Devil's Corner [Paperback]

Lisa Scottoline (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Pan Books; New Ed edition (2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0330441795
• ISBN-13: 978-0330441797
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (62 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,500,983 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

40 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice read, solid story, nasty plot twists..., May 16, 2005

By 

Thomas Duff "Duffbert" (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Devil's Corner (Hardcover)

The kind folks over at HarperCollins sent me an advance reader copy of Lisa Scottoline's newest novel Devil's Corner. This is another author that I haven't read before, but will probably end up doing catch-up reading on her titles...

Vicki Allegretti is an Assistant U.S. Attorney, and she's due to interview a confidential informant on a case related to an illegal gun sale. But things go horribly wrong when she arrives at the meeting house only to find two guys who have broken into the house and murdered the informant. During the confrontation, her partner is killed and she almost joins him in death before the killers decide to flee. In the process of interviewing leads on the killing, she assaults a prisoner and is suspended from her job. But instead of just taking the safe road, she decides to conduct her own investigation so that the case doesn't get dropped. To get into the parts of the city where the crime occurred, she has to team up with the person she assaulted, and thus starts an unlikely personality pairing that will either pay off or get them both killed...

Scottoline was formerly a trial lawyer and apparently now watches court cases for entertainment (and potential story ideas). Her in-depth knowledge of the legal system and how things actually work shows through in this novel, as I got the feeling that she has been here before. Watching Allegretti try and balance her work and personal life is interesting, as her romantic interest may or may not be all he's cracked up to be. And I really liked the interplay between her and Reheema, the girl she assaulted. Matching up an urban black street-smart girl with a suburban Harvard grad leads to rather sticky situations that neither can relate to but that both have to work through.

Solid writing, good pacing, a story with some meat, and a few plot twists to boot... Can't ask for much more in a recreational crime thriller read.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "People ... can fool the devil, but they can't fool the neighbors." Edgar Watson Howe, February 26, 2010

By 

michael a. draper (Guilford, CT) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Devil's Corner: 1 (Kindle Edition)

Vicki Allegretti, Asst. U.S. atty. goes to an informant's home and runs into two men who have just killed the informant. Vicki's associate is also killed before the killers escape.

Raheema Bristow is the person the CI claimed to have evidence about and she is freed after the CI is murdered.

Vicki goes to Raheema's home thinking that she might get evidence against her before the case is dismissed and is surprised to find that Raheema's mother is a crack addict. Eventually, Raheema and Vicki agree to an uneasy truce and decide to work together in attempt to find those guilty of Vicki's partner's murder and another death. These two women with nothing in common begin spying on an inner city crack house.

If the reader can put logic aside and experience the story as a work of fiction, it is a fun read. Vicki is a Harvard educated attorney attempting to be undercover in the slums. I picture Reese Witherspoon of "Legally Blond" in this setting and wonder how Vicki could go undetected and survive.

Scottoline did a professional job creating suspense and maintaining the dramatic flow of the novel, adding a well placed plot twist to keep the reader guessing and make the story more interesting.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars New twists for a solid author, June 16, 2005

By 

Dr Cathy Goodwin (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Devil's Corner (Hardcover)

Scottoline experiments with a new heroine and a new type of crime. But fans will recognize Scottoline's writing touches, as individual as a fingerprint.

From the beginning, we get Scottoline's delicious combination of girl-think with violent crime. Staring down the barrel of a gun, Assistant DA Vicki Allegretti wonders if a black gun "makes you look thinner." It's just the kind of combination of gritty suspense and girl talk that we have come to expect from this author -- and she delivers magnificently.

Other surprises surface. Allegretti, product of upperclass parents and good schools, teams up with an accused criminal to solve a crime. Along the way, she takes risks, gets suspended from her job, and finds an unlikely criminal.

As with Scottoline, the heroine begins to seem like an old friend -- someone we admire and want to follow. And as always, we get a suspenseful page-turner that superbly paced, with not a word wasted.

Like many fans, I miss Scottoline's traditional characters: Mary, Judy, Bennie and Anne. Scottoline takes a big jump here with a character whose parents are both lawyers -- someone from the upper echelons of Philadelphia society. She seems most comfortable when dealing with scrappy up-from-nothing women like Bennie and Mary,

But I wouldn't be surprised to seem them all come together in a future novel (Scottoline has a way of doing that). Let me guess: Bennie's law firm would be defending a client, Allegretti would be prosecuting, and they'd all unite on the side of justice -- and the pleasure of their loyal readers.