Synopses & Reviews
Hannah Dain, a skilled business lawyer, is on the verge of leaving her family's law firm for a better job. But her plan is derailed when a real estate deal she's put together suddenly goes bad. Two million dollars of investors' money has disappeared. If the mistake was Hannah's, her firm is on the hook for the whole amount.
Career on the line, Hannah decides to investigate-- despite a disapproving father and antagonistic older sister. Having long ago abandoned efforts to heal the family rift, Hannah now enjoys her separate existence, whether drafting a complex IPO or bicycling miles through the hot Arizona desert.
Although she exonerates the firm, a car bomb and two murders thwart the police's identification of the culprit behind the scheme. At work on a new deal, Hannah is assisted by Cooper Smith, the firm's computer consultant and her former lover. Compelled to dig deep for key information, Hannah uncovers a greater threat all too close to home. Only by exposing long-buried family secrets can she save her reputation, her law firm--and her life.
Review
"This book sizzles and it's not just the Arizona heat!"-Sue Grafton
Review
"Pinnacle Peak, a small Arizona desert town, provides the setting for this corporate crime novel. Business lawyer Hannah Dain, who joined the family firm after law school, has had it with her cold father and antagonistic sister. But just as she is poised to accept a lucrative job in Boston, a glitch in a routine IP0 derails her plans. Hannah's alleged mistake could cost the firm $2 million in damages—and does nothing to improve her relationship with her father and sister. Although she proves that the IP0 mistake was not hers, Hannah opens a can of worms that will ultimately place her life in danger. As she and the police try to identify who is behind the plan to discredit Dain & Dain, a colleague who knew too much is murdered.... Phelan creates appealing characters and paints a vivid portrait of the Arizona desert. A nice alternative for legal-thriller fans tired of the Grisham high-concept steamroller."--Booklist
Review
"Twist Phelan knows of what she writes. Family Claims is as full as a lawyer's briefcase with character and good storytelling. Phelan is on her way!" --Michael Connelly
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"Family Claimsàis a terrific and compelling of fraud and revenge, peopled with unforgettable charactersàa thrilling ride from start to finish." & Meg Chittenden, Anthony Award Winner
Review
Hannah Dain had hoped that joining the family's law firm would finally bring her closer to her father, Richard, and her older sister, Shelby. But the rift that began when Hannah was a child seems to have widened in Family Claims. Her main comfort is from her solo rides in the desert on her mountain bike, pushing herself harder with each grueling outing. Hannah has been hoping that a lucrative real estate deal would give her enough money to quit her job and take a position at a Boston firm -- far away from her unloving family. The deal not only falls through, it threatens the future of Dain and Dain. Although Hannah manages to save the firm's reputation, it's still not good enough. When events take a dangerous turn, Hannah learns that legal maneuverings are little defense when you have little support from your co-workers. Author Twist Phelan delivers a satisfying, well-plotted mystery in her second novel set in the fictional town of Pinnacle Peak, Ariz. Phelan, an attorney, makes land deals, IPOs and title insurance not only interesting, but downright sinister. The legal details add to the realism of Family Claims. Hannah is a sympathetic character who is not only smartly drawn but naturalistically realistic. Phelan gives Hannah a credible vulnerability while avoiding the woman-in-danger stereotypes so commonly used by new novelists...The "great expanse" of Arizona gets a good workout as a backdrop thanks to Hannah's desert rides. Hannah's opinion that the landscape's "apparent lack of boundaries made her uncomfortable" echoes her relationship with her family.-- Oline H. Cogdill, Florida Sun-Sentinel (3/7/04)
Review
Would you hire a lawyer whose first name was Twist? Enough people obviously did to keep Twist Phelan busy until she decided to retire from her law practice and turn her talents and energies to such arcane activities as long-distance bicycling, paddling outrigger canoes, climbing mountains and writing mysteries about a tall, lean, hard-muscled lawyer named Hannah Dain.
Dain is the Cordelia figure, the peacemaker in a "King Lear"-like family law firm in an Arizona town called Pinnacle Peak. Weary of dealing with her grouchy father and her jealous older sister, she has decided to leave for a more congenial job in Boston. But when a real estate deal she put together falls apart and threatens to leave the family firm on the hook for $2 million, Dain has to put her plans on hold--investigating the failed deal and fighting off threats of physical and fiscal damage at every turn.
Phelan's plot has occasional overtones of deja vu, but her writing has a spare toughness and lack of sentimentality that barrels you through the rough spots like a good road bike. Best of all are the legal details, those tiny moments of advice and decision that fill a lawyer's day. Phelan has obviously been there and done that--even though she now prefers to write mysteries about it. --Dick Adler, Chicago Tribune (3/7/04)
Review
"What could be better than an exciting romp with gutsy Hannah Dain? Twist Phelan brings the Arizona desert to life in this compelling mystery laced with intrigue, family lies, and murder. Phelan is definitely a writer to watch!" -Sinclair Browning
Review
""Lawyer Hannah Dain is on the hot seat in more ways than one in Phelan's second Pinnacle Peak mystery (after 2002's HEIR APPARENT), which vividly evokes the Arizona desert and thrills with convincing legal detail. Hannah has joined her older sister Shelby and her father Richard in what she had hoped would be a productive relationship in the family law firm of Dain & Dain. Instead, Hannah has been snubbed by her father and goaded by her sister for reasons that only gradually become apparent. Hannah finds solace in long, hard desert rides on her bicycle and allies in her staunch secretary Clementine, young file clerk Tad Whitfield, and the firm's computer expert Cooper Smith -- all appealing supporting characters. Still, with her prospects at the firm so bleak, she plans to give up and take a job in Boston. Then an IPO she initiated blows up, threatening to leave Hannah and the firm in the lurch. The dangers are not merely legal but physical as someone seems ruthlessly intent on destroying her and Dain & Dain. Hannah needs all of her training and resolve to unravel the tricky legal maneuvering and all of her athletic strength and courage to survive the desiccating heat of an Arizona summer.... Hannah makes a sympathetic and appealing heroine likely to have an interesting future."" --Publishers Weekly