Courting Trouble [Hardcover]

Lisa Scottoline (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 21, 2002

In Courting Trouble, New York Times bestselling author Lisa Scottoline is back with another fast-paced thriller, which sends a young woman lawyer racing to find out who's trying to kill her -- after she's wrongly been reported murdered.

Anne Murphy is smart, gorgeous, and young, the redheaded rookie at the Philadelphia law firm of Rosato & Associates. She leaves town for the Fourth of July weekend to prepare for a high-profile trial, but when she buys her morning newspaper, her own photo is plastered all over the front page. And the headline--- LAWYER MURDERED -- supposedly refers to her. Anne sets out to find her killer, playing dead in order to stay alive.

She tries to go it alone but quickly realizes that she'll have to trust people she barely knows -- colleagues who hate her guts, a homicide squad that wants her out of the crime-fighting business, and a new love who inconveniently happens to be opposing counsel. The investigation takes all of Anne's boldness and ingenuity -- plus a pair of red satin hot pants. But her knack for courting trouble makes it almost impossible for Anne to play well with others, defend the lawsuit, and fight her urge to sleep with the enemy. Then an unexpected event places her in lethal jeopardy and leaves her with everything to lose -- including her life.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Anne Murphy thought she'd put her unhappy past a continent behind her when she joined Philadelphia attorney Bennie Rosato's all-woman law firm. Then a friend who's housesitting for Anne is murdered in what's clearly a case of mistaken identity, and Anne realizes that the past has caught up with her and that the only way to outrun it is to catch the killer before he realizes that she's still alive. But how can Anne play dead with a high-profile case just days away from starting? The only way to pull it off is to let her new colleagues in on the secret, which would mean telling them her other secrets, too, including the fact that she's in love with opposing counsel and the probability that her client may not be as innocent as she thought he was. The author deftly weaves the threads of plot and subplot together, helped by Mary DiNunzio, Judy Carrier, and Bennie herself, the familiar and well-drawn mainstays of this lively and solidly paced series (Moment of Truth, The Vendetta Defense, Rough Justice). It's vintage Scottoline, featuring some nice touches; a little suspense, a lot of female bonding, a few pithy asides on the human condition, and a surprise in the penultimate chapter. --Jane Adams

From Publishers Weekly

New York Times bestseller Scottoline's cast of beautiful female lawyers at Philadelphia's Rosato & Associates is augmented by red-headed bombshell Anne Murphy, a woman with a secret past, who's trying to make a go of it in a new city. An intriguing character jammed into a laborious plot, Murphy toils as a career-minded loner. On a much-needed weekend away from her heavy caseload, she picks up a newspaper to read that she has been murdered by an intruder who blasted her in the face with a shotgun. Murphy knows the real victim was the woman who had agreed to feed her cat; she also knows that the murderer was likely Kevin Satorno, the stalker who nearly killed her a year earlier while she was living in Los Angeles. Murphy figures that if Satorno discovers he actually killed the wrong person, he'll continue hunting her, so she decides to play dead and enlist the help of her new colleagues at Rosato & Associates to track him down. Scottoline (The Vendetta Defense; Moment of Truth) wraps up the far-fetched action in high style, with a few predictable twists, at Philly's big outdoor Fourth of July celebration. As in her eight previous women-in-peril legal thrillers, she tempers the plot's bloodshed with a bouncy tone that some readers may find cloying. But this doesn't bother the former lawyer's growing base of fans she's now translated into 25 languages and despite Murphy's occasional "you go, girl" silliness, she's the best character Scottoline has created in a while.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers; 1st edition (May 21, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060185147
• ISBN-13: 978-0060185145
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (100 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #986,421 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lisa Scottoline is the New York Times bestselling author of seventeen novels including her most recent, THINK TWICE, and also writes a weekly column, called Chick Wit, for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Lisa has won many honors and awards, notably the Edgar Award, given for excellence in crime fiction, and the Fun Fearless Female Award from Cosmopolitan Magazine. She also teaches a course she created, called Justice and Fiction at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and regularly does speaking engagements. There are twenty-five million copies of her books in print, and she is published in over thirty other countries.Lisa graduated magna cum laude in three years from the University of Pennsylvania, with a B.A. degree in English, and her concentration was Contemporary American Fiction, taught by Philip Roth and others. She graduated cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. She remains a lifelong resident of the Philadelphia area, where she lives with her array of disobedient pets.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Perfect for July 4th !, June 27, 2002

By 

Dr Cathy Goodwin (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Courting Trouble (Hardcover)

If you're new to the Scottoline's blend of women lawyers, Philadelphia and murder, prepare for a treat. Scottline introduced Mary DiNunzio and Judy Carrier, young associates in a starchy male-dominated law firm, in Everywhere that Mary Went.

As the series evolved, Mary and Judy moved their adventures to Bennie Rosato's all-woman law firm,
Courting Trouble introduces, Anne Murphy, a red-head who takes big risks in law and in life. When she reads her own death notice on page one of the local paper, Anne realizes she needs to play dead until she can identify the person who wants her dead.
As usual, the legal team avoids poring over dusty files. They solve cases by creating undercover capers that Scottoline insists are perfectly plausible. Would three women lawyers dress up as hookers to gain access to a sleazy motel room? Well, it could happen.

Courting Trouble reveals the tender side of tough-lawyer-and-boss Bennie Rosato. Off-duty she wears cut-off shorts, builds muscles by rowing a boat, and keeps a traditional single-woman-minimalist refrigerator. On or off duty, she dispenses wise advice about love and law.
Scottoline also introduces a family theme. Mary's magical Italian family, a staple of the series, contrasts with Anne's distant mother. Readers can decide if these sections are warm and fuzzy or just plain mushy, and whether a law firm can --or should -- be a family.

For some readers, the red herring that occupies most of the book will be transparent and the ending willl seem contrived. However, I suspect that Scottoline fans read less for plot than for answers to, "What are those women doing now?" And for transplanted Philadelphians, each volume in the series offers a brief glimpse of home.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lucy 'splain! Well sir, I just couldn't put this one down!, June 29, 2002

By 

tamara (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Courting Trouble (Hardcover)

This book answers the question: what do you get when you cross Alfred Hitchcock with "I Love Lucy"? The answer: a rip-roaring read.

Anne Murphy is a Lucy fanatic who's memorized every episode (not that she'll admit it out loud). An aggressive Philadelphia attorney, she's not above Lucy-esque plans in and out of the courtroom. In fact, she had me at "uh ...Hello??" -- that is, from the first chapter where she engineers a um ... very interesting courtroom demonstration to prove a point about sexual harassment.

But, life takes a far more serious turn in the days that follow. The chaos begins when Anne leaves town for a holiday weekend and awakens to headlines blaring news of her own very violent demise. Who was the real murder victim? And, what will the killer do when news gets out that Anne is still very much alive? Can she trust anyone under such dubious circumstances? And what about the big sexual harassment case Anne's supposed to take to trial three days hence? -- for a client who may or may not be telling her the truth?!

Intrigue abounds as the story gets underway and surprises await in every chapter. Along with the unrelenting tension, Lisa Scottoline delivers wonderful turns of phrase, and a nice dose of Lucy-type schemes and references. As only a deft writer could, Scottoline perfectly balances the lighthearted with the deadly serious. Just as you think everything is tidily wrapping up, chilling chaos reigns down once more. I don't want to ruin the ending, but will just say that I happily ignored a sunny Saturday afternoon in favor of gluing myself to this book until I reached the end. It was worth it.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not her best.....not her worst., June 14, 2002

By 

Terry Mathews (a small town in east Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Courting Trouble (Hardcover)

I've been a Scottoline fan since FINAL APPEAL, and I've enjoyed watching her evolve into an accomplished writer.

Having said that, I must agree with 'booklover10' and say that Scottoline's latest effort has left me a bit flat.

The book centers on beautiful Anne Murphy, up and coming associate at the all-girl firm founded by Philadelphia legal eagle Bennie Rosato.

Anne, in the middle of a difficult case, decides to take an unplanned week-end off at the beach. She leaves her house in the care of an acquaintance, with deadly results.

Thus begins the story of mistaken identity, obsession, and a red herring plot so obvious as to be annoying.

I liked Anne and her dogged determination to find the killer, but the story becomes so outrageous as to ridicule common police procedures and it stretches credibility to the absolute breaking point.

I will continue to read Scottoline because everyone is entitled to a lapse or two, but I wish better things for Bennie Rosato and her partners. They're smarter than this!