Running From The Law

Agreeing to represent the respected Judge R. Fiske Hamilton in a scandalous sexual harassment suit by his secretary, wisecracking lawyer Rita Morrone Hamilton is stunned when the trial turns deadly. $50,000 ad/promo. Tour.

Scottoline's hardcover debut is a fast-paced, fast-talking legal thriller starring manipulative Philadelphia lawyer Rita Morrone, who is not above wearing black and wiping a nonexistent tear from her eye to advance her case in front of a jury. Rita, who narrates, is defending federal judge Fiske Hamilton, father of her boyfriend Paul, in a sexual harassment suit. Things go from bad to worse when, after Rita discovers evidence of more than just harassment, the woman pressing the suit is found murdered, with the judge as the prime suspect. In defending Hamilton, Rita has to face things about herself, her career and her relationship with Paul that she doesn't particularly want to acknowledge. All of this is window-dressing to the plot, which hinges on a least-likely-suspect mystery; but, through Scottoline's expert design, the window-dressing counts for much, turning this novel into something more than just a legal thriller from a female point of view. There's an intelligent sense of irony at work?from Rita's budding romance with the firm womanizer to her response to a personal tragedy that sounds a dark counterpoint to the masquerade of grief that opens the novel. Fans of Scottoline's paperback novels (the Edgar-winning Final Appeal and the Edgar-nominated Everywhere That Mary Went) will appreciate this offering, including how the author taps into her personal expertise as a former lawyer to advance plot and character; hopefully, the book's publication in hardcover will attract the new fans she deserves. $50,000 ad/promo; simultaneous HarperAudio; author tour; U.K., translation and dramatic rights: Columbia Literary Assoc.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Against her better judgment, Rita Morrone, a smart-mouthed, poker-playing young lawyer, agrees to represent her lover's father, a respected judge, against a sexual harassment charge brought by his secretary. As she prepares to go to trial, little does she know that her lover, Paul, is also involved in the case and that the lady in question will end up murdered; furthermore, she doesn't suspect that her own life and that of her father will lie in the balance. Yet as she investigates, it becomes increasingly clear that the good judge is being framed. Despite her fury at Paul for his infidelity and her concern for her father, she does her homework and?with a little help from her octogenarian poker cronies?deftly nails the murderer. Readers of courtroom fiction will love this latest by Scottoline, who was nominated for an Edgar Award for Final Appeal (HarperCollins, 1994). Recommended for public libaries.?Susan Clifford, Hughes Aircraft Co. Lib., Los Angeles
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Lawyer Rita Morrene has moxie: she can posture in front of a jury, play poker with the boys, bluff her way though tight situations, and even fend off a gun-waving killer. The springboard for putting her brass in motion is a sexual harassment suit in which the accuser suddenly dies of unnatural causes. Because Morrene's client, a blue-blooded judge, had ample incentive to see the scandalous suit disappear, he becomes the prime suspect in the case. But the intrepid Morrene, with trademark sarcastic asides at the ready, soon adds suspects of her own, for the victim, it turns out, was a brazen minx who bedded many men, any of whom could have wanted the girl dead. Morrene's strategem for sorting out the candidates (who include her own boyfriend, which stokes up women-scorned atmospherics) cleverly flushes out the real killer, whose motive wasn't resentment about sex but greed connected with the original lawsuit. Against a carnival-like cast of characters, the author has created a star heroine whose savvy is worth a sequel or two. Gilbert Taylor