Reita Pendry Books In Order

Publication Order of Cass Robbins Books

Publication Order of Mercy Johnson Books

Reita Pendry is a mystery crime and legal thriller author who was once upon a time a practicing attorney.

She finally banished years of paralyzing stage fright to become one of the best criminal defense lawyers in Washington and a career spanning more than three decades.
It is from her passion for justice and legal experience that she draws much of the inspiration for her legal mysteries.

After years of practicing law in Washington, she retired to the North Carolina town of Charlotte. She now spends much of her time working for homeless animals and writing.

While she loves dogs, she began trapping and vetting homeless cats while she lived in Washington. She hooked up with Friends of Feral Felines when she moved back to Charlotte as she was interested in continuing the work she began in DC.
Reita now loves to write with her keyboard on her lap as there are usually two or three cats lounging on her desk at any one time. She now has at least a dozen works of fiction to her name most of which have been massive bestsellers.

Reita Pendry was born in the North Carolina Mountains and grew up in Charlotte North Carolina. She would then go to the Charlotte-based Queens College, where she got her undergraduate degree.

Following her graduation, she got a job with a civil rights firm in Charlotte where she worked for at least three years. It was from this experience that she felt that she wanted to do nothing but pursue a degree in law.
Pendry would then go to the University of North Carolina where she graduated in 1973. After working for three years doing civil litigation for a North Carolina legal aid program, she moved to Washington.

In the latter, she got a job working with the American Civil Liberties Union National Prison Project and the United States Commission on Civil Rights.

Working with the prison project, she was the lead on several cases in federal courts in Pennsylvania and Maine. She has also worked as a Public Defender in the District of Columbia besides supervising and training staff attorneys.
In 1990, she became a member of the Federal Public Defender in the District of Columbia, where she tried many felony cases in federal court besides supervising and training interns, law students, and staff attorneys.
In 1997, she was the winner of the R. Kenneth Mundy Lawer of the Year Award.

Pendry retired from the Federal Public Defender’s office in 2000 to go back home to Charlotte North Carolina. She currently divides her time between working for homeless animals and writing her novels.

Reita loves dogs too, she spends most of her time helping homeless felines. She began trapping and vetting homeless felines while she lived in Washington and hooked up with the Friends of Feral Felines in Charlotte when she came back.
Most days, she can be found writing with her keyboard on her lap as there are usually two or three felines lounging on her desk.

“China White” by Reita Pendry is a work set in Washington that introduces Mercy Johnson. She is a criminal defense attorney who is known for having a nose for mischief.

When John Morrow a young college student retains her services on a heroin smuggling case, she immediately knows that her job will be harder than usual due to the mischief in the case.
Her instincts are correct as the heroin in the case worth 20 million dollars is central in the United States v. John Morrow case.

At recess, some criminals manage to steal the exhibit from the federal court while taking Morrow and Mercy as hostages. A seasoned narcotics detective named Will Banks needs to get back the heroin and bring the criminals to book.
After news of the heist comes out, Mercy and Sam Lester her investigator make a strong case for dismissing the smuggling charges against Morrow while the banks are grappling with the fear that the police may have arrested the wrong man.
One of Mercy’s nephews is picked by the Narcotics Task Force to take part in the heroin heist investigations and nearly dies in a sting to recover the stolen drugs.

On the line is Morrow’s future, his college career, and everything he holds dear. Mercy needs to convince the federal prosecutor and Banks that Morrow had nothing to do with the heroin plot.

Reita Pendry’s novel “Sleepytime” tells the story of a man who suffers from narcolepsy, a sleep disorder that makes him sleep in the wrong places and at the wrong times.

Nicknamed Sleepy LeBlanc, he somehow falls asleep in the department store’s dressing room and he is found there by security guards after closing time with clothing still having their price tags all around him.
He is taken in and charged with burglary. For some unknown reasons, his uptown attorney will not explain his condition during his trial resulting in a wrongful conviction.

While in jail he gets assigned to a crew and is lucky that the boss allows him to sleep on the bus. One day, a guard wakes him up and informs him that the boss of their crew has been killed and all the prisoners have escaped.
It is his worst nightmare as the investigating FBI agent believes that Sleepy is privy to all the details of the crime and escape. The agent is desperate to progress in his career and thinks Sleepy would make a good ladder.
Once his fellow prisoners who escaped are apprehended they quickly find him and threaten his family if he does not keep his mouth shut. They even attempt to poison him and even burn his cell.

He finds himself in the middle of the fears of a prison gang who are being charged with murder and an FBI agent with political ambitions. But he is lucky that a young prison psychologist and his ex-wife are working hard to save him.
It is at this time that his sleep disorder proves to be both a tool to gain his freedom and a curse.

“In the Frame” by Reita Pendry is an interesting mystery fiction work that has to be one of the author’s best. The lead in the novel is Jack Fontaine a South Carolina Congressman who has been accused and is presumed guilty of a heinous crime.
Maxi Kincaid his lover who is also a lobbyist had been found killed in her home in Washington hours after he left the house which means he is the main suspect.

Mercy Johnson a defense attorney takes his case, even though Jack is known for being a self-absorbed and arrogant man. She takes the case since her mother and his aunt are friends from their South Carolina childhood.
Jack proves to be a troublesome client but it is not long before his attorney finds evidence that could exonerate him.

Even his wife who lives by herself enjoying the bridge and country clubs in Charleston speaks up for him asserting that he is a jerk but not a killer.
It seems his determination to ensure his Sea Island district is not overdeveloped may be a motive for trying to get him out of the picture.