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Alexis Thorn, once a successful securities broker, spent a hellish year behind bars for a crime she never committed. Now she has her freedom, but she’s left with haunting memories of being hauled from her office in handcuffs…of the cell door clanging shut behind her…of her pleas going unheard. Meanwhile the real criminals – her former employers, Roland Sullivan and his lover Arden Gillespie – continue to make millions by conning the innocent, especially preying on the elderly and taking their life savings. Alexis dreams of getting even. The legal system failed her, but the Sisterhood won’t. They have a delicious plan that can give Sullivan and Gillespie a taste of their own bitter medicine…
A gripping new novel in the Sisterhood series from the New York Times bestselling author Alexis was a successful broker whose career was on the rise. But that was before she was wrongly imprisoned for fraud. Suddenly her life was destroyed: thrown into prison for a year while the true criminals, Arden Gillespie and Roland Sullivan, spent the profits from the scam on themselves. It is time for the next revenge mission of the Sisterhood a vigilante organization whose aim is to avenge crimes not punished by the legal system.
Once again, Michaels and Laural Merlington perform their magic with these two enthralling tales in the "Sisterhood" series. Both stories draw listeners into the world of the revenge-seeking Sisterhood by inviting them to share the characters' humor, dismay, joys, and sorrows. In Jury, the Sisterhood demands justice for the abused wife of a high-profile Washington, DC, power broker, while in Lethal Justicethey exact revenge on behalf of one of their own who was falsely convicted of fraud and theft. An experienced reader, Merlington provides two excellent performances, with clear, distinct, accent-free deliveries and no distracting background noise or tape hiss. Her wide range of voices makes it easy for the listener to differentiate among the various characters-both male and female. Enthrallingly good listens that will be of interest to Michaels fans, to anyone looking for some light fiction, and to all public libraries. Highly recommended.
—Laurie Selwyn
Fern Michaels is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Fool Me Once, Sweet Revenge, The Nosy Neighbor, Pretty Woman, and dozens of other novels and novellas. There are over seventy million copies of her books in print. Fern Michaels has built and funded several large day-care centers in her hometown, and is a passionate animal lover who has outfitted police dogs across the country with special bulletproof vests. She shares her home in South Carolina with her four dogs and a resident ghost named Mary Margaret.
With typical modesty, Michaels does not claim to be a great writer; however, she admits proudly to being a born storyteller. Her bulging bookshelf proves she is all over the map, producing with equal facility hot historicals, lighthearted contemporary capers, adrenaline-laced thrillers, and heartwarming tales of family and friendship. She is especially adept at writing stories about women who prevail in hard times – a reflection, perhaps, of her own struggles in her marriage and early career.
Raised to believe that the fortunate in life have an obligation to give back, Michaels devotes a lot of time to philanthropic concerns. She has established a foundation that grants four-year scholarships to needy students and has set up pre-schools and daycare centers for single mothers. She is also an avid animal lover and has been known to own as many as five dogs at a time.
In 1993, Michaels picked up stakes and moved from her home in New Jersey to a 300-year-old plantation house in Charleston, South Carolina. She and the dogs share the house amicably with a friendly ghost whom Fern has dubbed Mary Margaret. In addition to stopping clocks and moving pillows from room to room, Mary Margaret has been known to occasionally leave flowers on Michaels's nightstand!
Her first "sort of, kind of job" was in market research. Michaels recounts the gig's low-point in our interview: "I had a partner and we were testing a new pressurized drain cleaner. All you had to do was put this can in the drain, squeeze and supposedly the drain would open right up. It did, all right.
"The whole wall collapsed, and stuff that was in there for a hundred years flew everywhere. The lady didn't tell us the drain backed up to her kitchen drain and disposal. The company didn't care that we smelled like a sewer or that our clothes were ruined. The lady got a new bathroom, and we both got fired."
Michaels reveals some of her sources of inspiration: "Inspiration comes from everywhere. The title for Finders Keepers came from a cartoon with two chipmunks that my grandson was watching. I had a title but no story. I finally came up with one to fit that wonderful title.
"Names for characters sometime come from television. I had a character named Metaxis which is odd to begin with. There is a news anchor on T.V. who has that same last name. Sometimes it will just be a word someone says in passing, something I read or saw. There's no rhyme or reason to it. It's almost like, okay, I need something here, stay alert and it will happen."
Ever since that night in the cemetery when they had the ladies of Pinewood in their cross hairs, only to be rendered useless by some guy's taser, things had been different between them. Ted blamed her for getting tasered, if there was such a word, and she blamed him.
No one, and that included Ted, would ever convince her that the man at the cemetery who felled them wasn't Jack Emery. Ted said it was impossible. Said he knew where Emery was that night and it wasn't at the cemetery. Guys always stuck together. It had to be Emery and not Bobby Harcourt, as Ted suggested.
Maggie drummed nervous fingers onthe desk top. She needed to do something and she needed to do it quickly before Ted got an edge on her. Her gut told her she had the inside track on a Pulitzer if she could get something concrete on those upscale ladies. Maybe it was time to be bold and brazen and head out to Pinewood and confront the ladies. Woman to woman.
Her fingers continued their mad dance on the scarred desk top. Better yet, maybe a one-on-one. But the only one she could get close to would be Isabelle Flanders. The truck driver and the personal shopper were too elusive. She had a chance with the Asian woman if she went to her nursery but she hadn't been at the cemetery that night. Any one-on-one meeting had to be with one of the women who had actually been there. Then again, maybe she should schedule an appointment with Nikki Quinn at her law offices.
She really wanted a Pulitzer.
Right now, though, she had to figure out a way to outwit Ted. She wondered if he'd lied to her when he said that after the ladies of Pinewood did their dirty work, they took a hiatus and didn't group up again for several months. He said they took time off to rest on their laurels. Fact or fiction? What she did know was that the women had all met up at noon. Her gut instinct told her they were gearing up for another caper. She felt a little envious, almost wishing she was part of that team. Almost.
Maggie thought she would feel guilty at not sharing everything with Ted but surprisingly, it didn't bother her at all. She must not be a nice person even though Ted thought she was the best thing since sliced bread. She remembered when she'd first started to work at the Post and thirty-year veteran curmudgeon Adele Matthews had given her a piece of sage advice: never trust a male reporter, never go with a dual by-line, especially with a male, and always look out for number one because no one else will. And, whatever you do, never forget that your ultimate goal is a Pulitzer.
Maggie got up from her desk, slipped into her light spring jacket, her thoughts on her really big secret, the small handheld recorder she'd used that night at the cemetery. She knew Ted had one, too, but at the last second, when he was occupied with something else, she'd removed the miniature cassette. She'd never told him she had one, too, in her pocket. She had the goods on the gals but she couldn't use it. Not yet.
Maggie tried to work some animation into her facial features. Her voice was short of a trill when she reached Ted's desk. "Hello there, sweet cheeks. How's it going today?"
Ted's eyes narrowed. She was up to something. He could smell her deviousness. He felt like giving her a good swat. He decided to be cagey. The only problem was, Jack Emery never got around to telling him how to do that. Being cagey was probably an addendum to Getting to Know and Understand Women 101.
"Well, it's going. Slow day in the world. I just got in about an hour ago. Gotta take the last shuttle to New York tonight. Big doings at the UN tomorrow. What's the local gossip?" If this was being cagey, he needed a refresher course. Maggie just looked smug. The urge to swat her was so strong he had to fight with himself not to pop her square on her cute little nose. Cute my ass. She was a barracuda out for a kill and he knew he was in her sights. He struggled for nonchalance by tilting back in his swivel chair. There was no way in hell he was going to ask her if she wanted to grab a quick bite.
"Want to get some early dinner? I'm free," Maggie said.
Ted couldn't believe his own ears when he said, "No thanks."
Maggie's eyes narrowed. This was a first. He'd actually turned her down. "I'm buying," she smiled.
"Sorry, no can do."
Maggie huffed and puffed and made a production out of buttoning her jacket. "Okay, guess I'll see you when you get back. When will that be?"
Jack Emery's words about "play hard to get once in a while" rang in his ears. He shrugged. "Not sure. I have a job interview at the Times. I'm there so why the hell not."
Maggie gaped, her jaw dropping. "You're leaving! Why? You never said a word to me about that. I thought we were a team. If I hadn't asked you, when were you going to tell me?"
Ted shrugged again. Maybe old Jack was onto something. Maggie looked ... pissed. He wondered exactly what that meant. That maybe she really did care? Or, she was just pissed at being left out of the loop. More likely the latter. "Where is it written that I have to tell you everything? We both know you don't tell me everything. I suppose I would have gotten around to telling you when and if I got the job, which is unlikely. I don't like jinxing myself."
Maggie switched gears. She decided sweet was the way to go. "If it's what you want, I hope you get it. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. Remember now, I have first dibs on you, so don't go getting cozy with any of those glitzy New York reporters."
Ted let the chair hit the floor. He swivelled around, his eyes cold and hard. "You took the tape out of my recorder that night at the cemetery, didn't you?
Maggie did her best to look outraged. "Is that what this is all about? How dare you accuse me of such a dastardly thing, Ted! How dare you! It's not my fault that you get sloppy sometime. I'm not your keeper, I can't oversee your every movement. You forgot in the excitement of the evening. Admit it."
"You know what, Maggie, I knew you'd say what you just said. You aren't the person I thought you were. I think we should go our separate ways. I'd like my key back. Since you never saw fit to give me a key to your pad, I have nothing to give back."
She didn't hear what she just heard, did she? Suddenly she felt sick to her stomach. "You're dumping me! Because you forgot to put a cassette in your recorder! Well, here you go, hot shot," Maggie said as she ripped his key off her keyring. She tossed it on the metal desk. "You know what else, you aren't the person I thought you were either. From now on, get your own coffee and doughnuts in the morning. Don't call me either."
Maggie's eyes were filling with tears. She turned and ran from the news room. God, what if that old curmudgeon, Adele, was wrong?
Outside in the late afternoon sunshine, Maggie let the tears flow. "He dumped me! He just ... he just cast me aside like an old shoe." She climbed in her car when she realized she'd been screaming and people were staring at her. "Well, screw you, Ted Robinson."
Inside the news room, Ted opened his backpack and fished around until he found what he was looking for. Two days ago he'd picked the lock on Maggie's apartment so he could search it. He'd found the tiny cassette in her Tampon box. He'd felt like a thief, which he was, when he copied the tape before he stuck the cassette in his pocket. The tape was very poor quality, the voices indistinguishable.
Ted felt like he was a hundred years old when he trudged his way to his boss's office. "Can you put this in your safe for now?" He tossed a small sealed yellow envelope across the desk. His step was a little lighter when he walked back to his desk, grabbed his backpack, slipped it on, and left the news room.
Sometimes life was a bitch.
Maggie let herself into her apartment and was immediately welcomed with sharp barks and wet kisses from Daisy. She reached for the leash, hooked it onto the dog's collar and took the stairs back down to the first floor. She walked the dog for a full hour before she headed out to the boulevard to pick up some Chinese food for her dinner.
Back in the apartment, Maggie made a production out of changing her clothes, feeding Daisy, going through her mail, making coffee before she tackled the dinner she really didn't want. Dumped. Ted had told her to get out of his life. Well, what did she expect. She'd betrayed her partner, the man who'd asked her to marry him. Tears dripped into her shrimp chow mein. Finally, she shoved the cardboard container across the table.
Swiping at her tears, Maggie headed for the bathroom and her Tampon box. Her fingers fumbled around at the bottom until she was able to grasp the tiny cassette. She carried it into the bedroom and slipped it into the mini recorder. She hit Play and waited. And waited. All she could hear were smatterings of words, lots of static, the rain and more static. She opened the recorder and turned the tape over to the other side. All she could hear was a soft whirring sound. Ted had outsmarted her.
"You bastard! You stinking bastard! You stole my tape!"
Ted arrived home in a foul mood. Even Mickey and Minnie couldn't make him smile. He headed straight for the kitchen where he picked up the phone, hit the speed dial, popped a Michelob and said, "Espinosa, Ted Robinson. Look, I need you to take my place tonight. You're taking the last shuttle to New York to cover the UN thing in the morning. I'm going to fax you the itinerary right now. Just sign in at the ticket counter. Your name is on the roster. What do you mean, why are you going? You're going because I said you're going. The old man doesn't care who goes as long as the story gets covered. I'm senior to your junior. No, no, I don't owe you anything. It's your job. Wait for the fax."
Ted slugged at his beer as he trooped down the hall to his computer room. He yanked the itinerary out of his backpack and faxed it off to Jesus Espinosa.
Back in the kitchen, Ted opened the refrigerator, knowing there was nothing in it but orange juice, milk, and three wilted apples. No magic fairy had done the grocery shopping while he was at work. He did, however, have boxed macaroni and cheese. He made two boxes, chowed down, and then fed the hissing snarling cats. So what if he missed a few food groups. Then he watched the early evening news as he waited for it to get dark.
At seven-thirty, Ted changed his clothes to an all-black outfit, got in his car and headed for Pinewood. His reporter's nose had been twitching for two days now. He had to pay attention. The nose twitch, he told himself over and over, had nothing to do with Maggie Spritzer. He wondered if Jack Emery would be proud of him. Jack had warned him early on, dump them before they dump you. That way you get to keep your ego. You get to see her cry. Better she should cry than you, a grown man. Jack just didn't say how much the betrayal was going to hurt. Smart ass Jack Emery. "I hate your fucking guts, you district attorney. Another thing, you asshole, don't think for one minute you fooled me out there at that cemetery. I know that was you. You aided and abetted those women. I got you on tape, you son of a bitch." Ted hated it when he talked out loud to himself. What he hated even more was when he answered himself. He continued talking to himself as his car ate up the miles. Before he knew it, he was a mile from the entrance to Pinewood. He parked his car on a wide shoulder of the road, got out and hiked the rest of the way to the security gates that led to the private compound. He was pulling out his night binoculars when he felt the fine hairs on the back of his neck move. He didn't stop to think; he made a mad dive into the bushes, clamped his hand over his mouth and lay still. Maggie? Charles Martin's private cops, the ones with the special gold shields? Jack? Maybe a wild animal and maybe none of the above. He lay quietly until he felt something crawl up his leg. A rat? He shook his leg and felt rather than saw something fly to the side. Yes, a rat. God, how he hated vermin.
Ted listened to the quiet spring night as he crept forward, the binoculars at his eyes. Aha! His twitching nose was right on target. All the ladies appeared to be in residence, even the big rig was there.
So, the ladies of Pinewood were getting ready to kick some ass. Yee Haw!
The girls were doing what Charles called kibitizing. Myra let her mind drift as she listened to them, to the birds singing in the trees, to Kathryn's dog Murphy and Alexis's dog Grady barking and chasing each other around the yard.
"I bought this racy looking dress," Yoko said. "I have nowhere to wear it."
Frugal, ever practical Kathryn said, "Then why did you buy it? How much was it? What color?"
"In case. I'm not telling you how much it was because you'll say I should have put the money in the bank for a rainy day. I never go anywhere on rainy days. The dress will get ruined in the rain because it's silk. It's sky blue."
Kathryn grinned. "Forget it. We have a language problem here. You don't wear the dress on a rainy day because you didn't buy the dress. Instead of buying the dress you put the money in the bank."
Yoko looked perplexed. "Then I would have no dress, in case."
Alexis jumped into the fray. "Hold on here. Is there a man somewhere in regard to this dress?"
Yoko tried to look demure. "In a manner of speaking. I was shopping in the Asian market and met a ... person there. This person was buying some of the same things I was buying. He looked at me with ... with ..."
"Lust?" Isabelle laughed.
"Perhaps."
"Did you get a name, a phone number?"
Yoko turned pink. "No, but he wanted mine. I didn't give it up." She eyed Kathryn and said, "I'm not easy. But ..." Her eyes grew round. "The clerk called me when I got home and told me the man asked for my address. She gave me his name. She said he was an important man. She gave it up because she said it was time for me to ... you know ..."
"Hop in the sack," Isabelle said, finishing Yoko's sentence for a second time. The women burst out laughing, even Myra and Yoko herself.
"So, who is he?" Nikki asked.
"He's not ... pretty."
"You mean handsome. Men are handsome, women are pretty," Kathryn said.
"Okay, hand-some. His name is Harry Wong. He teaches martial arts to police officers."
Nikki was glad there was nothing in her hands or she would have dropped it. Harry Wong was Jack's friend. Unless there were two Harry Wongs who taught martial arts to police officers.
Kathryn leaned forward. "And this clerk at the Asian market just gave you all this info ... because ..."
"I grilled her," Yoko said smartly. "I could probably teach him a thing or two. He has a dojo downtown."
"This is so exciting," Myra said. "Let me guess. You are going to go to the dojo and pretend you want to take lessons. It will be a chance encounter, that kind of thing. I think that's what I would do."
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Lethal Justice by Fern Michaels Copyright © 2006 by Fern Michaels. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Anonymous
Posted March 9, 2013
HELLO, THIS AUTHOR IS NEW TO ME. I ENJOYED THIS BOOK AND WOULD RECOMMEND FOR ALL TO READ. I WILL BE READING MORE OF FERN MICHAELS.
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Posted March 6, 2012
Love the series!!! Love Fern.....I miss all the people in this series...I feel like I knew them.... by time I was done with the series I felt like I lost some friends :(
The women are great but the men make it even better....LOVE JACK, HARRY, BERT AND TED.....wish the series did not end.
As I always say, Fern Michaels is a great author and writes good sisterhood books. Keep them coming!
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.This book was thrilling, dramatic, exciting, and it made you anxious to read the next book in the series. The characters (the sisters) were wonderful. They were determined and focused on their target and the success of their mission. I think that the punishments were so fitting for the hurt they had inflicked on the victims. It was very realistic.
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Posted November 4, 2008
I very much enjoyed reading this book. I would highly recommend this book.
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Posted March 14, 2007
I loved the whole series, excited and can hardly wait for the next book Free Fall that comes out in March. I have enjoyed reading ALL of her books.
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Posted February 19, 2007
I read the entire series in just 3 days and can not wait to read Yoko's story.I also can not wait to read the spin-off series that Ms. Michaels is going to be writing about the SISTER'S. If you have not read this series I highly recommend it!!
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Posted December 25, 2006
Alexis, having delayed her turn at justice in PAYBACK, is this time more than ready to avenge her treatment at the hands of employers Arden Gillespie and Roland Sullivan. This plan involves Myra's old friend Annie, who has been a recluse in a fortresslike sanctuary in Spain since the deaths of her family years ago. The way Myra gets Annie to 'snap out of it,' using Kathryn's rather forceful rules of persuasion, is interesting --- and effective. As in SWEET REVENGE, a great deal of the focus shifts to the baddies. Unlike the feral Rosemary Hershey, Arden is very controlled, her flawless beauty concealing a soul of indescribable ugliness, and isn't that compelling. That job falls to Sullivan, who presents an interesting portrait of a man who threw away his business ethics and his morality for the sake of Arden and now, having an 11th-hour attack of conscience (fueled by his fears of prison) over both his role in Alexis' imprisonment and the marriage he is throwing away, is proving the weak link in the chain. Alexis' revenge is both creative and appropriate, introducing a character whose appearance, though brief, is memorable enough to hope for an encore: Snake, an 'artiste' in his chosen field, whose skills play a crucial role in Alexis' method of revenge. Let me put it this way, they'll remember the woman they victimized, whether they want to or not --- and so will everybody else. As for the rest, Nikki finally resolves her conflict of loyalties --- the Sisterhood vs. Jack --- with results that will satisfy everyone. Yoko's evolution from quiet pacifist into increasingly strong, independent, and ACTIVE woman is interesing. The only unsatisfying thing I found --- and the rest of the positives were enough to outweigh this, fortunately --- is that Alexis' real name is different from the one she revealed to the Sisterhood in the first book. There ought to be some kind of software for writers to be able to keep track of their characters' profiles as they're doing other books in the series so this sort of thing can be prevented.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Stockbroker Alexis Thorn may be physically freed from prison after a year as a guest of the state, but mentally she is still handcuffed just like how the police took her from her office. Alexis swore then and swears now she is innocent as she has not defrauded life savings from elderly investors. She knows her former employers set her up to take the fall and vows somehow someday PAYBACK will prove SWEET REVENGE as this is when she will have completed her VENDETTA.-------------- However, realistically the culprits are protected and seemingly untouchable until Alexis¿ angels, the vigilante Sisterhood led by Myra Rutledge, take up her cause. They begin the mission possible caper to frame the framers. They set up a dummy account owned by a non existent elderly female and begin to lure in the avarice stockbrokers-predators. They must be more careful than usual on their sixth caper (see WEEKEND WARRIORS) as two intelligent investigative reporters Maggie Spritzer and Ted Robinson illegally find evidence that could expose the Sisterhood.------------- The latest Sisterhood thriller is a fun tale of revenge with the extra spin of the journalists closing in on the avenging group. The story line is action packed as Charlie¿s Angels star in Mission impossible. Readers will enjoy the latest escapade rooting for Ms. Gillespie and Mr. Sullivan to taste LETHAL JUSTICE.---------- Harriet Klausner
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Overview
Alexis Thorn, once a successful securities broker, spent a hellish year behind bars for a crime she never committed. Now she has her freedom, but she’s left with ...