A well-written, suspenseful novel, somewhat plodding at times, but still extremely good. Vicki Allegretti is an Assistant U.S. Attorney who is working on a case with, Agent Bob "Morty" Morton, an ATF agent with whom she's become very close during their partnership on cases over the past year. The day that Vicki abd Morty meet to interrogate their Confidential Informant on a new gun-purchase/re-sale case will be their last together, however, for when they arrive at the CI's apartment, things go terribly wrong. They walk into the apartment in the midst of a robbery and Morty, along with the pregnant CI, are both shot to death.Vicki is devastated and sets out to find Morty's murderer; however, she finds that the case extends to much more than this isolated incident. She discovers that the CI has framed a beautiful, young black woman, Reheema Bristow, for the gun sale. As Vicki turns to Reheema for information, the two women very gradually become friends. As Vicki continues to seek information, though, Reheema's mother is murdered and Reheema insists on working with Vicki to find everyone involved in this intricate web of crimes.At the same time, Vicki's closest friend at the U.S. Attorney's office, Dan Malloy, becomes estranged from his wife and ultimately learns she's divorcing him. He quickly realizes that it's Vicki whom he really loves and their relationship plays out as the backdrop against which everything else evolves.The relationships in this novel are extremely well-developed, particularly for this genre, and this, perhaps, plays a part in the somewhat plodding nature of the novel. As the characters spend a great deal of time interacting on a somewhat psychological level, the pace of the action slows. As the novel nears its climax, however, a major twist in the plot-- although not a complete surprise-- carries it through to its resolution. Well worth reading!
Maybe it's because the last Scottoline book I read was my favorite so far, or maybe it's because I've read too many too close together; I don't know. But this one, while interesting, is already slipping out of my brain. I knew I wouldn't have a lot to say about it in my review when I only marked one thing as I was reading it. I'm also realizing this author must have issues with her relationship with her dad, because bad father relationships keep popping up with these main girl characters. And frankly I'm a little tired of it.What I did like? That this was another Dansko-clog-free book (I have no idea why every one of her books has a character or two who wears them, or even what they are, but I'm tired of them). I also thought the whole "thinking out loud" riff was kind of cute throughout the book. The part I marked was another part I liked. The whole "first stakeout" thing was pretty funny. After a lot of description about what they were wearing, how they were disguised, etc., "Even so, she was pretty sure that they looked like two women, one white and one black, driving while blind." The other part about this I liked almost made me chuckle: "The woman of few words had become the woman of no words. Vicki had been previously unaware that you could be a woman and say so very little. It seemed biologically impossible." Ha!Anyway, it was interesting and had quite a few twists and turns, but unfortunately, I didn't like the whole Dan Malloy story from the beginning. And of course, at some point in the book, you totally knew someone in Vicki's office was going to be bad. *sigh* It's another quick read, and a little bit more convoluted than some of her others. It's a solid 2.5 out of 5 for me.
What do You think about Devil's Corner (2006)?
“Devil’s Corner,” by Lisa Scottoline (HarperCollins, 2005; audiobook read by Barbara Rosenblat). This is the first Scottoline I have actively disliked. And I disliked it because I couldn’t stand the main character, an assistant US attorney named Vicki Allegretti who survives a routine buy-and-bust that explodes, killing her partner, and a pregnant police informant. She is unmarried, in her mid-30s, and is presented as a giddy teenager, complete with “yippie” and “yay” and so on. Somehow she becomes more childish as the story goes on. She grates. The plot is okay, though after a while I really didn’t care why the deal went down and who was behind it, and whether it was a widespread police conspiracy, or even whether Vicki manages to get her man (as in lover). Her relationship with the tough-as-nails Reheema, who lives in what had been how own father’s old neighborhood, begins well. But by the end Reheema has turned into just another goody-goody sprucing up the neighborhood. Too bad. http://scottoline.com/Books/devil.html
—Peter Goodman
Another legal thriller by Lisa Scottoline, but this one has nothing to do with Bennie Rosato's league of women lawyers. Instead, the protagonist, Vicki Allegretti, is a prosecutor who finds her case going bad when her confidential informant gets shot to death by two burglering teenagers who also take out Vicki's partner. Vicki sets out to find the killers, which takes her to her father's old neighborhood, Devil's Corner, which has gone downhill since Dad lived here and now sports an open drug-selling business. Along the way, she befriends the girl she was going to prosecute, tries hard to avoid getting involved with her office crush, and has a running battle with her boss, his boss, and his boss's boss. I found some of the characterization and dialog unbelievable, but it is still a good story, full of fast action, and I am happy to report that I guessed completely wrong about who the real bad guy was. Another thing that I enjoyed was understanding how Vicki came to her various assumptions of what was happening ... and then seeing how wrong those assumptions were in the following chapter. I guess that makes it a page-turner, for I found as I neared the end that I could not put the book down but had to find out what happened, and the whole conspiracy was unraveled.
—JBradford
In Lisa Scottoline's DEVIL'S CORNER, Vicki is a U.S. prosecutor trying, first, to find the killers of her partner and of a potential wittness. Then somebody else is murdered, and she takes it upon herself to find that killer, too. She's aided in her quest by Reheema, a gorgeous woman who just got out of jail.The majority of DEVEL'S CORNER involves Vicki's and Reheema's exploits. Scottoline does a great job with their dialogs, and you've got to enjoy the book for that. But it's not her best.Another story going on in the book is the romance between Vicki and another prosecutor, Dan, a married man she spends too much time with after work. It's predictable.Overall, I'd say it isn't a bad book, but it is disappointing. I know Scottoline can do better--and she does.DEVIL'S CORNER is a 2005 book. But I started reading Scottoline's latest (at the time) book, LOOK AGAIN, which is a great thriller and a not-put-downable book, a thriller like a thriller should be. That made me want to read her older books. Those that I've read since then, such as DEAD RINGER, have also been good thrillers even if not as good.But, although DEVIL'S CORNER is a who-done-it with great dialog, I didn't find it thrilling; it's too put-downable.
—Beth
