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Mistletoe & Murder in Las Vegas
Affairs to Remember Book One
Colleen Collins
Releasing December 14th, 2015
All 31-year-old, Las Vegas criminal lawyer Joanne Galvin wants for Christmas is a few clients so she can make ends meet. Instead she’s roped into defending the notorious, alleged Timepiece Arsonist; tracked by a hunky special agent and his arson dog; and chased by a serial killer. Just when her life is starting to feel like the Nightmare Before Christmas, she receives an unexpected gift that offers hope for this Christmas to possibly be the most wonderful time of the year...maybe even for years to come.
A story about a down-on-her-luck lawyer, a jinxed special agent, and an arson dog named Maggie who join forces in this heartfelt, humorous romantic-mystery.
Now, at 10:00 a.m., Joanne
stood in the well of the courtroom, eye-locked with the judge who frowned so hard his bushy white eyebrows resembled
a puffy storm cloud over his dark eyes.
She did her best to look
dignified despite the tension and her feet, which were aching in a pair of new,
insanely-high heels that she impulsively decided to wear thinking they added
some noble height to her five-two. Like
that mattered now.
“Miss Galvin,” the judge finally said. “That comment comes darn close to violating
my ruling during a trial, which is direct
contempt of court for which I could send you to jail. Like this very instant.” He snapped his fingers.
Her insides shriveled as
the stocky courtroom deputy lumbered toward her, his rubber-soled shoes
squeaking on the marble floor.
“Deputy, I did not order
you to arrest her!” The judge pointed to
the spot where the deputy had previously stood.
As he squeaked back across the floor, the judge sighed heavily and
turned to the twelve wide-eyed jurors.
“I direct the members of the jury to disregard the defense’s
statement….”
Joanne glanced at her investigator and best friend, Gloria Falco, who
sat at the defense table wearing an I-can’t-believe-this-crazy-shit
expression. They had been friends since
their first day of work at the Clark County Public Defenders’ office, almost five years ago. Joanne, then twenty-six, had recently passed
the bar exam and was beginning her career as a lawyer. Gloria, a year younger, had worked as a
private investigator in Brooklyn for her dad, the legendary private eye Sal
Falco. Shortly after he died, she
relocated to Vegas where her brother, a talent manager, lived.
For court
Gloria always toned down her rock-n-roll, tough-chick look. Today she’d feathered her short dark hair
rather than spiked it, and ditched her usual tight jeans, form-fitting T-shirt
and badass boots for a powder-blue pantsuit and flats.
Next to
Gloria sat Sebastian wearing a mauve shirt, black tie and gray suit his mother
picked out for him at Goodwill. Last
June his life was unfolding—he’d celebrated his twenty-first birthday, landed a valet job at The
Tropicana, and fell in love for the first time with a girl named Nina. All that changed on July 3 when the police
arrested him for attempted
murder. Sebastian matched eyewitnesses’
descriptions of the person who shot at a man in a grocery store parking
lot. Now,
if found guilty, he faced spending the next twenty years of his life in
prison.
With a small shake of his
head, Sebastian mouthed F-M-L—Fuck My Life, street slang expressing his incomprehensible despair.
His anguish broke her
heart. Joanne had not become an attorney
because she had political aspirations like Sam Burnette or viewed lawyering as
a get-rich career. As corny as it
sounded, she went to law school to effect justice. Considering how freakishly difficult
achieving that simple goal turned out to be, maybe Judge Fields had been right
to ask if she’d lost her mind.
Colleen Collins is a private investigator and award-winning author who has written over thirty books for Harlequin and Dorchester, including two indie romantic-mysteries and four indie nonfiction books. Her recent romantic-mystery, THE UNGRATEFUL DEAD, won the 2015 Aspen Gold Readers’ Choice Award, short story category. Colleen is a member of Romance Writers of America, Mystery Writers of America, Private Eye Writers of America, and Sisters in Crime.
When not sleuthing or writing, Colleen loves spending time with her husband, two Rottweilers (named Jack Nicholson and Aretha Franklin), and three cats.
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