Customer Reviews: Read 27 more reviews...
 Not quite a sorority! July 21, 2008
Plain, nerdy and smart, Mary DiNunzio was always expected to do well in life but was bullied mercilessly by "The Mean Girls", a group of showy, good looking girls who made her life in High School a sheer hell. Mary is now a successful lawyer and when she is approached by Trish, the leader of the girl pack who tormented her in school, she is amazed to be asked for help and protection against one of the school jocks who is physically abusing Trish. Bobby was a High School hero and is now on the fringes of the Mob, selling dope. He is an abusive drunk who threatens to kill Trish every time he beats her up, but this time she is convinced that he means to murder her on her birthday. Mary tries to convince Trish to go to the police but she disappears before Mary is able to organise some help. It's a terrific read if you enjoy Mob stories which aren't too violent, and full of detail of life in the suburbs of East Philadelphia in the Italian quarter. Lisa Scottoline writes extremely well and is superb at giving the reader the feeling of being one of the locals.
 Mary Is Back!!! June 26, 2008
I love that Lisa Scottoline brought Bennie, Anne, Judi and Mary back in this book. They have been gone for 5 years. Ms. Scottoline lost her father and stated in several interviews that she just didn't know if she could go back to writing about her main characters. She's has completed several wonderful stand alone books but this is her bread and butter. I'm not sure if it's where I've missed the crew so bad or if the book is just very good. I enjoyed the the mystery and the interaction of the characters. Ms. Scottoline writes about emotions and feelings not just action. Although there is a lot of action in this book and you will want to sit down and try to make it through it in one reading. She just makes you feel what the characters are feeling. She shows you the different points of view logically and coherently. I'm very excited that she decided to bring us readers back into law firm's world again. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a book that's more than a legal mystery.
 Not her best by far, but the ending is quite moving... June 11, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
By "ending" I mean the last couple of chapters, after the murder mystery is solved, and the killer punished. I mean, what happens to the lead character's career and love life. Mary DiNunzio and her South Philly Italian relatives and friends have been featured before by Ms. Scottoline, and it is good to have some of them back. There are several supporting characters, however, in this effort who left me unsympathetic. The damsel in distress who needs Mary's legal skills and personal courage to save her, for instance, is not somebody you'd want as a girlfriend. Her best friends are none too easy to take, either. The murder victim one cannot feel sorry for, and the murderer ends up with our understanding. It is our heroine, Mary, however, whom we really can care about. She reveals a big secret in this book, one not every fan will be comfortable with. She deals with guilt, loss, regrets, missed opportunities, a job crisis, good nostalgia and bad nostalgia, and a posssible second chance at healthy love. I almost quit this one in the first 100 pages, even though I am a pretty big Scottoline fan. Then it got good. Then it got absurd, and not in a good way, then it got good again. Perhaps Lisa was too ambitious this time, too complicated, too many red herrings, too many words...this may well be her longest novel. It certainly felt like it. But my time and effort was redeemed because at the very end, I felt for Mary, rooted for her, identified with her problems, and was happy for her at the last page. For a man of 63 to bond that closely with a pretend female lawyer who is only about 30 is quite a trick, and it proves that Scottoline, for all the flaws in this one, is still a powerful wordsmith.
 bad writing: O stars May 23, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is one of the worst books I've read. Not worth the time. Perhaps if you're 15 yo, then this is what you would read; however, it is not a children's book.
Audio version April 30, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I listened to this on cd. I did not particularly care for this narrators accents. I listen to all my books on cd and every time there is a Black charactor (like in this book)the narrators do this weird almost unintelligent accent. No matter what the charactor does for a living he/she is portrayed with that same annoying stereotypical accent. Otherwise the story was pretty good.
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