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MISTLETOE AND 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.
