Rex’s reviews of anything (but mostly books)

Look Again - Lisa Scottoline

Ellen Gleeson reached the mommy track via an unconventional route: after writing an article about a sick boy in a Philly hospital, the thirty-something single reporter ended up adopting little Will when his birth mother relinquished him. Now three, Will’s the apple of his Mommy’s eye, and there’s no way she could conceive of her life without him.

No way, that is, until the card comes in the mail. You know the ones: white cardboard advertising circulars with the words “Have You Seen Me?” printed beside a picture on the back. Little Timothy Braverman, kidnapped two years ago in Florida, looked exactly like Will. And he was the same age. And some strange form of “adoptive-mother’s intuition” let Ellen know that the two were the same child…

Even though there were layoffs in the wind at her paper, Ellen knew it was up to her to prove that Will was not the missing boy. If doing so placed her job in jeopardy – not to mention maybe never seeing hunky Marcelo, her Brazilian editor, again – there was no comparison. And so Ellen began doing what good reporters do: she started her own investigation. But a strange thing happened along the way: people connected with the adoption kept dying…
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In case you hadn’t noticed, Lisa Scottoline hasn’t written a Rosato & Associates novel in years. The last time, she tells readers who make it to her afterword, was more than four years ago. Four years… could it have been that long? Well, when you consider that in those four years she gave us Cate Fante (Dirty Blonde), Vicki Allegretti (Devil’s Corner), and Natalie “Nat” Greco (Daddy’s Girl) in lieu of the amazonian women of Rosato-land, it’s pretty easy to forget that the last time Mary DiNunzio dithered her way across the page was in 2004’s Killer Smile. Problem one being, nothing much’s changed: DiNunzio is still a ditz, and Bennie Rosato only makes cameo appearances. That’s too bad: Bennie is the Philadelphia equivalent of V. I. Warshawski, and Mary… Mary… well, suffice it to say that the world does not need another Stephanie Plum…

For certain people, Hell is going to be a replay of high school. Apparently, that’s the way Mary DiNunzio sees it: pimples, braces, frizzy hair, and torment at the hands of the Mean Girls. So when the Meanest of the Mean Girls shows up in Mary’s office in search of help in fending off her abusive boyfriend; it feels like payback time. Whether bosom buddies or not, though, when Trish Gambone storms out of DiNunzio’s office, Mary can’t help but feel as if she’s failed.

Things get worse: Trish disappears. And then things get even worse… and a body’s involved.

Now at this point, it can either get worse or better: will Mary find Trish? Will Trish be charged with murder, and if so, can Mary put a Perry Mason finger on the real killer? And will the Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra fan clubs ever be on speaking terms again? Read Lady Killer and see… Read the rest of this entry »