Rough Justice

✍ Scribed by Lisa Scottoline

• Publisher: HarperTorch
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 201 KB
• Category: Fiction

✦ Synopsis

From Library Journal

During the biggest snowstorm in the history of Philadelphia, the jury is out. The defense is confident of a verdict of not guilty, but then client Elliot Steere admits to his council that he is a murderer. Marta Richter does not take this revelation happily. In fact, she's so outraged that she wants her client's secret revealed no matter what it does to her career. Steere isn't about to let her blow his chances, and with powerful connections, money, and muscle, he works from his jail cell to silence Marta and her colleagues before the sequestered jury makes a decision. If readers like soap opera?type cliffhangers at the end of each chapter, a plot that reads like a TV script, and a little gory violence here and there, they will like this book. The characters are well thought out, but most often sequences of the story unfold implausibly, as when Marta hunts for clues in her client's house and boat. Attorney Bennie Rosato, the feisty character from a previous Scottoline novel (Legal Tender, LJ 7/96), makes an appearance here but is not very involved in the plot except for a "save-the-day" routine in the last few chapters. This is essential for readers already hooked on Scottoline, but don't start with this one when introducing her to readers.
-?Shirley Gibson Coleman, Ann Arbor Dist. Lib., Mich.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Scottoline is back with a flair in her newest thriller. Like her previous book, Running from the Law (1995), this is a fascinating, fast-paced story told with wit, sarcasm, and just the right amount of circus. Marta Richter, just beginning to peak in her career as a defense attorney, has brilliantly presented a fool-proof defense for multimillionaire Elliot Steere, the accused murderer of a homeless man. Just as the jury is about to begin deliberations, however, Steere coolly tells his hardworking attorney that he did indeed kill the man in cold blood, that the self-defense claim was just a ruse. Here is where Scottoline shows her mastery, for she does not center her story on the typical trial scene but, rather, focuses on the post-trial upheaval that envelopes Marta. The drama escalates as she realizes how much power Steere wields, even behind bars, and as her firm's managing partner gets involved, both of them risk their careers and lives in the pursuit of justice. Considering the publisher's extensive mass-market promotion touting Scottoline as the next Grisham or Turow (claims that are not significantly off base), libraries will want to stock up. Mary Frances Wilkens