Rosato and Associates Fans Should Feel Betrayed This Time
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Author: Lisa Scottoline
Title: Betrayed Genre: quasi-legal mystery If you think you’ve had a shitty day, think again: you’ve got nothing on Judy Carrier’s day. Let me back that up, okay? Carrier, who’s the low woman on the totem pole for the Philly-area law firm Rosato and Associates (an all-woman law firm? Have they never heard of reverse discrimination suits?] in Philly) is having a hellish. First, boss Bennie (and new partner Mary) have dumped 70-some civil cases on her desk with orders to get cracking. Not only are the cases boring, they offend Judy’s delicate sensibilities. On top of that, she’s just learned that her favorite aunt has breast cancer and will gom under the knife in just three days. To make matters worse, her mother, with whom she’s always had a tough relationship, shows up in as nurse. And oh yeah: she’s suddenly figured out that her boyfriend Frank is male, and thus a loser… Within hourse of Carrier’s meeting her, Aunt Barb’s good friend, an undocumented Mexican immigrant named Iris¹, turns up dead. Carrier’s aunt is, naturally, convinced that the circumstances of the undocumented Mexican woman’s death are suspicious, though the cops aren’t. The reason? Iris would “never drive with her window down because it would mess up her hair.” The cops are unconvinced. With just hours before Aunt Bar’s surgery, Carrier begins the requisite snooping, as is the wont of any woman who works at Rosato. She will learn one hell of a lot more about many things over the next few days; including that more than one person has been Betrayed. Judy Carrier, Bennie Rosato and Mary Dinunzio are set characters in the Rosato and Associates mystery series penned by Philadelphia lawyer/author Lisa Scottoline. Another lawyer, Anne Murphy, is missing in action this installment. Most of the earlier books in the series centered on dithering, ditsy Mary or brilliant but socially-awkwars Bennie, with Judy serving mainly to back Mary up in her dumber antics, or as comic relief because of a somewhat bizarre fashion sense. This time, however, Judy is the lead. Or she would be the lead if Betrayed had enough of a plot for someone to lead in. Unfortunately, it’s a spaghetti bowl of unconnected plot threads, all of them competing to see which one will cause the biggest problems for Carrier/ Consequently, none of those threads rises to the level of interesting. The apparent mystery – Iris’ death and the buckets of money she’s stashed at Barb’s house – sucks royally, the villain’s motivation is weak and lacks foundation, and worse yet, the mystery occupies perhaps thirty percent of the page space. The remainder is filled up with family drama, boyfriend drama, and a wee tad of career drama. Are you a long-time fan of the twelve-book Rosato and Associates series? Well, this time you’ve been Betrayed. Scottoline apparently phoned this one in, because – even for a series that’s already fairly weak – it’s just plain awful. ¹ ummm, no – that’s not a Spanish name (eee-reese?) all content copyright © 2001-present by scmrak
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