From Publishers Weekly
Another bestseller is on the docket for Scottoline (Courting Trouble; Rough Justice; The Vendetta Defense), with a new legal caper featuring the lady lawyers of series heroine Bennie Rosato's Philadelphia law firm, Rosato and Associates. This time out it's Bennie playing the lead role, as she fights to save her financially sinking firm; mother her lovable partners, Mary DiNunzio and Judy Carrier; solve the murder of a valuable client; and battle her evil twin, Alice. The eviction notice is on the door when suave Frenchman Robert St. Amien steps in with a class-action suit that promises not only to stave off Bennie's landlord but to shovel millions of dollars into the firm's bottomed-out bank account. The fact that our heroine has never handled a class-action suit doesn't faze her for more than a nanosecond. Bennie has her wallet stolen and soon becomes the target of increasingly sinister attacks, until it becomes clear that Alice (last seen in Mistaken Identity) is back in town and bent on revenge. When the stakes are upped to murder, Bennie realizes she's in big trouble. Fortunately, hunky SEAL David Holland shows up to save her dog, act as bodyguard and supply the love interest. Of course, he has a dark secret, but this just makes him more appealing and sympathetic when it is revealed. Occasional awkward writing intrudes ("Anger bubbled like lifeblood to her cheeks"), there are too many pantyhose jokes, and the solution to the mystery is a clunker, but readers caught up in the fast and furious wordplay will hardly notice. Bennie grows on you, and soon enough you're rooting for the home team and laughing at her corny jokes.Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
After attorney Benedetta Rosato loses her wallet, she receives bills for identical dresses she didn't buy and is arrested for a robbery she didn't commit. Bennie's evil twin, Alice, an ex-con and sociopath, is back in town and wreaking havoc. To make matters worse, the client who's about to save Bennie's firm from bankruptcy is murdered. Narrator Barbara Rosenblat is giddy and girlish when the cynical, wisecracking Bennie meets a hunky Navy SEAL and hard as nails as Bennie solves her client's murder. When Bennie almost drowns trying to save her dog from Alice's attempts to murder him, Rosenblat's performance leaves the listener gasping for breath, relieved to be on dry land. Her witty take on the irrepressible Bennie and her snide asides make the occasionally unlikely plot gimmicks and character inconsistencies almost disappear. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Booklist
Bennie Rosato's all-female Philadelphia law firm has seen better days so it's no surprise when Bennie jumps at the chance to represent Robert St. Amien, a debonair European businessman whose U.S. interests are being stolen by a naive trade association's collusive practices. Though Bennie sees dollar signs, there is a group of similarly situated foreign businesses also seeking damages, which brings the case to class-action status, something about which neither Bennie nor her associates possess much expertise. Bennie is game to learn as she goes, but her learning curve is slowed by other distractions, mainly the reappearance of her estranged identical twin sister (from Mistaken Identity, 1999), who is impersonating Bennie and causing no end of trouble. This episode is a bit short on thrills, but it's nice to have Bennie back in the spotlight in a series whose focus jumps among the four partners. Mary Frances Wilkens
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description

Philadelphia attorney Bennie Rosato has her eye focused firmly on the bottom line, and she takes a professional risk when she charges into a class action lawsuit that could make -- or break -- her career.

Then her wallet goes missing. And Bennie's life goes crazy. Someone posing as the outspoken, blue-eyed, blond attorney is wreaking havoc around town, apparently determined to destroy everything Bennie loves.

When events escalate into murder, the maverick lawyer realizes that the stakes are far greater than she feared. But Bennie Rosato refuses to be anyone's victim. To find the killer, she'll plunge headfirst into a life-and-death investigation that will bring her face-to-face with evil darker yet more familiar than anything before.

With Dead Ringer, Lisa Scottoline delivers a tour de force that is not to be missed.


Download Description
E-book extras: "A Little More About Lisa"; "One Night on My Book Tour": Essay; "The Novels" (Chapter One from each of Lisa's eight prior novels). Brilliant Philadelphia lawyer Bennie Rosato lost her wallet - and her identity. Now an imposter is destroying everything she loves. Bennie refuses to be a victim, but to get her life back she must come face-to-face with an evil darker yet more familiar than she ever imagined.


About the Author
Lisa Scottoline is a New York Times bestselling author and former trial lawyer. She has won the Edgar Award, the highest prize in suspense fiction, and the Distinguished Author Award from the Weinberg Library of the University of Scranton. She has served as the Leo Goodwin Senior Professor of Law and Popular Culture at Nova Southeastern Law School, and her novels are used by bar associations for the ethical issues they present. Her books are published in more than twenty languages. She lives with her family in the Philadelphia area.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Philadelphia attorney Bennie Rosato has her eye focused firmly on the bottom line, and she takes a professional risk when she charges into a class action lawsuit that could make -- or break -- her career.

Then her wallet goes missing. And Bennie's life goes crazy. Someone posing as the outspoken, blue-eyed, blond attorney is wreaking havoc around town, apparently determined to destroy everything Bennie loves.

When events escalate into murder, the maverick lawyer realizes that the stakes are far greater than she feared. But Bennie Rosato refuses to be anyone's victim. To find the killer, she'll plunge headfirst into a life-and-death investigation that will bring her face-to-face with evil darker yet more familiar than anything before.

With Dead Ringer, Lisa Scottoline delivers a tour de force that is not to be missed.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal