal views and hot button issues in criminal justice are ever evolving. In Seven Shadows, Dana returns as a trial judge, in midlife, dealing with the empty nest at home as she weighs her views on incarceration, now that she wields the power of the gavel. She’s conflicted over a tough sentencing decision in a high-stakes murder case when an unpleasant past comes calling. Who is lurking in the shadows?
Ask your favorite independent bookstore and lending library to order the Dana Hargrove books and Your Pick: Selected Stories (2019 Eric Hoffer Award, Best Story Collection) from Ingram ipage. If you happen to be a Kindle Unlimited subscriber, the first four Dana Hargrove novels are now free on Amazon (Dana Double 1; Dana Double 2). Please help spread the word!
A special note to fellow authors, reviewers, and bloggers:
If you’d like a free review copy in e-book or paper, please email a request through my contact page. I’d love to get your feedback. You may find the ending of Seven Shadows, as one reviewer put it, “Surprisingly different” (“Recommended” by The U.S. Review of Books).
You will also find this on a page near the end:
“All works published by Opus Nine Books are dedicated to the nine members of the family headed by John and Kate Swackhamer at 3 South Trail, Orinda, California — a large world under one small roof.”
Thanks for reading!
Dana walks the tightrope like never before in her tricky balance between professional ethics and family loyalties.
Just a quick note to let you know that online magazine Kings River Life is running a giveaway for my Dana Hargrove novel, Deep Zero! Click on the following link to find out how to enter: Review/Giveaway of Deep Zero.
While you’re over at Kings River Life, check out the book reviews, short fiction, and other interesting articles. This magazine originates in my home state, California, but its reach and subject matter are global. Here is the KRL vision statement: “We are a California magazine with local focus and global appeal, along with a desire to entertain, inspire and inform with a unique variety of articles that provide something of interest for everyone.”
Once again, thanks to readers and reviewers for a great launch of Deep Zero. If you haven’t read the first three novels, it’s easy to catch up with Dana’s world in the Dana Hargrove Legal Mysteries Collection, available at a discount in ebook and on Kindle Unlimited for free!
Re-blogging here an entry from the Kirkus blog by editor Myra Forsberg, entitled “Legal Eagles”!
“Through the ages, the works of playwrights, novelists, and filmmakers, from Shakespeare to Steven Spielberg, have gleefully skewered lawyers. In Spielberg’s Jurassic Park, the first movie in the popular franchise, a discerning dinosaur chomps on a particularly sleazy attorney, delighting fans worldwide. But depictions of heroic lawyers also remain plentiful, particularly on TV, in classic series (Perry Mason) and more recent fare (The Good Wife).
“Kirkus recently reviewed three legal thrillers that focus on resourceful attorneys pursuing justice. In V.S. Kemanis’ Forsaken Oath, Manhattan prosecutor Dana Hargrove finds herself embroiled in three cases, including the murder of a fashion designer. In this page-turner, she must uncover the truth and save her career. “The author manages to compellingly depict many distinct areas of the justice system, from the cops on the street to the lawyers on both sides of the courtroom,” our reviewer writes. Jerri Blair’s Black and White, set in 1979,follows Florida public defender J.T. Lockman, who takes the case of an African-American accused of murdering a white car dealer. J.T. believes a Ku Klux Klansman committed the crime but must gather the evidence to prove it. Our critic calls the novel an “energetic tale that’s rife with drama and mystery.” A sinister figure kidnaps teenage girls in Brian Clary’s Amicus Curiae: the daughter of Texas attorney Michelle “Mickey” Grant disappears and the police soon arrest Willie Lee Flynn for one abductee’s murder. Although he’s convicted, Mickey harbors doubts and files an amicus curiae brief, seeking to retry Flynn and discover her daughter’s whereabouts. Our reviewer says, “Fans of crime dramas will find Clary’s suspenseful yarn a welcome addition to the genre.”
__________________________________
Stay tuned for the third installment of Legal Eagles! I’m currently reading a great legal thriller by attorney Manuel Ramos, soon to be reviewed.
We all know that lawyers write some of the best fiction. Okay, so I happen to be a lawyer who writes fiction—but I’m not biased. Really. I have proof!
Here are three fantastic reads by my fellow/fella colleagues at the bar. We’ve all had our days in and out of court tackling tough cases, flaky witnesses, annoying adversaries, and exacting judges. We’ve experienced the thrill of investigative discovery, the tedium of preparation, the surprises and heartbreaks that arise in the midst of trial. Truth is often stranger than fiction, and the criminal courtroom provides fertile ground for moral dilemma and human drama, a launching pad for the imagination of the novelist.
The writing styles and plotlines in these novels differ greatly, but each author touches on a common underlying theme: the life story behind the face might not be what you expect. Each novel features a character who may just end up surprising you. I will attempt to avoid spoilers and give you merely an enticing flavor of each.
A Good Killing, by Allison Leotta 
Leotta is a former sex crimes prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in D.C. A Good Killing features her fictional sex crimes prosecutor, Anna Curtis. In an unexpected twist, family loyalties cause Anna to switch hats for the first time in her career as she takes up the defense of her sister Jody, who finds herself in big trouble with the law, indicted for murder. The victim is a revered high school coach, Owen Fowler.
The storyline will hit home with any woman who can think back to high school days and find, in memory, a teacher, coach, or counselor who was popular, maybe even the subject of a young girl’s dreams, only to realize later, with the maturity of adulthood, that the perception was dangerously skewed. Coach Fowler is just such a character, a man with a nasty secret. Other secrets abound in this novel, as Jody does her utmost to keep Anna in the dark—not a good thing for an attorney representing her sister in the trial of her life. Tensions between the personal and the professional always draw me in, especially when the conflict implicates the ethical obligations of an attorney.
Another interesting aspect of A Good Killing is its structure, written from two points of view in alternating chapters. We hear Jody’s voice, speaking to Anna in first person, alternating with Anna’s point of view, written in third person. The technique is effective in building suspense, as the two tales ultimately merge in a satisfying conclusion.
This is the fourth novel in the Anna Curtis series, but each is a standalone. The fifth is soon to be released. Click here for Allison’s website
The Life We Bury, by Allen Eskens 
Eskens is a criminal defense attorney with previous experience on the other side of the courtroom as a prosecutor. His debut novel, The Life We Bury, cannot be pigeonholed. It has characteristics of literary fiction, mystery, and legal thriller. Protagonist Joe Talbert is a college student turned boy sleuth when he undertakes a writing assignment for English class and interviews an unlikely subject for a biographical essay—war hero and convicted murderer Carl Iverson.
This novel draws you in from the start with engaging, unique characters and vivid writing that makes use of all the senses. You can smell the unique odors of the nursing home Hillview Manor, see the “old woman wearing a crooked wig,” and feel the ambience of an archive room, where the “essence” of “millions of souls packed away on microfilm” waits to be “felt, tasted, and inhaled again.” In one of my favorite scenes, you can hear the pro forma litany between judge and attorney during a bail hearing, likened to “a Catholic funeral mass.” The suspenseful and entertaining conclusion of The Life We Bury takes Joe Talbert through harrowing twists and turns that may test the bounds of plausibility—but you’ll be so immersed and on the edge of your seat that the ordeal becomes all too real.
Eskens has published a second novel, and the third is on the way. Click here for Allen’s website
A Conflict of Interest, by Adam Mitzner 
Mitzner is a partner in the commercial litigation department of a New York City law firm. His expertise in securities litigation finds its way into his debut novel, A Conflict of Interest. Of the three novels under review here, Mitzner’s contains the most courtroom drama and litigation strategy—all of the kind of stuff that fascinates lawyers and law buffs alike!
In this novel, protagonist Alex Miller is a white collar defense attorney representing client Michael Ohlig in a securities fraud prosecution. Mid-trial, Alex learns a secret about Ohlig—a very serious transgression—that profoundly affects Alex’s personal view of his client. Trying not to let his animosity stand in the way of providing a brilliant defense, Alex must also grapple with a client who constantly battles him over issues of trial strategy, right down to the crucial question of whether Ohlig should take the stand in his own defense. The stress level hits a high note as the author depicts, in detail, the high stakes environment, pressure, and politics of a big law firm, and the toll that the environment takes on the lawyer’s home life.
If you want a fast-paced courtroom thriller, A Conflict of Interest is for you. Mitzner has also published two other novels, and a third will be released in April. Click here for Adam’s website
A common lament among mystery/suspense/thriller writers is the lack of time to enjoy the many fine novels of our contemporaries, as we struggle to find every spare minute for our own writing. I’m currently on a break between the third and fourth Dana Hargrove novels and have a bit of time to write a few short stories and to read a few extra novels. Prediction: another installment of Legal Eagles will make its way to this blog! Reading another good one now…
Once again, Dana Hargrove is caught at the intersection of family and career—a career that happens to involve criminal suspects, judges, attorneys, and officers of the law! The thematic core to these novels picks up the internal conflict familiar to any career woman with a family: the incessant tug between the professional and the personal. In my career, both in and out of the courtroom, I have felt that tug keenly. Over the past few years, in writing these novels, I’ve become very attached to Dana, her family, her colleagues, and her adversaries, and that is my wish for you, the reader. Pick them up in any order. Each novel is a standalone, as I take Dana through various stages of her career and life, with several years in between each story
: Thursday’s List (1988), Homicide Chart (1994), and Forsaken Oath (2001).
Already, in a curl of my mind, I’m starting to envision Dana’s life in 2008…
For the e-book, pre-order here on Amazon.
Release date for both paperback and e-book is April 30!
If you are a reviewer or blogger and would like to receive an ARC, please send me a message through my contact page!
Courtroom themes in legal mysteries
Welcome to my blog! For my inaugural post, I’m re-posting a piece I wrote in March 2013 for Something is Going to Happen, the blog of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. In this piece you will find a bit of personal history about my early days as a prosecutor and reflections on some of the prominent themes in my legal mysteries. Hope you enjoy it! And check out Something is Going to Happen for interesting points of view on mystery fiction and the world of mystery writers by the Editor of EQMM and top authors in the genre.