The Law of Revenge (1997)

Tess Collins's first novel follows Alma Bashears, a coal miner's daughter from an Appalachian hollow who has become a senior associate at a San Francisco law firm, back to Kentucky when her brother Vernon is charged with murder. The opening chapter shows how far she has come, and what she wears to show it. (Open Library)

Watches

Wittnauer watch: Having kept the drug-addicted daughter of a client worth millions a year to the firm out of jail, Alma rides away from court in Mitchell Brenner's limousine, brushes the linen of her suit and pushes up a sleeve to check her diamond Wittnauer. Brenner follows the gesture, and his eyes seem to acknowledge that Alma has made something of herself while his daughter never will. The maker is named; the model is not.

Source text: Alma brushed the expensive linen of her suit and pushed up a sleeve to check the time on her diamond Wittnauer watch. Mitchell Brenner followed the gesture, and his troubled eyes seemed to acknowledge that Alma had made something of herself while his daughter never would. (Tess Collins, The Law of Revenge, scan cataloged as Ivy Books, 1997, under the name Theresa Collins, p. 7; the OCR inserts a stray comma after "check"; her surname is on p. 1; Internet Archive scan OCR)