Rating: 
Summary: no mistake-this is great!
Review: What a truly unique concept-your client is your identical twin sister who you've not met until recently-or is she? You'll have to read it to find out. My favorite parts are when in the court room Bennie looks at her client and it is almost like looking at herself sitting there. What a strange feeling that would be. That feeling is expertly conveyed. The writing is supurb and I whizzed through the pages in a flash. This is the first Lisa Scottoline book that I've read and it won't be the last. I am a reader of legal thrillers and this one was by far one of the best reads that I've had in that catagory in quite awhile. I'd give it a six or seven star rating is I could. The unique concept and wonderful writing led me to a thoroughly enjoyable experience. This is definitely a "gotta get it!!".
Rating:
Summary: Bennie's Twin or Not? Just one of the good mysteries herein
Review: Here we have Scottoline's sixth offering, and no exception to a repertoire that only improves as it enlarges. In this book, (Ms.) Bennie Rosato herself enjoys the limelight occupied by her associates Mary and Judy from other stories (although they both appear with small parts herein); so it's nice we finally get to learn much more about the principal herself. Moreover, the author baits our hook in chapter 1 that the murder defendant, Alice Connelly, may be Bennie's unknown identical twin - and appearances at a minimum seem convincing. We're kept in limbo on this question until chapter 41 (of 44), adding a great deal of suspense to a story otherwise already pretty compelling. Even the book's title vacillates in our minds as first a clue then a red herring re the twin mystery. But while we get the twin question settled finally by DNA (one way or the other), unlike so many tales of this genre, several plot elements are left to further pondering at the end. In fact, that the book ends on a situation hardly totally settled may speak to perhaps the ethical issues the Publisher often asserts is part of Scottoline's appeal.So, another good member of the growing Scottoline roster (now up to 8), with all of suspense, plot, and a sophisticated ending to entertain and keep pages turning late into the night.
Rating: 
Summary: Better than expected, but that's not saying much!
Review: I picked this up at a local book store, and didn't expect it to be a very good book. After buying it, I let it collect dust for a few months on my shelf before, after having nothing better to do I began to read it. At first I had trouble reading it because it wasn't very exciting for me. Of course this might just be because after reading several Stephen King and John Grisham books, excitment has to be taken up a few notches to catch my attention. But after reading through the book on and off for a few weeks it began to get interesting. I started to read it as opposed to other books given to me for presents, but found myself picking up a Bentley Little book and reading that before finishing Mistaken Identity. At the last few hundred pages the story gets suspensful and exciting, but I suspect that if I had one of my old favorite books nearby I would have chosen them over this. Although the book is superb at the end, the beggining drags to much, and I was easily distracted in the first few hundred pages! If you feel that you've read all of the good books, and it seems that all that is left is this, then read it. But don't expect Scottoline to become your new favorite author!
Rating: 
Summary: Get past the first few pages and it's clear sailing.
Review: 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 <i>The Trial of Gilles de Rais</i> (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
Rating: 
Summary: Mistaken identity, Scottoline is not Grisham
Review: Have you ever read a Grisham legal-thriller ?. In my opinion Mr. Grisham has provided an involuntary strong influence on Lisa Scottoline, this book looks like a copycat but cannot attain the level of the former writer. With a quick pace marked by short chapters and with a poor language improper for a legal-thriller, the author is determined to trap the reader into the plot and scores, because as the pages go by, she learns how to exploit the story setting the mystery out and then turning it into tight suspense which snowballs toward the last chapters, but when you finish the book and look at it as a whole in retrospect, it is easy to perceive loose ends during the course of the events as the author falls sometimes in traps set by her own creative ideas, leaving some important situations unresolved or sidestepped, this go hand to hand with the flabby character drawing and shows a definitive poor writing style.
Rating:
Summary: I'm Not Impressed
Review: The story started out interesting enough. I mean, you have a lawyer finding out she has a possible twin up for a murder charge. But, unfortuneately that's as good as it gets. For a story like this to work you should at least have likeable characters. I couldn't identify with any of them and therefore didn't really care to much about them. Now, there were some interesting parts and that's why I gave it 3 stars but as a whole, I just wasn't impressed with this book. If you really love legal thrillers you might like Mistaken Identity but if you are looking for a riveting thriller, don't waste your time on this one.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting plot but disappointing methods.
Review: I became very interested in this book when I read the first two chapters in a promotional. The plot about the lawyer finding a heretofore unknown twin sister in jail was engaging and the initial writing caught my interest. HOWEVER, when I finally got to read the book itself, I couldn't stomach it. What bothers me the most is the massive amount of profanity used by the characters. Call me naive, (although after 20 years in the military, I can't say that I am) but I didn't know that any literature that was considered fit to be sold to the general public had so much bad language in it. Also, it's important to me in a book to be able to like at least some of the main characters, and by that I mean that they should have some admirable character traits, or at the least, engaging personalities. I have to admit that I've skimmed the sections with the worst language, which is much of the book, but I haven't found anyone likeable yet. I'd skip on this one!
Rating:
Summary: Legalese on Display
Review: Scottoline has written a fast-paced legal thriller, complete with plenty of lawyerly posturing. Good plot and pacing, with well-developed characters makes for an entertaing read. My only complaint is that there were too many loose ends and unanswered questions in the story (but that kind of story device seems to be so in vogue these days).
Rating:
Summary: Lisa knows her law
Review: Sometimes these "legal thrillers" are so thin and shaky on the realities of legal practice that I want to pitch them after the first courtroom scene. Not Lisa Scottoline's. She serves up accurate legal details and spins a good yarn to boot. I've read FINAL APPEAL and ROUGH JUSTICE along with this one. Bennie Rosato's law firm is a place where lots of female attorneys might like to work--all women all the time. The male characters, though, are not macho dogs, thank heaven. Just when you think you see a stereotype coming, you may be surprised. MISTAKEN IDENTITY is not my favorite, since a couple of the plot twists are a bit much. But if you are willing to put strict logic on the shelf for a while, take a trip with these characters and you will enjoy the ride, I promise.
Rating:
Summary: Loved this book!
Review: This is the first of Scottoline's books that I have read. I enjoyed it so much I immediately ordered four more, and have only two left to read. This is only impressive if you realize I work full-time and go to school in the evening, so I have very little recreational reading time. She is one of the best, if not THE best, mystery author I have ever read. I'm looking forward to more from her.
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