Last Chants

LAST CHANTS is the fifth adventure of attorney Willa Jansson, described by the New York Times as "one of the most articulate and surely the wittiest of women sleuths at large in the genre." The Washington Times praised Last Chants for its "intriguing plot, well developed with interesting characters in a picturesque location."

Willa has at last unloaded some of her radical activist baggage, revised her résumé, and landed what she hopes will be a steady job in the growing field of multimedia law. But things go wrong before she even makes it to her first day at work. A chance encounter with an old family friend ends with both of them on the run from San Francisco police. 

Hiding out in the Santa Cruz Mountains--unfortunately, at the cabin of an old flame Willa never fully forgave--she and her fellow fugitive try to piece together a puzzle that straddles the line between New Age and computer age. Her friend is wanted for killing a man who claimed to have created a cybernetic shaman. And the only way to clear him--and avoid her own arrest as an accessory after the fact--is to learn the truth from the mountain's oddball survivalists, tech gurus, and a naked stalker who claims to be the demigod Pan.

In a starred and boxed review, Booklist said, "Effectively blending the seemingly incongruous elements of high-tech computing and ancient mythology, Matera has produced a first-rate mystery, exhibiting her usual hallmarks of excellent plotting, solid characterizations, and brisk pacing."