Dead Lift

By Rachel Brady

Single mom Emily Locke is building a new life with her daughter. Hoping to spend more time at home, she’s relocated to Houston and put her career on hold to work part-time for her private investigator friend, Richard Cole. It’s a nice balance between work and family until Emily finds out she’s been working for the attorney who defended her husband’s killer.
The discovery nearly destroys her friendship with Richard, but Emily resists abandoning socialite client Claire Gaston, who awaits trial for the murder of a local plastic surgeon. The threat of losing her children to a self-serving ex-husband terrifies Claire more than the specter of a life behind bars.
Claire has been leading a wildly unconventional life and passing around access to her home and assets like popcorn. Should she be condemned for bad choices? Emily, haunted by her own, doesn’t think so.
Meanwhile, Emily’s wild-child friend Jeannie, in town for a visit, sees a chance for Emily to loosen up when a mysterious note leads her into a daring undercover ruse at a high-brow ladies’ health club. Emily fakes conformity with Houston’s elite debutantes and trophy wives in a surreal fitness subculture where things, and people, are seldom what they seem. At this gym, “killer workout” takes on a whole new meaning.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
• Release date: May 27, 2010
• ISBN: 9781615952601

Reviews for Dead Lift

[marlyn_11 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

n Dead Lift, Emily has left her unpleasant job in Ohio and moved to Houston where she works as a part-time investigator for Richard Cole, with whom she's made peace, in order to forge a relationship with her daughter Annette, who was found as a result of the search investigation at Gulf Coast Skydiving.Emily is living in a small apartment, and though she has primary custody of her daughter, she's trying to make the transition easier for Annette by allowing her frequent contact with the people who had adopted her.She goes to visit a jailed client, and discovers that she and Richard have been hired by the attorney who defended her husband's murderer. As one would expect, this causes some friction between Emily and her employer, but she finds herself drawn to Claire Gaston, the client charged with the murder of a local plastic surgeon. Emily appears to have a true talent for detective work, as well as an incredible tenacity. She's a real hands-on investigator, which becomes dangerous at times, though she always manages to survive.Like its prequel, Dead Lift is gripping and exciting, and will most likely be read in a single sitting.