Life holds few surprises for Bennie Rosato, head of her own Philadelphia law firm. As a criminal attorney now specializing in police misconduct cases, she's seen the noblest and most deviant aspects of human nature. But nothing can prepare her for the moment she enters a maximum-security prison to meet her new client, Alice Connolly, face to face. Accused of brutally murdering her lover, a highly decorated police detective, Connolly claims the police framed her. A defendant protesting her innocence is not unusual for Bennie. What shocks her is that Connelly bears an uncanny physical resemblance to her. "Pleased to meet you. I'm your twin. Your identical twin," Connolly tells the astonished lawyer. But Bennie grew up as an only child, or so she thought. She has a law firm, a handsome young lover, and a golden retriever; she doesn't have a twin. Or does she?
Connolly knows too many intimate details about Bennie's life and family for the resemblance to be just coincidental. And there is something about the woman that compels the intrigued attorney to defend her, against her better judgment. Taking the case with the trial only a week away, Bennie plunges into the mystery of the murder, as well as her own identity and her family's dark secrets. Is Connolly innocent? And is she Bennie's unknown sister? It is not until Bennie takes the case to verdict that she will finally learn the truth, which threatens to change her life.
A legal thriller, a courtroom drama, and an exploration of the emotional bonds that define our lives and those we love, Mistaken Identity is a masterful achievement that takes the legal thriller to a new level as it resoundingly confirms Lisa Scottoline's place as one of the premier writers of suspense fiction today.
...ContinuaThis is my first Lisa Scottoline legal thriller book and it's like taking a roler coaster ride that full of surprises and twists and turns in the story and I hardly put it down. Bennie Rosato, the irrepressible head of an all-female Philadelphia law firm, just got a case from a most challenging client Alice Connolly - charged with murdering her police detective boyfriend who may or may not have been a drug dealer claims she was framed by police officers for murder. Complicating matters is Alice's claim to be Bennie's identical twin sister and to have been visited by their long-lost father. Bennie's ailing mother is too far gone to confirm or deny Alice Connolly's incredible tale of separation soon after birth; the supporting evidence is inconclusive; and while Bennie is waiting for the DNA results, there's the little matter of taking over, on a week's notice, Connolly's botched defense on the capital charge of killing her live-in lover, Officer Anthony Della Porta. Bennie, whose firm specializes in prosecuting naughty cops, couldn't expect much help from Della Porta's associates even if they weren't, as Connolly insists, crooks and drug dealers, cogs in a conspiracy dedicated to putting her away for good. She enlists the aid of her associates, Mary DiNunzio and Judy Carrier, as well as Lou Jacobs, a cantankerous retired cop she hires as an investigator. They discover that a web of corruption may have enveloped the prosecuting attorney and judge who are now trying Alice's case. The puzzle behind this case just gets more puzzling; the corruption and lies are endless, and every new fact uncovered leads to more questions. As the stakes escalate, and the trial draws closer, Bennie and her team become targets for those who would rather not see their dirty secrets come to light. Alice is tough, smart and manipulative but Bennie is getting the feeling that she just might be telling the truth about not murdering her boyfriend, and about being Bennie's twin sister.
Scottoline effectively alternates her settings between prison, law office, courtroom and the streets, and she neatly ties all our unanswered questions together into a perfectly formed bow, and keeps us frantically turning pages until the very end.
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