Robin Lockwood is an increasingly prominent defense attorney with an impressive number of challenging cases to her credit. But when Lockwood is summoned by retired district attorney Frank Melville to meet with him at his rural manor, Black Oaks, she's about to be handed one of the most challenging cases of her career. As a DA, Melville worked to convict and see that defendants were put behind bars for their crimes. Now that he's retired, Melville has quietly worked to get the wrongfully convicted exonerated. When he was the district attorney, he'd prosecuted a young man, Jose Alvarez, for the murder of his girlfriend. Years later, when Melville was in private practice, a client admitted to the murder and to framing the man Melville successfully prosecuted. Unable to reveal what he knows due to attorney-client privilege, Melville now wants Lockwood's help in finding a way to get that wrongful conviction overturned. Successful in their efforts, Melville invited Lockwood up to Black Oaks for a celebration. The mansion has an interesting history—originally built in the seventeenth century in England, there's a murderous legend and curse attached to it. Lockwood fids herself among an odd group of invitees—including the bitter, newly released Jose Alvarez; a fading Hollywood action-movie star; and Melville's own personal attorney, there on a mysterious mission. The celebration takes a decidedly turn when the guests are trapped by a freak storm that washes out the road, and are then warned to stay inside by local police, who are searching for an escaped homicidal lunatic. Melville himself is then found murdered, with a knife connected to the mansion's curse, alone in an elevator stalled between floors. Now Lockwood finds herself facing a triple conundrum—how was the impossible murder committed, who is the murderer among them, and how soon until another victim falls prey?

Title from web page. Compact disc.