Julie Smith: Other People's Skeletons (USA 1993)

From the Publisher:
"NOBODY GETS INSIDE HER CHARACTERS LIKE JULIE SMITH." -- Linda Barnes
Even Rebecca Schwartz (who's seen a lot) is nonplussed when she learns that Chris Nicholson, her law partner and best friend, is a suspect in a murder case. But that's not the half of it. Chris says she has an alibi, but she won't say what it is.

What could be so shameful you can't even tell your best friend?

To her amazement, Rebecca finds that her partner has a secret life-and so did the victim, dashing critic Jason McKendrick. For that matter, so does everyone else in the case, causing Rebecca to wonder what planet she's stumbled onto. One thing she knows with certainty: she has to shake some skeletons from closets and fast-or Chris is going to prison...

Julie Smith won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for her novel NEW ORLEANS MOURNING.

Julie Smith: Other People's Skeletons. A Rebecca Schwartz Mystery. Ballantine Books, ISBN: 0804110867 (November, 1993), 231 p., $4.99.