THIS SUMMARY/REVIEW WAS COPIED FROM OTHER SOURCES AND IS USED ONLY AS A REMINDER OF WHAT THE BOOK WAS ABOUT FOR MY PERSONAL INTEREST. ANY PERSONAL NOTATIONS ARE FOR MY RECOLLECTION ONLYI am really loving this series about the all female law firm of Rosato and Associates even though I did get started by reading the most current book and have now gone back to read the earlier stories. Each one features either a story about Bennie Rosato or Mary DiNunzio, lawyers in Philadelphia. Of course their associate Judy Carrier is in each book (Mary's best friend). I often find Mary to be an idiot and she gets tiresome with the Catholic guilt and her cowardice. Bennie is content and happy fixing up a new home in an old rowhouse with her live in lover attorney Grady Wells and their sweet Golden Retriever Bear when she gets the shock of her life. She is asked to come to the prison to see a potential client- a woman named Alice Connolly who is charged with murdering her lover Anthony Della Porta. She is shocked to see that Alice is her identical twin. Alice has been in jail for a year for a murder she did not commit (though she does commit others) and the trial judge had assigned her to a lawyer from a ritzy firm who doesn't even specialize in criminal law, is a rookie, and has not bothered to even visit Alice nor even work up a case at all. Alice tells Bennie that their father- who neither girl had ever met- a man named William Winslow had begun visiting in her, told her she had a twin sister and that the sister was a great lawyer, and offered photos as evidence.Alice is very creepy though she had been given up for adoption and had led a nice life with 2 parents in a stable home Bennie is rocked by this because she knew her father's name but her mom had lied and said he left her while she was pregnant while the truth was she left him, threw one of the twins away, and raised Bennie in poverty. The mother was mentally disturbed so Bennie had been more of the mother of the house.Alice insists that boyfriend Anthony, a cop, had been killed by other cops and they are framing her. Soon Bennie realizes it is true when bizarre things begin to happen. What kind of bizarre things? (1) The rookie lawyer the judge had assigned the case to (who doesn't even do criminal law) and his firm refuse to give up the case to Bennie despite the fact that Alice has the right to choose her lawyer. Bennie has to take it to court and even have Alice brought in to be allowed to represent her and the judge, for some odd reason, doesn't want Bennie to handle the case. (2) Bennie is suddenly followed by a young blond cop in a trans-am who is so vicious and criminal, he almost succeeds in murdering her. (3) Bennie's investigator Lou, a retired cop, runs into a nest of crooked cops who had been involved in drug selling with Anthony but other cops and witnesses are terrified to speak out. (4) Alice is almost killed in jail and has to kill her attacker. (5) In court, the crippled district attorney objects to every other word Bennie says and the judge strangely overrules all of her objections, mouths off to her, threatens her, and finally has her jailed in contempt. It is like they are in cahoots to see Alice convicted. There are many other things that happen that make Bennie, Lou, Judy and Mary realize that Alice killed no one but they are all in danger. Bennie tries to confront her mother about her father, even showing her the photos Alice gave her of the twins with their Dad and a photo she found at William's house of him and the mom but then to everyone's surprise, she dies without speaking. She was mentally ill but not physically so so this is a mystery. The judge will not give Bennie an extension due to her mom dying and her having to do research the previous lawyers refused to do.There are some hair-raising scenes in this exciting book. Wait until you see who really killed Anthony. It's a shock. Bennie and Alice take blood tests to check their DNA to see if they are really twins. Look for the results near the end of the book.There are a lot of thrills here and I recommend the book to readers who like exciting mysteries.They are twins and Alice leaves at a drop of a hat after the trial is over. Bennie goes to see her father and confesses he always takes care of his daughters.. including killing the ones that hurt them as in Anthony. One interesting thing to watch for is the judge and PI..the PI is crippled and this is a police corruption ....
THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.IF YOU WANT NO ASPECT OF THE PLOT GIVEN AWAY, READ THE BOOK BEFORE THE REVIEW.Well, well, well...'Mistaken Identity' is a typical legal thriller,with an interesting plot, to begin with. The author has created a set of characters whose actions promise to unveil a greater truth in the end- to, somehow, contribute to the story that flows smoothly and with suspense. There are some surprises, there is a lot of mystery, and all the separate 'stories' that unfold alongside the basic plot raise more and more questions that either have to be explained, 'purged', as soon as the book is over, or stylishly left uncertain -a device that has been employed by many a great writer. In addition, Scottoline's style and plot naturally allude to John Grisham novels, which is a great plus if one is into legal thrillers, especially Grisham books (like myself!).So far, so good. But only so far...Although the plot is gripping, and in spite of the fact that once the novel gains momentum it hardly gives the reader a break, there are some aspects of the story that either do not add up or are indicators of rough work(writing for the sake of writing; just to cover more pages) :First of all, I didn't like Mary- at least Mary during the first part of the book. Yes. I actually wanted to tear the pages off whenever she behaved so childishly, or so passively! It wasn't her cowardice that did it for me -after all, being a lawyer is a dangerous job; all the more when you decide to take up such a controversial case as the one in question. It was the whole narrative-change when we see Mary and Judy interacting with each other, dialogues that are redolent of a school-girl context, completely inconsistent with associates of a prospering law firm; or Mary the little girly lawyer who is too low-profile to do something about a job she apparently hates. Bennie, of course, needed a counterpoint; her being so dynamic a character, a respected lawyer, feared by the supposed conspirators of the story, confident and with gravity and presence. But the counterpoint needn't have been so out of place in relation to the rest of the novel -not in terms of the properties of the character -the features of the persona- but as far as description and vocabulary are concerned. It was as though Bennie was the 'serious stuff' and Mary the 'childish'. There is a change of styles that I don't find agreeable.Moreover, the most crucial surprise of the book -Bennie's father's admission of the murder that originally incriminated Alice- was so incoherent, so out-of-the-blue, so unfounded. I mean, if he was the real killer, why did the police hunt down Bennie with such vigor? It is common practice for corrupt policemen or over-ambitious DAs to find a scapegoat in controversial cases in order to pacify the public, but the way the supposed conspirator-policemen of the story went after the main protagonist -the zeal of their effort- implied they were the ones who had actually pulled the trigger. Of course, through the process of acquitting Alice, Bennie would definitely uncover their dirty business, but such a conspiracy as devised by the dirty policemen, implicating the judge and all, builds up during the novel, and the reader expects a climax far more grandiose than what he/she actually gets. In other words, the justification of the crime was too simplistic, too ordinary, too dull -too disappointing. More pluses and drawbacks:+A very multidimensional, resourceful female character as protagonist, that stands equal amongst her male counterparts in what appears to be mostly a male-dominated genre.+Suspense, mystery and action.+Wit and humor.-Climax doesn't live up to expectations-Mary (:-P)etcAll in all, for all the mystery and suspense that made me hang on every word of the narration -and inevitably forced me to give it at least 3 stars- 'Mistaken Identity' ends up being a legal thriller with potential that seems to have either been written in haste or-let's face it- it might just be me.Is it worth reading it? Of course! My opinion is just my opinion, and as thus, subjective. After all, it's an utter page-turner for the most part.Will I give the author another chance?Might as well do!:-)
What do You think about Mistaken Identity (2015)?
Lisa Scottoline, Mistaken Identity (Harper, 1999)Three pages into Lisa Scottoline's sixth novel, Mistaken Identity, I wasn't sure I was going to make it to page ten. Scottoline opens the novel with her protagonist, Bennie Rosato, walking into the county prison where her newest client is in residence, mentally rattling off statistics that we've all heard a million times, most of which are, to say the least, on shaky ground as far as their worth is concerned. It is a horrible opening; thankfully, it is also short. The book improves tremedously on page four, and stays improved for the next five hundred plus pages.Rosato's newest client is Alice Connolly, who greets her with the rather surprising revelation that Connolly is Rosato's twin, despite that the two have never met before. The twin thing certainly throws a few extra monkeywrenches into the works of the normal courtroom/detective story, not that it needed any. Connolly is accused of killing her live-in boyfriend, a Philadelphia police officer, and makes nasty hints that other cops are framing her. The first half of the book alternates between Rosato trying to figure out if there really is a conspiracy and trying to figure out whether Connolly actually killed her boyfriend, as the two things aren't necessarily mutually exclusive. This section is standard mystery fare; if you're a fan of the genre, it'll work for you.Where Scottoline shines is once the case gets to court. When you reach page 300 and they're getting ready for trial, you start wondering how Scottoline is going to fill the second half of the book. She does so brilliantly, better even than many nonfiction true crime books cover trials. In fact, the only book I can think of that goes into this much detail of the trial, specifically the dialogue, is Bataille's The Trial of Gilles de Rais (in which the second half of the book is simply unexpurgated trial transcripts). In both Bataille's work of nonfiction and Scottoline's novel, we are given solid evidence that cutting out the supposedly extraneous material of a trial, a rather common method of speeding up books/movies/TV shows, may be good for cutting time, but that all the other stuff is going to be just as gripping to the devoted reader of courtroom-procedure books. Scottoline takes us, line by line, through a cross-examination instead of summarizing. It's wonderful. Would that more courtroom-drama authors did such things. Maybe, as Scottoline gains the audience she deserves, it'll catch on.The beginning of the book is enough to make me drop it a notch, but still a highly recommended read. *** 1/2
—Robert Beveridge
Could not finish and it was an audio book!I am a fan of Lisa Scottoline's and have read about half a dozen of her other novels, most about the lawyers at Rosato & Associates. I have enjoyed the books because of their interesting characters and witty dialogue. Bennie has appeared in these other books as an interesting ancillary character--the grumpy boss/Obe Wan Knobe--the problem is that Bennie does not work on her own, she is not that interesting or at least not that fun. Overall this book felt rather heavy compared to the other novels in the series. I kept wanting more time with the con artist claiming to be her twin! Also, the book needs editing! Scottoline has a very effective style of moving between characters/scenes but here the scenes go on to long--let me put it this way I got almost 100 pages in and Bennie still had not decided whether or not to take this woman's case when anyone who read the back of the book would know what was going to happen!
—Zach
This is another of Lisa Scottoline's novels about Bennie Rosato and her all-woman law firm, and is a prequel of sorts to Dead Ringer, which I had already read, inasmuch as this is the book in which Bennie finds out that she has a twin sister--who happens to be coming up for trial on a murder case and wants to hire Bennie to represent her. Part of the issue is that Bennie is not all that sure that the woman in question, Alice Connolly, really is her sister, and another part is that Bennie becomes increasingly unsure about Alice's contention that she was not the one who shot her lover between the eyes with a 22-caliber pistol. But Bennie is fairly well convinced soon enough that there is something in Alice's contention that the whole thing is a Police Department conspiracy, which seems to have spread to the very reputable law-firm that had been representing Alice previously, and seemingly even to the very honorable judge who will be hearing the case. So Bennie bears down, as always, employing her young associates, Judy Currier and Mary Dinunzio, to help her track down the truth, solve the crime, and attack the whole city of Philadelphia, if necessary.I continue to find flaws in Scottoline's books and characters; there is a key part of the murder evidence that never does get explained, and I cannot believe that women lawyers would really act the way these do (I keep comparing them to my eldest daughter, who is an attorney in Massachusetts, and they keep coming up very short in both smartness and sensibility). Despite that, however, Scottoline writes real page-turners, as witnessed by the fact that I was stupid enough to pick up this book in a partially-read condition the other night and found myself glued to the very hard kitchen chair for the next three hours, finishing the book as the sun was beginning to poke up over the next hill to the east.
—JBradford
