If I weren’t already a big fan of Lisa Scottoline, this novel would have put her high on my list. Here’s how it opens:
Attorney with Rosato and Associates, Mary DiNunzio is seated, facing the four co-presidents of the Dean Martin Fan Club, South Philly. She’s wondering which one to shoot first. The potential victims are her father “Matty” DiNunzio, Pigeon Tony Lucia, Tony-From-Down-The-Block LoMonaco, and Tony Two Feet Pensiera, “who was called Feet, making him the only man in South Philly whose nickname had a nickname.”
Unfortunately, they have nothing to do with the plot which centers on the disappearance of Trish Gambone, queen of the mean girls when Mary was in high school. When Trish walked into Mary’s office, Mary’s first thought was “get even time.” But as Trish revealed a history of verbal and physical abuse from her boyfriend, mob soldier Bobby Mancuso, Mary outlines a list of legal steps that can be taken. Trish says that none of them will be effective because “he’s gonna’ kill me.”
Mary decides that despite their enmity, she’ll help Trish, if at all possible. However, Mary is the rainmaker (far more cases and billable hours than anyone else at the law firm), although her cases are not exactly high profile. For example, she’s got to make an end run around the suit that the Dean Martin Fan Club wants to file against the Frank Sinatra Fan Club, the president of which called the late Dean Martin “a drunk.”
She’s diverted from that case because Trish and Bobby have disappeared overnight. And, of course, there’s an added complication: Mary, a straight-A student, used to tutor Bobby in high school, had a crush on him, and — unbeknownst to her — he was in love with his tutor. As word of Trish’s disappearance spreads, Mary is reviled by the rest of the mean girls — Gulia, Missy, and Yolanda — for failing to help Trish.
After finding and reading Trish’s diary, Mary decides that this is definitely a police problem. On the last page of the diary, Trish had written, “I went to see Mary but she didn’t do anything. Now I don’t know what to do. If you’re reading this now, whoever you are, I’m already dead. But at least this can prove he did it.”
At the Roundhouse (police station), Mary gets an audience with her friend Detective Reginald “Mack” Brinkley, introducing Gulia as her paralegal. Brinkley, who works homicide, tells Mary that this is a case for missing persons, and this puts Gulia into even more of a rage than she was in when the mean girls started a brawl in Mary’s office.
When Brinkley phones Mary, saying “We’ve got a body,” Mary rushes to the scene of the crime. What she finds there shocks her to the bone. Bennie Rosato, the law-firm boss, warns Mary to stop her detective work or forget about working at the firm anymore. Will Mary heed the warning? Of course, you know the answer.
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Puede contactar a Jim Glynn en j_glynn@att.net.