Breathless (Sonnet Books)
Respected attorney and rising young political star Daniel Walker takes on a case important to one of his supporters in the little town of Shivaree, Georgia, in the first decade of this century. A local judge has closed down the Shivaree Social Club after a five-year battle with Lily Morgan, the local librarian, a spunky red-haired divorcee. Lily and Daniel have a history. He was her husband's divorce lawyer and made her look like an adulteress, turning her into a friendless outcast. With the help of the judge's young wife, Lily is able to rally the local women into a Lysistrata-like strike until the men of the town arrange to vote to keep the club open or to close it down. But just before the election, one of the club's young prostitutes is murdered, and Lily's gentle, illiterate young helper, Amos, is arrested for the crime. As Lily and Daniel team up to provide a legal defense for Amos they begin to see each other as people, not just as the "enemy."Diana Tixier Herald