Practice to Deceive

Seattle law partners Annie MacPherson and Joel Feinstein, last seen in Sea of Troubles, agree to a merger proposition tendered by megafirm Kemble, Laughton, Mercer and Duff, and championed by senior partner Gordon Barclay, for whom Annie would work. Involved in researching an article about her late father for a book about prominent attorneys, Annie learns that he and Barclay were once good friends. She and Joel have been at the big firm less than a week when Barclay's secretary and mistress, Nancy Gulliver, apparently commits suicide; Annie is distressed to hear rumors that the womanizing lawyer intends her to be his next conquest. Leaving a restaurant with him, she is shot at; then another woman linked to him is killed. Annie, a likable enough but formulaic character, must dig into the past before she can solve the mystery in this tenuously plotted, unrealistically resolved tale, which is freshened mainly by its Pacific Northwest setting. (July)