Lia Matera: Star Witness (2007)

From the Publisher:
They say no good deed goes unpunished ... and attorney Willa Jansson learns it the hard way when she agrees to represent the patient of psychiatrist Fred Hershey. She definitely owes him the favor but has no idea what it will eventually cost her. Alan Miller's sports car allegedly went over an embankment onto the coastal highway below, landing atop another car and killing its driver. But there are no tire tracks in the field above and no witnesses to the event. Nor are Miller's injuries consistent with a car crash. Miller wasn't around to defend himself when the police showed up at the accident. Worse yet, he doesn't remember where he was. When Miller is put under hypnosis, he does account for his whereabouts, but it seems so far-fetched, Miller himself doesn't want to believe it - and Willa knows it will never stand up in court...

Lia Matera: Star Witness. A Willa Jansson Mystery. Simon & Schuster; ISBN: 1416567704 (June, 2007), 256 p., $13.95

Lia Matera: Star Witness (1998)

From the Publisher:
Just when attorney Willa Jansson is about to take a little time off from her job at a Son Francisco multimedia firm, a friend calls in a special favor. So, on her first day of what should have been her well-earned vacation, Willa's off to Santa Cruz to solve what she hopes will be a simple case of vehicular manslaughter and felony hit-and-run. But Willa is about to discover that nothing about this case -- or the town where it occurred -- is quite as it seems.

Alan Miller's sports car went over an embankment and onto the coastal highway below, landing atop another car and killing its driver. But there are no tire tracks, no witnesses, and Miller's injuries aren't consistent with a car crash. Unable to recall where he was just after the accident, Miller's memory is jogged under hypnosis -- a recollection so far-fetched that Willa knows it will never stand up in court. All of a sudden, seemingly idyllic Santa Cruz is rife with dangerous secrets, and Willa must outrun helicopters, snipers, reporters, her own interfering mother -- and try to maintain her credibility and her career by making the jury buy her client's out-of-this-world alibi. If she can just keep the witnesses alive long enough to testify...

Lia Matera: Star Witness. A Willa Jansson Mystery. Pocket Books, ISBN: 0671004204 (June, 1998), 336 p., $6.50

Lia Matera: Star Witness (1997)

From the Publisher:
They say no good deed goes unpunished ... and attorney Willa Jansson learns it the hard way when she agrees to represent the patient of psychiatrist Fred Hershey. She definitely owes him the favor but has no idea what it will eventually cost her. Alan Miller's sports car allegedly went over an embankment onto the coastal highway below, landing atop another car and killing its driver. But there are no tire tracks in the field above and no witnesses to the event. Nor are Miller's injuries consistent with a car crash. Miller wasn't around to defend himself when the police showed up at the accident. Worse yet, he doesn't remember where he was. When Miller is put under hypnosis, he does account for his whereabouts, but it seems so far-fetched, Miller himself doesn't want to believe it - and Willa knows it will never stand up in court.

Lia Matera: Star Witness. A Willa Jansson Mystery. Simon & Schuster, ISBN: 0684834693 (June, 1997), 255 p., $22.00