Keera Duggan was building a reputation as a Seattle prosecutor until her relationship with her boss went sour. Now, she's working for Duggan and Associates, a firm founded by her father and also staffed with two of her sisters. Her father is a noted attorney in town and an alcoholic who has messed up all of his kids.

When the firm gets a call from Vince LaRussa, who is accused of murdering his wheelchair-bound wife, her older sister encourages her to take the case to build up the firm's failing reputation. Keera's eager in part because she'll be facing her old lover in court, and she knows his strengths and his weaknesses.

As a former chess prodigy Keera is used to sizing up her opponents. It is her client who seems the most obscure to her. She's having trouble getting to know and understand him. And when she starts getting anonymous emails from someone calling themself Jack Worthing providing information about her client's past her doubts are raised about his innocence.

As she's preparing for the trial, following her mysterious emailer's directions, trying to build a theory that incorporates all the on-scene evidence, and playing a chess match with a person who plays under Black Knight, Keera is also dealing with her own problems with alcohol.

With twists and turns and courtroom hijinks, this was an excellent thriller filled with intriguing people. ( )

Robert Dugoni has done it again. Another terrific book in the Keera Duggan series. Her Deadly Game (Keera Duggan Book 1) draws you in and keeps you guessing until the very end. As always, a strong female lead character takes the reins and runs with it. Keera Dugan a daughter of a very reputable Lawyer is looking to make her mark in her first murder defense case. She is as good in the court room as she is in playing the masterful game of chess. The whole story line seems to be a grand Chess game played throughout life. I enjoyed the characters and the storyline, which held my interest to the very end. If you enjoy intrigue, suspense, murder, mystery, and a great family connection then you will certainly enjoy this book as I have. Highly recommended. ( )

Good legal thrill ala Grisham who is the master of this genre. Keera is our young lawyer who is now in her family defense firm along with her two sisters and father who is known as the Irish Brawler but is also an alcoholic. Not just a legal mystery but family dynamics play a role in keeping the story moving of a murder of a wealthy but recently disabled wife of a wealth financial manager. Did the husband do it? ( )

Keera Duggan is the youngest daughter of an alcoholic, scrappy lawyer, Patsy Duggan. Her sisters, one of whom is a lawyer, Ella, and one a legal assistant, Maggie, work in her father's office. She joins that office after leaving the prosecutor's office due to an affair with another prosecutor. Keera is on call when Vince LaRussa, who will be charged with murdering his wife, calls for representation. She agrees to take the case. While this is going on, Keera is playing a game of chess online with the Dark Knight. The case seems to parallel the chess game which she uses as a way to relax and refresh her mind. LaRussa's wife is in a wheel chair and severely comprised physically due to an accident. It falls to Keera, her father, and sisters to figure out how Anne LaRussa was killed or committed suicide and why in order to keep Vince LaRussa from being convicted for her murder. ( )

This was a quick easy read, which held my interest throughout apart from the chess match sections which I just skipped over. (Unless you are obsessed with chess, would you want to read about the moves of a game two people are playing? I think it might have been mean to parallel events in the main narrative...) I do like a competent woman doing her job well, and defence lawyer Keera even manages to humiliate the appalling DA Ambrose, who deserved everything he got. ( )