Book Review: Mistaken Identity

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Mistaken Identity Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
Lisa Scottoline
Class/Genre: Mystery Legal Setting Police Procedural
Series: Rosato and Associates # 3
HarperCollins, Mar 1999, $24.00, 272 pp.

Accused cop killer Alice Connolly asks attorney Benedetta Rosato to visit her at the Philadelphia Central Corrections facility, a maximum security prison that houses murderers, rapists, and society's worst dregs. To Bennie's shock, Alice looks like a twin sister, which is something the prisoner claims to be true.

Alice has been charged with killing her lover police detective Anthony Della Porta. She insists that she did not murder him, his associates in the department killed him. Bennie agrees to take on the already botched legal defense of Alice. As the lawyer and her all female legal team plunge into the case, they quickly find the circumstantial evidence as overwhelmingly condemning their client. At the same time, Bennie wonders about her relationship with Alice and begins to look into that also. As her legal defense struggles, Bennie begins to question whether the entire justice system, from convicts to the police to the judge, are not tied in some form of conspiracy with drug traffickers. Than again, her client remains the most obvious person to have committed the crime.

Readers will not mistake the identity of one of the top writers of legal thrillers, the brilliant Lisa Scottoline. Her latest novel, MISTAKEN IDENTITY, combines a fabulous legal case with personal insight into the main protagonist. The story line never slows down as the legal case and the accompanying investigation are filled up by a taut tale of non-stop action. The secondary plot involving Alice's alleged relationship to Bennie augments the prime tale with an intriguing personal drama. No question will remain to sub-genre fans that John Grisham is the male Scottoline

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner