Sticks & Stones, by R. Franklin James

Sticks & Stones, R. Franklin James, Hollis Morgan, Mystery
Paperback: $14.95
ISBN: 9781603819190
eBook: $4.95
Mystery

Sticks & Stones, by R. Franklin James

“Sticks and Stones can break my bones ….” Despite what the old children’s rhyme says, words can cause grievous harm. A lesson ex-con Hollis Morgan, a casualty of her deceased ex-husband’s white collar crimes, knows all too well. Now she hopes to clear the name of a friend accused of libel by philanthropist Dorian Fields, a man whose charitable giving looks a lot like money-laundering. Only problem: the evidence has disappeared and her friend Catherine is found dead. A suicide, they say, although that is quickly disproved. Hollis’ friend was murdered.

Catherine was writing an article about Fields for a tabloid. Hollis and attorney Mark Haddan convince the magazine to let them carry on with the libel defense, but they have fewer than 60 days to prove Catherine’s exposé was well-founded. In the meantime Hollis has other distractions, such as awaiting the results of the bar exam. Now that she has received an official pardon, she is free to pursue her dreams of moving up in the world from paralegal to attorney. She is also helping to settle the estate of Margaret Koch, a rich client of the law firm who died leaving no heirs. And then there are the two men vying for her attention—one a police detective, the other a private eye.

Normally Hollis trusts her built-in lie detector, but in this case, too many people are lying for too many reasons. One of them is not only a liar, but a killer.

Sticks & Stones is the second book in the Hollis Morgan Mystery series.

R. Franklin James grew up in the San Francisco East Bay Area and graduated from the University of California at Berkeley. She and her husband currently live in northern California.

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