Island Books
Sister act

By Ann M. Sato
Advertiser Book Critic

"Writ of Execution" is the latest legal thriller from the O'Shaughnessy sisters, Mary, left, and Pamela, who write from 3,000 miles apart. Cory Snedecor

On a conference call with a reporter, they interrupt each other, laugh at each other's quips, trade good-natured barbs, continue each other's sentences and agree and disagree with equal fervor and obvious affection.

The two — Pam, who lives in Kailua, and Mary, who lives in northern California, outside Palo Alto — have written seven legal thrillers under the pseudonym Perri O'Shaughnessy. It seems to work: "Move to Strike," the second-to-last book featuring their heroine Nina Reilly, popped up on the New York Times paperback best-seller list this week.

Their latest work, "Writ of Execution," set partly in Hawai'i, will join the John Grishams and Steve Martinis on the hardcover new release shelves in the coming week. And though "Perri" doesn't exist as a flesh-and-blood human being, she clearly does live and breathe in the nexus between these two women's minds. Listen in ...

Pam begins to answer a question about the beginning of their writing partnership. "This actually happened by accident," she says, but is halted mid-sentence by her sister.

"May I tell it? If I let Pam tell it, I'll have to interrupt because she just doesn't remember things as they are, in my opinion," says Mary. Pam laughs (at least it sounded as though it was Pam).

Mary launches into the story of how she tried, with disastrous results, to return to work as a writer and editor for multi-media projects not long after giving birth to her third child. She had three children under 5 and was working nights while her husband held down the fort. "It was just hideous for everyone," she says. "So I thought, 'It's time to write that novel I could never write.'"

What happens next is a measure of how close the two sisters have always been — best friends more than siblings. Listening sympathetically to her sister's plans, Pam said, literally, "Here, take mine." Turned out that Pam, then a lawyer in Walnut Creek, Calif., had a novel all blocked out — "dynamite, a great plot," Mary says — and no time to work on it. So she suggested Mary finish it.

Mary did, and then the fun began. Pam's reaction to the first draft was an anguished "What have you done to my story?" So she "fixed it." Mary's reaction: "Oh my God, the woman can't write."

So naturally they had to start all over again and see if they could get it right. They set that project aside (it's the first Nina Reilly novel, and it has still never been published) and, despite the fact that Pam moved to New York shortly thereafter, began to write a book together, the one that became "Motion to Suppress," published in 1995 and set in Aspen, Colo., where Pam once lived.

In this best seller, Nina Reilly messes up what is already a moribund marriage in a rather endearing way, and flees to her brother and sister-in-law in Aspen, where she opens a one-woman law office in the very building where Pam once worked in real life, and sets up housekeeping on the street where Pam lived.

The authors settled into a rhythm of daily, hour-long phone conversations each morning, writing and researching in the afternoons. Today, both have left their previous professions and write full time.

Their mutual work, emerging from two or three drafts that have been endlessly discussed, debated and rewritten, is so seamless that they won't tell — they say they can't tell — which parts belong to whom.

"We do have very different styles and we had to work hard on hammering out a common style," Mary says.

"We love the fact that we have another person that's so tuned in to what's going on, that makes it fun and less solitary. We have a garrulous Irish streak in us that makes us enjoy being social about writing."

Each book begins with a discussion of the plot: What will Nina's next case be? What are the legal principles, social issues and personal developments to be explored?

In "Writ of Execution," the case involves a woman under attack by her vindictive former father-in-law, who gets a judgment against her that could leave her penniless for life; the legal principles they explore include the concept that you can be sued in absentia.

The social problem is gambling addiction. And the personal developments — well, Paul and Nina are at it again, dancing around their futures while Nina, a single mom, tries to do justice to both her law practice and her 13-year-old son.

From the beginning they wanted to write books of the sort they like to read: books about women who are strong, who have adventures, but with some intellectual and emotional content, not too hardboiled and no graphic sex or violence.

"From the very beginning Pam was determined that this not be a perfect Perry Mason archetypal lawyer who was going to win every case," Mary says. "Nina is a lot like most women today, trying to juggle a professional life, a family life, a love life, a spiritual life. ...

I think people read books to become enlightened about their own lives. We're always looking for clues about how to live. I think Nina is a wonderful vehicle for that search."

While they're at it, however, Pam can't resist bringing to light some of the problems she saw when she was practicing law. "We have a lot of fun pointing out flaws in the system. ... Things go wrong and it's not all (Nina's) fault," says Pam, who admits she was glad to "hang up (her) pantyhose" and write full time.

And neither can hold back from embroidering their favorite Island places into the book's plot. Nina had a sort of pre-wedding honeymoon in Lanikai in an earlier book.

In the new one, Paul comes to Hawai'i to investigate Nina's case and goes to Duke's, looks into a mysterious death in Kualoa, interviews someone at the Queen's Medical Center, gets caught in a townside traffic jam (do you have to remind us?) and has lunch at the Greek Corner on University Avenue.

Mary says she keeps trying to write herself to Hawai'i and Pam made a point of talking about her fascination with Island culture and her respect for Island writers such as Lois-Ann Yamanaka.

"There is such a foment of ideas here, the Mainland seems old and stodgy by comparison," says Pam, fretting a little that she might not have gotten the Island ethos right in the book.

"I hope people understand that it's just that I'm not trying to say I know everything, I'm so interested."

Ann M. Sato is The Advertiser's book critic.