Dead Ringer (Rosato & Associates Series #8)

by Lisa Scottoline

Overview

Bennie Rosato is fighting the battle of her life -- against her own twin. The action starts innocently enough, with a stolen wallet, but in no time events escalate and the twin wreaks havoc that can be created only by a dead ringer. Her twin tries to destroy Bennie's law firm, Rosato & Associates, and then strikes at her very heart -- which just happens to be otherwise engaged by a handsome, hunky stranger with the perfect amount of chest hair. But when a brutal murder occurs, Bennie realizes that the stakes have turned deadly. And the face of evil looks like her own.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061795992
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	10/13/2009
Series:	Rosato & Associates Series , #8
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	432
Sales rank:	13,969
File size:	622 KB

About the Author

Lisa Scottoline is a New York Times bestselling author and serves as president of the Mystery Writers of America. She has won the Edgar Award, as well as many other writing awards. She also writes a Sunday humor column for the Philadelphia Inquirer, titled "Chick Wit," with her daughter, Francesca Serritella. There are thirty million copies of Lisa's books in print, and she has been published in thirty-two countries. She lives in Pennsylvania with an array of disobedient but adorable pets.

Hometown:

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Date of Birth:

July 1, 1955

Place of Birth:

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Education:

B.A., University of Pennsylvania, 1976; J.D., University of Pennsylvania Law School, 1981

Website:

http://www.scottoline.com

Read an Excerpt

Dead Ringer

Chapter One

Bennie Rosato had waited for more than a hundred jury verdicts in her career, but the waiting never got easier. The courtroom was empty, the air still. Bennie could hear the clock ticking on the paneled wall, but it could have been her sense of drama. She was sitting next to her client, Ray Finalil, who was gnawing his cuticles. If they lost this trial, Ray's company would have to pay three million dollars in damages. Three million bucks buys a lot of cuticles.

Bennie set aside her own case of nerves to cheer him up. "Yo, Ray. How do you stop a lawyer from drowning?"

"How?"

"Take your foot off his head."

Ray didn't smile. His gaze remained fixed on the vacant jury box, with its black leather chairs swiveled in different directions. The jury had been charged on the law this morning and they'd been out deliberating all day. That meant Ray and Bennie were entering their sixth hour of small talk. To Bennie, that was as good as married.

"Okay, no more jokes," she said. "Tell me about your son's baseball game. I'll pretend I don't know about the home run or the catch at third base."

"Second base."

"See?"

Ray's chin dropped to his hand. His brown eyes were bloodshot from three weeks of sleepless nights and his cheeks hollow from the ten pounds he'd shed during the trial, even though he was completely innocent. Being a defendant was no-win; if you lost, you paid the plaintiff, and if you won, you paid your lawyer. This was known as the American Rule. Only Americans tolerate law without justice.

"Look, Ray, we don't have to stay here. I have my cell phone, and the deputy clerk has my number. How about we take a field trip? We can go see the Liberty Bell. It's only a block away."

"No."

"This land is your land, Ray. This land is my land."

"No."

"Come on, it'll do you good to go out and walk around." Bennie rose, stretched, and took a personal inventory. She thought she was good-looking for a lawyer, even though she stood six feet tall and her proportions were positively Amazonian. Her khaki suit was still pressed and her white Gap shirt fairly clean. Her long, disobedient blond hair had been piled into a twist with a tortoiseshell barrette, but no makeup maximized the blue of her eyes or minimized the crow's-feet at their corners. An old boyfriend had told her that her mouth was generous, but she suspected it was a sneaky way of saying she had a big mouth. At the moment, it was shaped into a sympathetic frown. "You don't wanna take a walk?"

"When do you think they'll come back?" Ray didn't have to explain who "they" were. The jury.

"End of today." Bennie sat back down. At least the stretch had shaken off some of her stress. She couldn't remember the last time she'd exercised. This trial had consumed every available minute for the past two months, but her law firm needed the dough. The slump in the economy had hit lawyers, too, and people had stopped suing each other. Could world peace be far behind?

"I can't take another day of this. You sure they'll come back today?"

"Positive. This is a simple fraud case, in federal court only through the miracle of diversity jurisdiction. And Thursday is a good day for juries to go out. They get it over with if they come back today, then they go home and make it a three-day weekend. They won't go to work on a Friday after jury duty."

"How do you know?"

"Trial wisdom. The elders pass it down in a secret ceremony. We call it the bar exam to fool gringos like you."

"But what are they doing in there for so long?" Ray rubbed his forehead with leftover fingernails. He looked older than his fifty-one years, and oddly, he'd become more nervous as the trial wore on, not less. Ray wasn't a lover or a fighter. He was an accountant.

"A day is nothing. We just had a fifteen-day trial with one hundred twenty-six exhibits and twenty-eight witnesses. You want them back sooner?" Bennie pointed to the empty jury box. "Keep watching those chairs. It works every time."

Suddenly, the paneled door next to the dais opened and the deputy clerk entered. He was tall and fit, and his polyester blazer made an officially swishy sound when he walked. When Bennie realized he was heading for her, she rose. "They back?" she asked, her heart beginning to thump, but the deputy clerk shook his head.

"They got a question. They sent a note. Court's in session in five minutes. Plaintiff still in the attorney's conference room?"

"Yes," Bennie answered, and as soon as the deputy clerk took off down the aisle, Ray jumped up and clutched her sleeve.

"What does he mean, a question? The jury has a question? What question?"

"Relax. Sit down." Bennie unpeeled Ray's fingers and eased him down into his chair. "The judge is coming out to read us the question. Then we -- "

"A question? How typical is that? I don't understand. What does he mean, a question?"

"It happens from time to time. The jury sends the judge a question about the evidence or the law. It's nothing to be -- "

"I mean, what do they have to know?" Ray raked his free hand through his thinning hair. At the beginning of this trial he had looked like a Chia Pet. Okay, maybe that was an exaggeration. "Who said they could ask questions? Why do they get to ask questions?"

"Because this is America. Now stay cool. Curtain's up." Bennie gestured behind him, where the courtroom had come abruptly to life ...

Dead Ringer. Copyright © by Lisa Scottoline. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

Reading Group Guide

Introduction

Many book clubs have written Lisa asking for questions to guide their discussion, so Lisa came up with a bunch for each book. Her goal in writing books is to entertain, so it goes without saying that Lisa wants you to have lots of fun discussing her books, and has reflected that in her questions. She provides the talking points, and you and your group shape the conversation. So go ahead, get together, chat it up with your friends, discuss books, kids, and relationships, but by all means, have fun.

Questions

1. Does everyone understand the title Dead Ringer? After the book was done, I found out my kid and her friends didn't know what the phrase means. Am I getting old?


2. Do you think Alice deserves a second chance, or is someone who would hurt a dog unredeemable?


3. Do you feel sorry for Alice because she was the twin who was given up? Does this make her actions any more forgivable?


4. Have you ever had a total stranger come to your rescue, just because they were a good person, and not because they wanted something from you? Were they as good looking as David?


5. Competitiveness and jealousy led two siblings in this book to do some terrible, even horrific things. Some envy between siblings is normal, but where does it cross the line? Is it the parents' fault? Is there something parents can do to make this less of a problem?


6. Do you think that Bennie should have put her house up in order to save her business? Do you believe that in order to be successful, you need to take risks?


7. Could you forgive Alice? Do you think she can change? Do we let family get away withthings that we would never put up with from others, or are we harder on them?

About the author

Lisa Scottoline is a New York Times bestselling author and former trial lawyer. She has won the Edgar Award, the highest prize in suspense fiction, and the Distinguished Author Award from the Weinberg Library of the University of Scranton. She has served as the Leo Goodwin Senior Professor of Law and Popular Culture at Nova Southeastern Law School, and her novels are used by bar associations for the ethical issues they present. Her books are published in more than twenty languages. She lives with her family in the Philadelphia area.

Interviews

An Interview with Lisa Scottoline
With the publication of the tenth book in her powerful series about Bennie Rosato's all-female Philadelphia law firm, Lisa Scottoline talked to Ransom Notes about the legal profession, the mystery genre, and the fascinating situations she creates by combining the two.

Lisa Scottoline: When I first decided to write, John Grisham's books had just put the legal thriller on everyone's radar, and I wanted to play, too. To me, books plus law (plus a really great tomato sauce and golden retrievers) equals putting all the things I love in one place.

As I see it, the biggest difference between legal fact and fiction is that fiction is rarely as outrageous as real life. The truth is, you can't make up stuff that's crazier than what life hands you. When I was in my 30s, I found out that I had a half sister. I turned that experience into a book, Mistaken Identity, where Bennie meets a woman who claims to be her twin.

It was a fun assignment for me, as an author, to examine Bennie's identity from a polar-opposite point of view. Bennie created a family for herself with her law firm -- one that she feels deeply, personally responsible for. Alice started as the negative to Bennie's positive; not evil, just empty. Alice is as smart, savvy, and as gutsy as Bennie, but she puts her energy into crime. What makes her so dangerous is the unpredictability that comes from not taking responsibility for her actions.

Alice returns in Dead Ringer because there is Chapter Two in books and life. After I got over the shock of finding out about a stranger who happened to be kin, I had to figure out where -- and if -- that person fit into my life. I wanted Bennie to share that struggle. All my books center on family, justice, identity, and ultimately love. I think that no matter what your relationship is with your family, good or bad, there is still a core need to be accepted and acknowledged. If that need is filled, you're lucky, like me. If it's unfulfilled, you've got to deal with it. Dead Ringer, particularly, explores how deeply family emotions are felt as they motivate people to commit unspeakable acts -- or to come together.

Ransom Notes: Speaking of love, what did you like best about creating David Holland? Was it his unselfconscious heroism, or the fact he's a pushover for golden retrievers?

LS: Even fictional characters need crushes! Besides the fact that David is gorgeous, what I love most about him is the fact that he is a total stranger motivated only by a desire to help. Of course, it reveals something important about Bennie when she realizes that she suspects David because she is so unused to accepting help.

RN: Can you tell us anything about your next book?

Lisa Scottoline: All I can say now is that it's titled Lying in Wait, and it's based on a case one of Bennie's associates introduces in Dead Ringer. Meanwhile, I love love LOVE to hear from readers! Tell me what you think! The best way to reach me is through my web site, scottoline.com.

Editorial Reviews

Another bestseller is on the docket for Scottoline (Courting Trouble; Rough Justice; The Vendetta Defense), with a new legal caper featuring the lady lawyers of series heroine Bennie Rosato's Philadelphia law firm, Rosato and Associates. This time out it's Bennie playing the lead role, as she fights to save her financially sinking firm; mother her lovable partners, Mary DiNunzio and Judy Carrier; solve the murder of a valuable client; and battle her evil twin, Alice. The eviction notice is on the door when suave Frenchman Robert St. Amien steps in with a class-action suit that promises not only to stave off Bennie's landlord but to shovel millions of dollars into the firm's bottomed-out bank account. The fact that our heroine has never handled a class-action suit doesn't faze her for more than a nanosecond. Bennie has her wallet stolen and soon becomes the target of increasingly sinister attacks, until it becomes clear that Alice (last seen in Mistaken Identity) is back in town and bent on revenge. When the stakes are upped to murder, Bennie realizes she's in big trouble. Fortunately, hunky SEAL David Holland shows up to save her dog, act as bodyguard and supply the love interest. Of course, he has a dark secret, but this just makes him more appealing and sympathetic when it is revealed. Occasional awkward writing intrudes ("Anger bubbled like lifeblood to her cheeks"), there are too many pantyhose jokes, and the solution to the mystery is a clunker, but readers caught up in the fast and furious wordplay will hardly notice. Bennie grows on you, and soon enough you're rooting for the home team and laughing at her corny jokes. Mystery Guild and Literary Guild main selection; Doubleday Book Club, BOMC and QPB alternate; Costco's June Book Club selection; 9-city author tour. (June) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

One's a lawyer, the other's an ex-convict, and, of course, they're twin sisters. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Philadelphia attorney Bennie Rosato faces bankruptcy, infighting, stalking, and identity theft, at least two of them courtesy of her evil twin. It’s been only a matter of time before unloved, abandoned Alice Connelly (Mistaken Identity, 1999), returned to wreak havoc on her more successful sibling. But now is a particularly bad time, since Bennie’s up to her briefs in trouble. The client whose victory she was counting on to pay her bills has declared bankruptcy; her associate Mary DiNunzio wants pro bono time to file a suit against the US government on behalf of a late family friend interned, along with 10,000 other Italian-Americans, during WWII; a huge class-action suit that’s dropped onto her plate despite Rosato & Associates’ lack of experience in the area promises huge rewards, but only if she can survive the challenges of Bill Linette, the shark determined to steal her role as lead attorney in the case; and as she’s discussing the case with her client, the cops arrest her for larceny and assault. When Bennie’s state of alert, in permanent crisis mode during the best of times, is bumped up to red by a murder that strikes unexpectedly close to home, she can’t help wondering whether Alice has turned up the volume still again. But there are plenty of other suspects, from the mystery man who popped up just in time to rescue Bennie’s dog from his own brush with death to a whole town full of Philadelphia lawyers. Less synthetic than the last outing for Rosato & Associates, but just as fast-moving: a salute to heroines who’ve sworn off swearing but are "tired of saying damn all the time. It just didn’t go far enough." Author tour. Agent: Molly Friedrich

Kirkus Reviews