Twist Phelan

Twist Phelan is one of the authors who will be at Left Coast Crime next week. (Aside: squeee, I can't believe it's next week!!)In the second of the Pinnacle Peak mysteries, attorney Hannah Dain has joined the family law firm, Dain & Dain, in hopes of repairing the troubled relationship she has with her father and her sister (two of the firm's partners).
(Another aside: I read this thinking it was the first in the series, and now I'm disappointed, as I'm one of those anal people who must read series in order.) Her father Richard, has always been cold and distant, while her sister Shelby has always been openly hostile and antagonistic. Hannah isn't sure why they are this way, or why she needs to try to fix things, but she does.
She mitigates her distress with long bicycle rides in the desert outside the fictional Arizona town of Pinnacle Peak, which at the time of this story is in the middle of a searingly hot, dry summer.
When a seemingly routite IPO she is working on goes awry and she is blamed for it, she feels the need to find out what went wrong, and at the same time, exonerate herself.
Shelby is an appealing, if tortured protagonist, and the story is interesting and gripping. I look forward to reading more of the series.… (altro)

Heir Apparent by Twist Phelan is the first of the Pinnacle Peak mystery series. It takes place in the fictional town of Pinnacle Peak, Arizona and revolves around fledgling lawyer, Joe McGuinness, as he begins his career in a prestigious firm.

The plot concerns a murdered partner, a murdered clerk and two wealthy but very dead clients of this firm. Not yet healed from a severe shoulder injury, Joe can't return to his favorite hobby of team roping, so he has plenty of time to try to solve the murders--especially since the suspect is a beautiful young woman he has his eye on.

I liked the setting. Phelan lives in the Valley. She's a lawyer and an athlete who took up the sport of team roping in order to portray Joe accurately. There were times that I felt she went a little overboard with the team roping scenes, but since the killer was telegraphed early on, this
might've been a good thing. Heir Apparent is a good but flawed first attempt.… (altro)