Eight years ago, Brenna Kennedy defended Carmen DellaVecchio: a loner, a freak, a man accused of a heinous crime. She lost the case, and DellaVecchio was sent to prison for the brutal rape and near murder of Teresa Harnett, a Pittsburgh cop. But DNA evidence has cast doubt on DellaVecchio’s guilt. While he waits for a new trial, he is free, and Brenna still believes that he is an innocent man. But if DellaVecchio is innocent, then that means there’s a guilty sociopath out there, and all that’s standing in his way from getting away with a grisly crime is one meddling lawyer… Jim Christensen has the key to unlock memories. Brilliant and compassionate, he’s dedicated his career to studying the effects of memory loss, including on victims of trauma. When Teresa Harnett asks him to help her remember that terrible night, he resists. Ethically, it’s unsound, as Christensen and Kennedy have been together for six years. But Christensen is drawn into the case, and soon everyone involved is caught in the web of a man who will kill to stay free… “The creepiest good time I’ve had in ages—a genuine page turner.” —Laura Lippman, New York Times bestselling author of And When She Was Good “An engrossing mystery with a wonderfully unique sleuth [who] tackles the most mysterious setting of all: the Bermuda Triangle of human memory. Smith’s writing really delivers … a most satisfying read.” —Barbara Seranella, author of the Munch Mancini seriesAmazon.com ReviewTeresa Harnett has been unable to remember the circumstances of the attack that left her almost dead eight years ago. With the help of her devoted husband, she's finally beginning to put her life together again. But then the man who was convicted of the crime is released from prison after DNA evidence indicates that he may not have been responsible. So who's making the frightening phone calls, repeating the phrase from the attack that only the man dubbed the Scarecrow could know? It was Teresa's testimony that put the Scarecrow behind bars, and the indefatigable efforts of his defense lawyer, Brenna Kennedy, that cleared him. But now Teresa is having second thoughts. The scary phone calls don't sound like the man who nearly killed her, and fragments of the past have begun to haunt her dreams again. The only person who can help sort out Teresa's memories, psychologist Jim Christensen, is Brenna's sweetheart, a man with doubts of his own--not just about the Scarecrow, but about the woman he loves as well. Author Martin Smith's knowledge of the controversy behind recovered memories drives this suspenseful thriller to a powerful conclusion. Along the way, his strong narrative voice and ability to create multidimensional characters who stay with you long after the last page make Straw Men a solid page turner. This mass-market original packs enough of a wallop for most hardcover fans, so don't let the format fool you. --Jane AdamsFrom Publishers WeeklyYet again, Teresa wakes up screaming, reliving the nightmare of when she was viciously attacked and left for dead eight years ago. But this time, something's different. Before now, she was absolutely positive that her attacker was Carmen DellaVecchio (aka the Scarecrow), the man who had been imprisoned for the brutal crime. Now, however, she hears a different voice. Is it the Scarecrow or not? Since DellaVecchio's sudden release from prisonAbased on new DNA evidenceATeresa and Brenna, the Scarecrow's aggressive attorney, have been receiving strange phone calls. Reluctantly, Brenna's boyfriend, Jim, a psychologist who's an expert on memory, works with Teresa to try to determine which of her memories are real and which are not. In fact, it is Jim who starts wondering whether Teresa's husband, also a cop, and some of his friends on the force are involved. As a walk through the halls of justice, forensic psychology and police procedure, this novel provides diversion. Smith (Shadow Image; Time Release) fails to create characters that emerge as real people, however, and readers will come away thinking they've read similar, albeit stronger, novels. Agent, Susan Ginsburg. (Jan. 2) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Nothing stays buried forever, especially not the past.Two men stand out in a crowd overlooking the Ohio River. A plane is being taken from the water where it crashed decades before. Both men helped put it there.Jim Christensen's daughter, Melissa, has been troubled of late. She has dreams that feel like memories, unsettling images percolate to the surface. She remembers a terrifying past, possibly her own, from a time before she was adopted by her father. Christensen's work as an expert in memory makes him the ideal person to help unlock his daughter's fragile grasp on her own history. But will he want to learn the truth of where Melissa came from? Who she was before? Who might still be looking for her?This dizzying novel of suspense takes the reader back into a dirty war and its human costs, into the fevered mind of one of its survivors, and through the crosshairs of a man desperate to keep his own history vanished.

Pittsburgh, 1986: The city is gripped in a panic as a maniac slips poison onto pharmacy shelves. All of the evidence has pointed to Ron Corbett, but shoddy policework let Corbett off the hook, left the crime unsolved. Ten years later, it’s happening again. This time, for the most personal of reasons, Detective Downing has made it his mission to see Corbett behind bars. He enlists the help of Jim Christensen, a psychologist who specializes in memory, to interview Corbett’s son, now a young man with a painful past and problems of his own. Does the boy remember his father poisoning pill containers? Has he blocked memories of a horrific crime spree enacted in his own house? As Christiansen explores the boy’s memory and Downing grows more obsessive investigating the case, both men fear that the killings now may not be as random as they once thought, and that unlocking memories may draw them too close to a vicious predator. “Time Release sizzles, cooks, and singes! It’s a whipcord thriller full of deftly drawn characters, intrigue, and taut action. This is a spellbindingly accomplished first novel”—James Ellroy, New York Times bestselling author of The Big Nowhere “Time Release is a fast, smart read and one fine thriller.”—Robert Ferrigno, New York Times bestselling author of Prayers for the Assassin “Unexpected plot twists and breathless tension combine for a suspenseful ride that doesn’t let up.”—The Kansas City StarAmazon.com ReviewHere's an exceptionally smart and exciting first thriller from a fine journalist who knows how to take items from recent headlines--poison in painkillers, repressed memory--and turn them into totally absorbing fiction. Psychologist Jim Christensen, raising two daughters on his own, has many reasons not to get involved in a mass murder case which could harm his family. But the troubled boy at the heart of the mystery is too much of a challenge for Christensen to resist. About the AuthorMartin J. Smith is a veteran journalist and magazine editor. He has won more than 40 newspaper and magazine writing awards, and four times was nominated by his newspaper for the Pulitzer Prize. Born in Birmingham, Alabama, and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he began writing professionally while a student at Pennsylvania State University in the late 1970s. His 15-year career as a newspaper reporter took him around the world, from the rural poverty of Southwestern Pennsylvania to Nevada?s Mustang Ranch bordello; from the riot-torn streets of Los Angeles to the revolutionary streets of Manila; from pre-glasnost Siberia to the new frontier of cyberspace. He currently is editor-at-large of Orange Coast magazine in Orange County, Calif., a regional monthly magazine he edited for four years. Smith lives with his wife and their two children in Southern California, where he remains part of an often overlooked minority -- the Soccer Dad. You can email the author at enos@ix.netcom.com

"A page-turner with a kicker at the end—you can't ask for anything better. Intricately plotted and full of character, this one is a great ride that burns with the intensity of a California wildfire."—Michael Connelly, #1 New York Times bestsellerThe dry season has hit the Inland Empire of California, depleting the ponds and revealing the muddy grave of Paul Dwyer. From his mansion on the hill, Dwyer lorded over Los Colmas, a small town that he aspired to make big by building mansions for wealthy LA commuters. Some viewed him as a savior, providing construction jobs for locals. Others believed he was ruining their beautiful, close-knit town. But who was angry enough to murder him?Local cop Ron Starke is overwhelmed by the list of suspects and plagued by a difficult captain who is demanding results. Starke investigates Paul Dwyer's dirty money and handshake deals gone wrong, but the name at the top of the suspect list is the most intriguing, and...

The Underhill family has loomed over Pennsylvania politics for four generations as the most powerful in the state. Now, with their youngest son locked in a tight gubernatorial race, a simple accident threatens to derail the entire campaign. After Floss Underhill, the family matriarch, has been discovered alive after falling from a gazebo into a ravine, Brenna Kennedy gets brought in as a defense attorney to the family. The police don’t seem to believe that her fall was an accident, however, and soon neither does Brenna. Jim Christensen, a psychologist, memory expert, and Brenna’s partner as they raise their children together, has been studying Floss Underhill for months in a group of Alzheimer’s patients. Her mind ravaged by the disease, her body broken by the fall, Floss Underhill nevertheless knows something, and is trying to tell Christensen a family secret so explosive it could bring down an empire. To help bring it out of her, though, will make them powerful enemies, and bring both the truth—and the danger—very close to home… “Martin J. Smith writes a damned good whodunit. Shadow Image hooks you … right through to the last page.” —Michael Connelly, New York Times bestselling author of The Black Box “Powerful figures tread a dangerous path through dementia, pity, and murder in Martin J. Smith’s compelling new novel. …No reader will walk away untouched.” —Taylor Smith, author of Random ActsAmazon.com ReviewPsychologist Jim Christensen takes on a touchy, timely subject--the ravages of Alzheimer's and how little is really known about it--in Martin J. Smith's second original paperback featuring Christensen (after the equally tense and strongly written Time Release). It appears that Floss Underhill has attempted suicide by jumping off a bridge on her family's estate outside Pittsburgh, and both Christensen and his live-in lover Brenna Kennedy become involved in the case. Brenna's the lawyer hired by the politically powerful Underhill family to keep a lid on the story. Jim knows Floss from his work at the Alzheimer's research center where she is a longtime patient. As Brenna and Jim arrive at the same conclusion from different angles--that Floss was the victim of attempted murder--their lives and those of their two children from previous marriages are threatened by old and new secrets that bubble up from unexpected sources, including the strangely lucid paintings of a disturbed woman. --Dick AdlerFrom Publishers WeeklySmith brings back psychologist Jim Christensen (Time Release) in an obvious whodunit set against a truly engaging background of art therapy used to aid Alzheimer's patients. Christensen and his lover Brenna Kennedy, the knockout defense attorney, are caught in the maelstrom when the matriarch of the powerful Underhill family, Floss Underhill, goes over a railing on the family estate. Floss is in the late stages of Alzheimer's, so it is through her paintings that the duo hope to unravel the secrets behind Floss's "accident." The scenes at the Harmony Brain Research Center are fascinating, but unfortunately, Smith's plotting plods, with Jim and Brenna often two steps behind any reader who's ever seen or read a mystery. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.