Thursday, September 28, 2017

Legal Tender

Title: Legal Tender
Author: Lisa Scottoline
Published: October 1st 1996 by HarperCollins Publishers
Format: Hardcover; 291 pages
Genre: Suspense
Series: Rosato and Associates #2

I need to make the Rosato and Associates series more prevalent in my reading choices since I enjoyed this book and the previous “Everywhere that Mary Went”, so much. Lisa Scottoline keeps the guessing and the developments on track so the reader is never bored and there is no lag time between events.

Bennie Rosato is a six-foot blonde that is hard to miss either in the courtroom or walking down the street. She is one of two partners in a growing law firm and is knocked for a loop when her partner and ex-lover announces that he is dissolving the partnership. Not to worry, she can keep her clients involving police misconduct and excessive-force cases and the good guy that he is has rented new office space for her and anyone that wants to go with her. When she had initially called the meeting, where this announcement was made, it was only to verify rumors that some of her associates where floating their resumes. Little did she know that she would be blindsided and her world would implode.

Since everyone heard the argument with Mark that followed their showdown, it is no surprise that when his body was found the next morning Bennie would be the first and to some the only suspect but Lisa Scottoline would not make it that easy for the readers. What follows is a well-braided tale with planted evidence, a corporate CEO that is also murdered, running around NYC in various outfits and identities, a mysterious meeting in a boathouse, a lawyer posing as a lawyer, all the while still making it to a doctor’s appointment for her mother.

How the ending was pulled off sounded more like a slapstick vignette with suspect and police alike stumbling into a courtroom. There are characters that you will adore, there are characters that you do not trust and are hoping that Bennie’s radar is working and there is humor, lots of humor, and hope, which is exactly what Bennie needs as she faces her next escapade and life with her mother.

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