Keeper of the Keys

September 18, 2006
This stand-alone novel of suspense from bestseller O'Shaughnessy (Case of Lies
and 10 other legal thrillers starring Nina Reilly) has a glamorous setting, Los Angeles's Topanga Canyon, where a once promising architect, Ray Jackson, lives in a house he designed with his furniture-maker wife, Leigh. Unfortunately, despite some good plot twists and pinkish herrings, none of the characters is particularly interesting—not Ray, a tightly wound man who spends his time making models of every house he lived in during his tangled childhood; not Leigh, who may have a buried sex life; and especially not Kat and Jackie, two sisters in the real estate trade who used to be close to Leigh growing up. When Leigh disappears without a trace one night, Ray only with the greatest of reluctance (and nudges from Kat and the cops) sifts through secrets old and new for a truth that's as hard to swallow as it is to care about. Perri O'Shaughnessy is the pseudonym of sisters Pamela and Mary O'Shaughnessy.

October 15, 2006
In their 1995 debut, "Motion To Suppress", and in the ten novels that followed, Mary and Pam OShaughnessy, writing as Perri OShaughnessy, put attorney Nina OReilly through varied sets of harrowing personal and professional experiences. But with their penultimate book, "Case of Lies", Ninas career was put on hold to give the sisters a chance to explore other projects. Their latest is a standalone psychological thriller that moves into a new realm of popular fiction. Architect Ray Jackson and his wife, Leigh, are experiencing marital problems deeply rooted in their individual pasts. Ray is attempting to exorcise his demons by revisiting scenes of his childhood in a manner that dances on the threshold of criminal behavior, while Leigh embarks on more standard coping mechanisms: adultery and desertion. Enter Leighs old friends Kat and Jacki, who, alarmed by Leighs disappearance and Rays conduct, become involved in the couples complex entanglements. This is a bold step for the sisters OShaughnessy that is certain to gain them new fans and please old ones. Recommended for all public libraries. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 7/06.]"Nancy McNicol, Ora Mason Branch Lib., West Haven, CT"

Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2006
The best-selling author of the Nina Reilly series (in actuality two sisters writing under a pseudonym) veers off in a new direction with this stand-alone thriller. When Leigh Jackson disappears, her architect husband, Ray, doesn't seem all that worked up about it. But when his wife's old friend, Kat, shows up, hurling accusations, Ray realizes he has some explaining to do. Using a set of keys to every home he's ever lived in, Ray revisits his past, trying to find out if he is capable of the thing Kat suspects he might have done. And he uncovers truths about himself so deep and so dark that he begins to question his own identity. The book is a welcome breath of fresh air, especially for readers who've lost interest in the stodgily formulaic Reilly series. This is a well-paced, smartly written thriller with an ambiguous protagonist and a genuinely mysterious mystery to be solved. The dialogue could use a bit more polishing, but, given the novel's virtues, that's a small quibble.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)