num_pages: 181
description: Claire Elizabeth Manning, elderly and successful California business-woman, has died, leaving a tiny percentage of her money-a suspiciously EXACT amount-to her beloved only son. The remainiing millions are bequeathed to an unknown and unusually difficult-to-locate third cousin in New Jersey. Lawyer Jesse Falkenstein is called in by the son to contest the will and finds himself drawn into a terrifying search for meaning and motive as he tries to piece together the dead woman's past. Fifty-year old diaries and letters provide enigmatic clues, yet nothing more recent can be found to shed any light on the mystery. Evidence of blackmail is unearthed, then suspicions of former infidelities, and before he knows what's happening, Falkenstein has more information than can possibly be applicable. But when he is brutally beaten in his own driveway, Falkenstein knows he's on the right track, a track that will eventually lead him to a secret over half a century old....
language: English
title: Motive in Shadow
titlecomplete: Motive in Shadow (Jesse Falkenstein #10)
genres: Mystery
ratings_count: 36
series: Jesse Falkenstein
publisher: Published for the Crime Club by Doubleday