Star Witness

Star Witness is the sixth adventure of attorney Willa Jansson. Publishers Weekly calls it "the wackiest of a lively series" with "singularly offbeat characters." And the Washington Post says, "Matera has done her alien abduction homework... and given the premise of the story, has managed to write a courtroom drama about the nature of circumstantial evidence and reasonable doubt that you simply have to keep reading, just so see how it comes out."

Willa Jansson is about to take a well-earned vacation from her job at a San Francisco multimedia law firm when a friend calls in a favor. So, on what should have been her first day on a Mexican beach, Willa is off to Santa Cruz, California. She hopes a few days work will wrap up what she's told is a simple case of vehicular manslaughter and felony hit-and-run.

But there's nothing simple about her new client's bizarre situation. Alan Miller's sports car supposedly went over an embankment onto the coastal highway below, landing atop another car and killing its driver. So why are there are no tire tracks on the field above, and why aren't Miller's injuries consistent with a car crash?

Miller can't remember the accident, or where he was at the time. But when a hypnotist unlocks his memories, even Miller refuses to believe them.

Willa's simple favor turns into a nightmare of repressed secrets, black helicopters, UFO specialists, and mocking reporters. With the spotlight on her, she has to walk a fine line between offering no evidence and offering testimony guaranteed to make her a laughingstock and cost her a very good job.

The San Francisco Examiner said of Star Witness, "This fast-moving tale is peppered with eccentric characters, snappy dialogue and a creative plot," and the San Francisco Chronicle noted that "One needn't believe in aliens or flying saucers to admire Matera's gift for weaving... a tight alien-dunit mystery."