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Overview
Criminal lawyer Marta Richter is hours away from winning an acquittal for her client, millionaire businessman Elliot Steere, on trial for the murder of a homeless man who had tried to carjack him. But as the jury begins deliberations, Marta discovers the chilling truth about her client's innocence. Taking justice into her own hands, she furiously sets out to prove the truth, with the help of two young associates. In an excruciating game of beat-the-clock with both the jury and the worst blizzard to hit Philadelphia in decades, Marta will learn that the search for justice isn't only rough—it can also be deadly.
Synopsis
Criminal lawyer Marta Richter is hours away from winning an acquittal for her client, millionaire businessman Elliot Steere, on trial for the murder of a homeless man who had tried to carjack him.
But as the jury begins deliberations, Marta discovers the chilling truth about her client's innocence.
Maureen Corrigan
An entertaining, giddily paced legal thriller that readers will enjoy. . . Not since Ben Franklin launched his kite has Philadelphia been the site of such electrifying suspense.
Editorials
People Magazine
The female John Grisham.Philadelphia Inquirer
An entertaining, giddily paced legal thriller that readers will enjoy. . .a very clever novel.US Magazine
A whip-smart protagonist. . .A nasty villain. . .A breathless pace.Detroit Free Press
Fascinating. . . Thrilling. . . Nail-Biting.Maureen Corrigan
An entertaining, giddily paced legal thriller that readers will enjoy. . . Not since Ben Franklin launched his kite has Philadelphia been the site of such electrifying suspense.People Magazine
The female John Grisham.Philadelphia Inquirer
An entertaining, giddily paced legal thriller that readers will enjoy. . .a very clever novel.US Magazine
A whip-smart protagonist. . .A nasty villain. . .A breathless pace.Kirkus Reviews
Scottoline clinches her title as the distaff Grisham with this gorgeously plotted novel based on a trial lawyer's worst nightmare.Minutes after her brilliantly successful homicide defense of Philadelphia slumlord Elliot Steere goes to the jury, Marta Richter hears from her client's own lips that he's guilty. He didn't shoot knife-wielding Heb Darnton in self-defense during a carjacking; instead, he killed him in cold blood, and everything he's told Marta—and Marta's persuaded the jury—is a lie. How can Marta get evidence against her own client before the jury comes in with the surefire acquittal? For one thing, she has to dig up a motive for wealthy, powerful Steere to kill a homeless nonentity, and to find the damning evidence against Steere before his mysterious girlfriend can destroy it. She has to dodge bullets from Steere's errand boy, Bobby Bogosian, during the worst blizzard in the city's history. She has to neutralize the jury, most of whom want to vote not guilty, and the judge, who's counting on the acquittal to leapfrog him into the state Supreme Court. And since she's a hired gun from outside the city, she has to do all this without awakening the suspicions of her local affiliates, Rosato & Associates ("Girls R' Us"), whose managing partner, Benedetta Rosato (Legal Tender, 1996), is so dedicated to the principle of client loyalty that she'll turn away arguments about Steere's guilt by asking, "What happens to the legal system if each lawyer makes his own judgments about a client's morality?" It's a good question, and if Scottoline doesn't exactly address it with the moral seriousness of Scott Turow, she provides nonstop thrills for Richter and Rosato & Associates as they race the clock, their client's goons, and each other to torpedo their own case.
A hook as sturdy and a story as fleet as Grisham—except that Scottoline's a lot funnier than Grisham. Expect this to be her breakout book.