“Lisa Scottoline has done the impossible: creating a first novel that is an irresistible page-turner and is also teeming with unforgettable characters.” – Eric Lustbader
“Scottoline has made a stunning literary debut with this page-turner.” – Philadelphia Bar Reporter
“Engaging.” – Publishers Weekly
“Grabs you with its intelligence, wit, and energy and doesn’t let go.” – Susan Isaacs
“One of the books you can’t stop reading. Run, don’t walk, to your nearest bookstore.” – Mystery News
“A gripping novel embracing a wide range of characters and human emotions. Humor is one of the novel’s strongest elements…A pleasant surprise as the heroine is confronted with a situation of primal terror.” – The Philadelphia Daily News
“The narrative and characters sparkle.” – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine
***
Review
An Edgar Award nominee (for her first legal thriller, Everywhere That Mary Went), Lisa Scottoline actually won the Edgar for her follow-up, Final Appeal. With five legal thrillers behind her, Scottoline-a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School-has joined the league of lawyers-turned-literaries.
Her voice in Final Appeal is crisp and wry; of the law clerks in her office, the narrator declares that she's got "pantyhose with more mileage… and better judgment."
Lawyer and single mom Grace Rossi has taken a part-time job in a federal appeals court. Her lover and boss, the chief judge, is found dead, and Rossi plays the sleuth. As her previous bestsellers, Scottoline can create feisty female characters who struggle with a variety of issues, producing a fast-paced, well-structured read.
From Publishers Weekly
This tale of corporate intrigue centers on Mary DiNunzio, a lawyer on the partner track at one of Philadelphia's top law firms, and her secret admirer/stalker. Mary, stressed by nature of her occupation, first shrugs off silent phone calls to her home and office that are eerily in sync with her comings and goings. Soon, however, when she starts getting personal notes, too, she starts to suspect her co-workers. When Brent Polk, her good friend and secretary, is killed by a car that's been following Mary around, she goads police detective Lombardo to check for similarities between his death and that of her husband a year earlier. Soon follows a chain of strange discoveries: after sleeping with friend and associate Ned Waters, she finds anti-depressants in his medicine chest; Ned's wife-beating father manages a rival law firm; a partner has been tampering with her files. An increasingly paranoid Mary cuts off relations with Ned, whom she suspects of being her stalker. But she doesn't act on her suspicions until it's nearly too late and she must fight for her life. Lawyer Scottoline's first novel is an engaging, quick read, sprinkled with corny humor and melodrama in just the right proportions.