Damage Control

Attorney Dana Hill is used to managing a stressful life: she's one of the most successful lawyers at Strong & Thurmond, mother to a young daughter, wife to a busy, self-involved man. But when she is diagnosed with breast cancer, and her twin brother turns up beaten to death in an apparent robbery-gone-wrong in the same week, the careful balance of Dana's life is sent into flux. Agreeing with the police that this is more than just a simple botched burglary, she begins to sift through the pieces of her brother's life, a life she thought she knew as well as her own, to find out who would want him dead and why.

But bad things happen in threes, her mother has told her. When Dana discovers her husband cheating, she throws herself headlong into the investigation. Delaying cancer treatment, she teams with an intuitive detective to find the link between a one-of-a-kind earring found in her brother's bedroom and a mysterious girlfriend no one seems to be able to identify. But those connected to the murder are beginning to turn up dead, the evidence trail is growing cold and someone is masquerading as a police officer, cleaning up the details as they go along.

Publishers Weekly

For the low-tech world of audiobook recording, any move forward resounds with the heavy tread of technology's step. Lane's reading of Dugoni's legal thriller features the clever, realistic touch of rendering the book's ever-present telephone and cellphone conversations through static and slightly digitized reception. While only a small detail, the phone effect is evidence of an open-minded attitude to audiobook recording one that looks for new ways to do the same old same old. Lane (a veteran of more than 100 audiobooks) reads unobtrusively but distinctively, artfully pausing for effect to underscore the domestic and legal tension in Dana Hill's life, whose already difficult juggling of work and personal life is further complicated by the murder of her twin brother. Lane manipulates pitch and tone to differentiate between characters, nicely avoiding overwrought voices, and his solid work amply redounds to his credit as a nuanced reader. Simultaneous release with the Warner hardcover (Reviews, Nov. 20). (Feb.)

Robert Dugoni graduated from Stanford University with a degree in journalism and clerked as a reporter for the Los Angeles Times befor attending the UCLA School of Law. He has practiced law in San Francisco and Seattle for 17 years. In 1999 he left full-time practice to return to writing and is a two-time winner of the Pacific Northwest Writers Association Literary Award. He lives with his wife and two children in Seattle.