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DEAD RINGER by Lisa Scottoline

DEAD RINGER

by Lisa Scottoline

Pub Date: June 1st, 2003
ISBN: 0-06-051493-0
Publisher: HarperCollins

Philadelphia attorney Bennie Rosato faces bankruptcy, infighting, stalking, and identity theft, at least two of them courtesy of her evil twin.

It’s been only a matter of time before unloved, abandoned Alice Connelly (Mistaken Identity, 1999), returned to wreak havoc on her more successful sibling. But now is a particularly bad time, since Bennie’s up to her briefs in trouble. The client whose victory she was counting on to pay her bills has declared bankruptcy; her associate Mary DiNunzio wants pro bono time to file a suit against the US government on behalf of a late family friend interned, along with 10,000 other Italian-Americans, during WWII; a huge class-action suit that’s dropped onto her plate despite Rosato & Associates’ lack of experience in the area promises huge rewards, but only if she can survive the challenges of Bill Linette, the shark determined to steal her role as lead attorney in the case; and as she’s discussing the case with her client, the cops arrest her for larceny and assault. When Bennie’s state of alert, in permanent crisis mode during the best of times, is bumped up to red by a murder that strikes unexpectedly close to home, she can’t help wondering whether Alice has turned up the volume still again. But there are plenty of other suspects, from the mystery man who popped up just in time to rescue Bennie’s dog from his own brush with death to a whole town full of Philadelphia lawyers.

Less synthetic than the last outing for Rosato & Associates, but just as fast-moving: a salute to heroines who’ve sworn off swearing but are “tired of saying damn all the time. It just didn’t go far enough.”