I love Lisa Scottoline books - although I will admit to reading her most recent ones. This book is twelve years old and it was painful. It took me nearly a month to read because I was unmotivated to do so. I found the idea of the book quite interesting, but found the book itself pretty awful.*Potential Spoilers*:I could kind of get on board with Jack confessing to a murder he didn't commit that he thinks his daughter did. But I found Paige's memory of the ordeal to be very convenient. I found Mary to be a complete wreck. Every time she turned around, she was running in the wrong direction and chasing leads that turned out to be incorrect and made her look like an idiot over and over and over again. When I was sitting here thinking, "Why doesn't anyone check Paige's stomach for bruises?" Mary just rushed her in to the police department and didn't even think about bruises. When I thought, "I bet Whittier didn't really jump", Mary just went with it - fully believing that he chose to end his life because she was "onto him". Although I get that she was inexperienced with criminal cases - especially murder - some of this had less to do with being a good lawyer and more to do with having common sense. I found Brinkley way too devoted to potentially ruining his career by breaking the law. And I found Jack to be completely idiotic to not even for a second ask his daughter what happened before jumping on board an confessing to the police. Even after Mary approached him about his being innocent, he was so naive that he refused to believe that Trevor could have been involved. I found the DA completely taking full responsibility for prosecuting Jack (as much as he could in a day or so) to be unbelievable as most DA's stand by their instinct, even if it later turns out that they were wrong. It also irritated me how he took time at a press conference to announce his resignation - taking something that wasn't supposed to be about him and making it about him. Very annoying. At one point the streets are described as being completely empty - no one around for miles. No cabs, no cars, no people. I thought it must have been around midnight. In the next chapter you learn it was only 6:00 pm. Did Scottoline forget that this took place in Philadelphia? Unlikely that a business district would have entirely empty streets at 6 pm for a man in a ski mask to chase Mary and Paige down a street shooting bullets at them without a soul around. And were the security guards at Tribe & Wright the stupidest ever? They didn't think it was odd that so many people were around so late at night the night that Jack showed up and Trevor was there? They didn't think it slightly strange when Mary walked in at nighttime wearing sunglasses claiming that her sister was having her baby up on the 23rd floor? They didn't think it unlikely that her "sister" would have called her, rather than calling 911 or calling security themselves? They didn't even think it was strange that Mary almost walked right past them, but only as an afterthought asked them to call 911? Wasn't it odd that Mary herself just didn't call 911 even when her sister did not? Mary was a terrible, terrible liar, but everyone else in the book was so naive and acted so stupidly that they openly believed all of her terrible lies.I also felt that the book dragged on forever and looking back, I think a lot of it was unnecessary. I was shocked to learn that the book took place over approximately a one week time period. It seemed like weeks and weeks to me. Time seemed to stand still and the days seemed endless in the story. Unfortunately it also felt like that while reading the book too. And the book proudly exclaims on the back from the San Francisco Examiner: "This is one of those books you pick up and find you can't go to bed until it's finished." What book did they read? I went to bed night after night after night happily putting the book down because it could not hold my interest.I think I will stick with Lisa's books, but probably only the newest ones.
I didn't enjoy this one as much.Amazon.com ReviewMoment of Truth begins with what appears to be an open-and-shut case. Jack Newlin, a wealthy attorney with one of the most influential law firms in Philadelphia, killed his wife in a moment of drunken passion, stabbing her repeatedly when she announced she wanted a divorce. Or at least that is what he is claiming to the police.The fact is, Jack is framing himself because he fears his wife's murder was his daughter's crime of passion. Sixteen-year-old Paige Newlin is a successful model whose relationship with her manager-mother had been famously rocky. To make sure that he's convicted, Jack hires rookie lawyer Mary DiNunzio to defend him. But Mary doesn't buy Jack's story, and neither does the senior detective on the case. In a fascinating turn on the usual courtroom tale, then, Jack struggles to maintain his false story of guilt while his lawyer and the police struggle to prove him innocent. Meanwhile, Mary wrestles with both her uncertainty as a lawyer and with her attraction for her client.Lisa Scottoline, often identified as the "female John Grisham," has led the pack of female authors in the legal thriller genre, winning an Edgar for her second novel, Final Appeal. Moment of Truth does have moments that don't, in fact, ring true. Why is Jack Newlin so quick to forgive his daughter when he thinks she's killed her own mother? And if he's so concerned with her welfare, why did he absent himself from her upbringing? But it's nonetheless interesting for its innovative plot conceit and its examination of high-profile murder trials. If one is able to overlook the problems with Newlin's motivation, the story Scottoline weaves is a compelling one, and her heroine, Mary, is an enjoyable, self-doubting twist on the super-lawyer at the center of most legal thrillers. --Patrick O'Kelley --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title
What do You think about Moment Of Truth (2001)?
LP 608 Pages - Mary DiNunzio is the principal in this tale of the Philadelphia all woman Law Firm. She is working late at the office one night when she fields a call from another lawyer who in custody and needs representation. When reaching the jail Mary finds her client has confessed to killing his wife earlier in the evening but has now decided he wants a lawyer. In talking to him Mary doesn't believe he did it although he insists that he did. One of the detectives is also expressing some doubts, but everyone else is celebrating a slam dunk conviction from the DA on down. What transpires next shifts attention from the lawyer to his daughter to her boy friend and back to the father before finally coming to the end with some surprise mea culpas.ISBN - 0-7394-0963-1, Suspense, Pages - 355, Print Size - L, Rating - 4.5
—Bob
ATHIS 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 ONLYAnother good book from the Rosato and Associates series. This time around Bennie Rosato is out of the country taking a break after her horrible experiences in the last book and it falls to inexperienced Mary DiNunzio to handle a murder case where a rich lawyer confesses to the murder of his wife because he thinks
—Chris
I started using Goodreads for the sole purpose of giving this book a bad rating. I needed some brain candy for a long flight, and bought this book because it came up on some list on my ereader and had good ratings. It was absolute garbage. Let's leave the predictable plot, unrealistic romance, and poorly formed characters aside, the book was filled with racist, homophobic, sexist, and Islamaphobic language. I kept reading it for the sole joy of feeling morally superior to author. Terrible, terrible book. Why do so many people keep reading her books? I FEEL LIKE I'M TAKING CRAZY PILLS. And just for the record, sometimes people who eat meat do, in fact, consume hummus.
—Janis
