Lily White * Susan Isaacs

Hired to defend a charming, slick con man who has been arrested for the brutal murder of a wealthy Long Island widow, a sharp-witted defense attorney must untangle his web of deception while confronting the buried ghosts of her own family history.

The Story: Written by prominent New York Times bestselling icon and acclaimed social satirist Susan Isaacs, this celebrated 1996 masterwork is a multi-layered entry in contemporary legal suspense. The narrative steps away from the grit and clinical forensic tracking typical of traditional police procedurals. Instead, Isaacs creates a deeply atmospheric legal drama that masterfully pairs an intricate courtroom battle with a sharp, witty exploration of suburban class dynamics, showing that the ultimate defense relies on exposing family secrets before they completely hollow out the truth.

The plot follows Lily White, a brilliant but emotionally guarded criminal defense attorney practicing in Long Island. Her business routine takes a sharp turn when she agrees to represent Norman Torkelson, a career con artist who stands accused of strangling a wealthy local woman after milking her bank accounts dry. While Norman is an unrepentant charlatan, he adamantly denies committing the murder. As Lily digs into the case to build her strategy, the puzzle forced her to look back at her own upbringing, running a parallel internal chronicle of her fractured childhood with a cold, status-obsessed mother and a deeply eccentric father.

Rather than reading like a dry legal ledger, the book is a deeply comforting, sensory-heavy companion for studying human behavior and social ambition. Isaacs balances her sharp courtroom tracking with her signature biting humor, tracing how the hidden conditioning of the past dictates our modern survival patterns. Published as a premium first-edition trade hardcover by HarperCollins, this international chart-topper keeps the tension at a comforting boil until its final, dramatic closing arguments.

Perfect For: Devotees of character-driven courtroom dramas, witty domestic suspense, and rich psychological fiction; readers who thoroughly enjoy the sharp, observant style of authors like Scott Turow, Anna Quindlen, or Nelson DeMille; and book collectors securing a clean first printing of a definitive 1990s legal fiction classic.

Published 1996 by HarperCollins.

Legal Thrillers / Psychodramas / Women's Fiction / Courtroom Melodrama / Domestic Suspense