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Summary: KATE BURTON READS - SUPERBLY, OF COURSE
Review:
Accomplished actress Kate Burton has a one of a kind stage voice. (Something in the genes, perhaps?) It doesn't really matter how she acquired her voice; it is simply there for all to enjoy. She can be soothing, menacing, comedic, whatever the role demands. Ms. Burton provides a superb reading of Lisa Scottoline's adventure starring Bennie Rosato, head of an all women Philadelphia law firm.
As our story opens said firm is in financial straits. Things couldn't get much worse - the group is about to be tossed out of their offices onto the sidewalk and Bennie feels personally responsible for her partners, Mary DiNunzio and Judy Carrier. Being cash poor is one thing but to have someone trolling about Philadelphia impersonating you and raising all kinds of havoc is quite something else. Bennie knows there's only one person who could pull that off - her mean spirited twin sister, Alice.
It's any port in a storm so when Bennie has an opportunity to represent a class-action suit that could be a real money maker she doesn't even think about it - she charges ahead. However, she hadn't counted on murder. Suddenly, the stakes are much higher than she'd ever dreamed.
Listen, and be both entertained and surprised.
- Gail Cooke
Rating: 
Summary: Are you kidding me?
Review: Are you kidding me? How did this thing get published? Where is the story? The whole novel feels like a patchwork of separate events all sewn together to make the deadline. One minute Scottoline has brilliant prose and the next minute the dialog sounds like kids on a playground - are these really adults speaking? The Hogwarts students have more profound exchanges than this lot.
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Summary: Absolutely teriffic
Review: Bennie Rosato built the all-female law firm of Rosato & Associates from scratch and thinks of it as her second child. It is tearing her apart that she might lose it because so many of her clients went bankrupt and no new clients are knocking at the door. When Robert St. Amien, a French lens manufacturer with an office in Philadelphia, wants to hire her in a class action suit she thinks that will be the saving of her law firm. While she and the associates are working on the case, trying to be the lead counsel since her client had the most to lose, Bennie runs into some potential problems. Her sociopathic identical twin sister is in town, ruining her reputation and getting her arrested for robbing a jewelry store. While she is trying to find Alice, somebody kills Robert and Bennie's focus shifts into finding the perpetrator who killed her client. DEAD RINGER is a little different (but just as good) from other Lisa Scottoline novels because it focuses on Bennie and is told from her point of view. There are a lot of thrills and chills in this legal thriller but there are more insightful explosions than usual into how Bennie thinks and feels. This is a fine addition to the Rosato and Associates novels, as it adds dimension and depth to one of the better legal thriller series on the market today Harriet Klausner
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Summary: Another page-turning blockbuster.
Review: Bennie Rosato is a lawyer familiar with struggle and heartbreak, but nothing could prepare her for what's about to hit... Bennie's law firm is having a hard time financially, and her current client has just dropped the bombshell of not being able to pay her, but before she can say bankruptcy in walks a new client wealthy businessman Robert St. Amien. Just as things start looking up for Bennie a lost wallet will spin her life out of control. Someone hell-bent on destroying everything in Bennie's life has stolen her identity, and Bennie knows it's her twin sister Alice. As Bennie desperately searches for her twin, a murder will force her to track down a killer, and in the process bring her face to face a dark evil. 'Dead Ringer' is a fast-paced read that will keep readers guessing right up until the end. Lisa Scottoline can always be depended upon to write original thrillers filled with interesting characters, and surprising plot twists and her latest novel scores on all accounts. 'Dead Ringer' is filled with humor and suspense, and anyone looking for a great beach read should look no further...Scottoline has written another winner. Nick Gonnella
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Summary: Could NOT put it down
Review: Bennie Rosato is back, folks, sharper and sassier than ever, along with her associates, a secretary who goes into labor, and multiple crises, including the slithery return of her twin sister, Alice Connelly. The story begins with Bennie successfully defending an established, faithful accountant client who THEN tells her he is filing Chapter 11 and cannot pay for her past services. Oh, how well I remember this part of litigation practice. Her plight only worsens from here to include Alice's impersonation of Bennie to discredit and embarrass her, breaking into her home, and attempting to kill her dog. And this is a sub-plot! I thoroughly enjoyed every page! (PS Bennie ends up with a "hunk" Navy Seal savior.)
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Summary: Entertaining Humor about the Perils of Private Practice
Review: Bennie Rosato is the heroine and narrator of Dead Ringer, and the book opens with a very compelling series of episodes that display the problems that any small legal practice faces during hard economic conditions. Bennie is losing clients right and left to bankruptcy, and the clients she has aren't paying her. She's behind on the rent, and has laid off one staff person. No new clients seem to be on the horizon when she gets an unexpected call from a courtly Frenchman whose company has been hurt by an illegal boycott. But . . . the case will be a class action suit, and Bennie has never done one before. Soon, she's mixing it up with the multimillion dollar class action lawyers who expect her to pony up $30,000 to play in the contingent fee case. If that isn't enough, someone has started impersonating her and is using her credit cards to send unwanted goods to the office. Whenever Bennie thinks she has gotten her head above water, she has another setback. Before long, she's engaged forced to defend her very honor by solving two mysterious crimes. In the process, the danger grows to unacceptable levels . . . and a mysterious, handsome stranger becomes her Good Samaritan. With her hear aflutter, she finds it hard to concentrate on her legal practice. Dead Ringer started off to be a remarkably entertaining book. Around two-thirds of the way through, the book began to unwind from its excellent beginning. The first weakness is that Ms. Scottoline makes too little use of the other characters who work at the Rosato firm. Although they are in many scenes, the narration doesn't shift to them . . . or give us enough of a sense about how they feel. As a result, the associates and staff seem more than a little too understanding about Bennie's financial problems. Why aren't they out looking for another job . . . or at least petrified by their financial peril? The mysteries turn out to be way too easy to resolve . . . and Bennie's many complications unwind themselves like a slip knot. Although it's impressive as a plot device, the result feels hollow to the reader. Also, litigators seldom have financial problems unless they only do contingent fee work. If Bennie is all but unbeatable in court, why weren't clients lined up at her door all along? Her disregard for police procedures also seems flagrant. She really is obstructing one police investigation, and all she gets is one growl along the way. As a result of these flights into fantasy, the book ends up not being a serious effort . . . but rather as scaffolding for a number of fairly humorous gags. But slapstick isn't a fine novel, even though it can be entertaining. Those who have enjoyed Ms. Scottoline's other books will probably enjoy this one as well. If you like lawyer humor and don't know Ms. Scottoline's work, feel free to try this one. If you want a taut legal thriller that seems so real it scares you, look elsewhere. As I finished the book, I thought about why novels tend to have great endings rather than great beginnings. I assumed that Dead Ringer would have an ending as good as the beginning. Perhaps authors realize that it's more important to leave you on a high than to start you with a bang!
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Summary: An Evil Twin, a Murder and a Mystery
Review: Bennie Rosato's law firm, which consists of four young female attorneys and a pregnant secretary, is in trouble. They win cases, clients can't pay and they need money. Bennie takes on a class action case, then strange things start happening to her. Her wallet is stolen, she starts getting packages she didn't order, someone alleges she had been seen drunk, eventually she figures out her criminal twin is behind it all. For some reason her evil twin is intent on ruining her reputation and her as well. With time running out, Bennie struggles to keep working and holding her firm together, while her sister keeps up her attacks. Add murder to the mix and Bennie determined to solve it and you have a five star mystery thriller you can't put down. Review submitted by Captain Katie Osborne
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Summary: Murder Mystery and Humor
Review: Bennie Rosato, is a successful lawyer but a businesswoman on the decline. While her reputation as a trial lawyer is stellar, her firm is on the verge of bankruptcy, until a big case comes along that just might solve all her problems, then things suddenly go haywire, and it started with a lost wallet. Lisa Scottoline brings us through this mystery with attitude and wit, never allowing a serious moment to go by without a quirky afterthought. The writing was informed and just right, and while certain things just pop out of nowhere, this book has no pretentions. The tension its plot could have had in unbearable proportions was lightened by the exceptional character of Bennie Rosato who, even in the direst of situations, never takes herself seriously. Bennie is pushy, but endearingly so, and she doesn't have to apologize for it either. Her character and St. Amien's was the best developed in the entire cast. Bennie, however, could've done without a certain Navy Seal. A hefty reward and a thank you would've sufficed. ^_~ All in all, it was a good book and I would recommend it for the Murder-Mystery enthusiast who just wants to sit back, relax and take a break from intensity.
Rating:
Summary: Murder Mystery and Humor
Review: Bennie Rosato, is a successful lawyer but a businesswoman on the decline. While her reputation as a trial lawyer is stellar, her firm is on the verge of bankruptcy, until a big case comes along that just might solve all her problems, then things suddenly go haywire, and it started with a lost wallet. Lisa Scottoline brings us through this mystery with attitude and wit, never allowing a serious moment to go by without a quirky afterthought. The writing was informed and just right, and while certain things just pop out of nowhere, this book has no pretentions. The tension its plot could have had in unbearable proportions was lightened by the exceptional character of Bennie Rosato who, even in the direst of situations, never takes herself seriously. Bennie is pushy, but endearingly so, and she doesn't have to apologize for it either. Her character and St. Amien's was the best developed in the entire cast. Bennie, however, could've done without a certain Navy Seal. A hefty reward and a thank you would've sufficed. ^_~ All in all, it was a good book and I would recommend it for the Murder-Mystery enthusiast who just wants to sit back, relax and take a break from intensity.
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Summary: A share of suspense
Review: Dead Ringer Author Lisa Scottoline sketches thumbnails with the tersest of phrases. In her latest book, Dead Ringer, an overbearing class-action attorney, Bill (a.k.a. Bull) Linette, whom the writer has already deliciously pigeon-holed by dint of his "overbleached" teeth, doesn't just turn around; he pivots "on his slippery Italian heel." Lawyer heroine Benedetta Rosato's beauteous associate Anne Murphy despatches a lasciviously groping lunch date with a well-aimed "overpriced designer pump." Bennie herself stops a door slamming in her face by thrusting her Saucony (a brand which advertises itself as "shoes for serious athletes") and using it to wedge the door open. Running metaphors were never more fun. This is the book I just finished reading aloud to my 92-year-old mother, a formerly inveterate reader who is now plagued by low vision. It was very difficult for me, because I had to be self disciplined. As a rule, I read a good suspense novel in a day or two. That way it is not difficult to keep all the threads together in my mind and I can just go plunging headlong till the end. My mother however, is no longer capable of sitting through more than a chapter or two (occasionally three) at a time. Also, she has short-term memory problems and each time I picked up the book (after breakfast was the best time) I had to go through "the story so far." It made me appreciate those clichés: "I couldn't put it down," and "It's a real page-turner." And of course "a real cliff hanger." The author suspends exciting plot developments at the end of each chapter. This is true of all good stories, but I haven't had to examine one as carefully as this for quite a while. Scottoline's humour is dry and crisp. Her books are worth reading for the dialogue alone. My maternal grandfather was a criminal lawyer a long time ago, and he was known for his wit (although occasionally for his bombast). As we listened to the crackling repartee between Bennie and other characters, my mother would frequently interject with some story from her father's repertoire of his more colourful clients. She kept saying, "Human nature doesn't change," even though I know the court ambience was far more formal 70 years ago. And my mother appreciated--treasured--the fact that some of Rosato's prominent clients were French, as my father's parents emigrated to the New World from France with their own parents a hundred years ago. There are elements of this plot that are far fetched. Bennie is a curious combination of worldly-wise and naive. I would point out that Bennie was perhaps too trusting of her self-appointed Navy SEAL protector, especially when she was so proactive in other ways, and my mother would counter, "Oh, isn't that true of all of us." And the reappearance of Bennie's evil twin stretched the imagination at times, almost like a red herring, but readers of this careful author know there will be another book to deal with some of the unfinished (and tantalizing) story lines. Overall, Scottoline fans will not be disappointed with this newest story.
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