Synopses & Reviews
Cate Fante is strong and sexy and wears designer suits like overpriced armor. She's just become a judge but leads a dark double life that she hides from everyone.
Her cover is blown when a high-profile case in her courtroom takes a stunning turn. Overnight the tabloids tell her secret, her boyfriend dumps her, and her new career hangs in tatters. But Cate's troubles are only beginning. An enemy no one anticipated sends her running for her life, and she'll have to fight her way back to the truth . . . or die trying.
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“Assured way with dialogue.” Entertainment Weekly
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“Scottoline...renders snappy dialogue and vivid descriptions of her native Pennsylvania in this engaging...suspense about consequences and truths.” Booklist
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“Breathless thriller...If a good roller-coaster is what you want, step up and have your ticket punched.” People
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“Another winner...[a] fast-paced, entertaining yarn....Scottoline is a pro. She knows how to keep the pages turning.” Philadelphia Inquirer
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“Quick-witted.” Seattle Times
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“Compelling...sure-footed mastery” Kirkus Reviews
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“[An] explosive novel about legal entanglements that is hard to resist.” Orlando Sentinel
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“Compelling...the fast pace and ever-increasing tension will keep readers turning the pages.” Publishers Weekly
Synopsis
New York Times bestselling author Lisa Scottoline delivers a gripping stand-alone thriller that features a female judge who gets into trouble when the defendant in a high-profile lawsuit is killed
Lawyer Cate Fante, who is attractive, sexy, and tough-minded, has just been appointed to the federal bench in Philadelphia. With her new status in the elite meritocracy that is the federal judiciary, she often feels like an imposter because of her working-class background. For instance, at a fancy dinner, she's more likely to joke with the waiters than her colleagues. Divorced, Cate also has a secret sex life. She's attracted to bad boys and working-class men, like the ones she grew up with in the former coal-mining town of Centralia in northeastern Pennsylvania.
Cate is presiding over a high-profile multi-million dollar breach-of-contract lawsuit in which a former Philly ADA is suing the producer of a highly successful TV series for stealing his ideas. All true, but the verbal contract isn't enforceable. As difficult as it is, this means that Cate has to make a ruling that ends the lawsuit in the sleazy TV guy's favor. Cate learns that being a judge doesn't always mean that she can do justice.
Upset over the ruling she had to make, Cate heads for a bar and there meets a good-looking rough-hewn leather-jacketed hunk and goes off with him to a nearby motel. Cate quickly realizes she's made a mistake, apologizes and turns to leave, but the guy becomes aggressive and Cate barely manages to get out of the room. At home, she turns on the local news to learn that the TV producer from her court case has been shot to death outside a local restaurant. Not only that, but she soon also finds out that a man has been found dead after a fall from a motel's exterior staircase. A stricken Cate recognizes instantly the pictures of the leather-jacketed man who'd attacked her at the hotel.
Things go from bad to worse in a hurry, and amazingly Cate finds her private life splashed all over the papers and her job in jeopardy. Her only hope is to clear her name and find a murderer.
Synopsis
"A breathless thriller. . . . If a good roller-coaster is what you want, step up and have your ticket punched."--People
A female judge finds her life and her career on the line when the defendant in a high-profile lawsuit is killed in this riveting and stylish novel of greed, murder and justice, from New York Times #1 bestselling author Lisa Scottoline.
Attractive, sexy, tough-minded Cate Fante has just been appointed to the federal bench in Philadelphia. Uncomfortable among the elite meritocracy of the federal judiciary, the hard-charging woman with working class roots secretly indulges her taste for bad boys and men who work with their hands, like those she knew growing up in an old northeastern Pennsylvania coal-mining town.
Presiding over a high-profile multi-million-dollar lawsuit, Cate quickly learns that being a judge doesn't always mean she can do justice. While a wronged former Philly ADA has the moral high ground, the sleazy television producer he's suing has the law on his side.
Upset over the trial's outcome, Cate wants to forget with a few drinks and a night of anonymous sex. But when she realizes she's made a mistake, the stranger she picked up becomes aggressive, and she barely escapes without getting seriously hurt. For Cate though, the trouble has only begun. Returning home, she learns that the TV producer from her court case has been murdered. Then the body of her failed one-night stand is discovered.
Suddenly Cate's secret private life is splashed across the media and her job is in jeopardy. Her only hope is to find a murderer and clear her name. But can she uncover the truth before the cold-blooded killer silences her?
Synopsis
Attractive, sexy, and tough-minded, Federal judge Cate Fante's world is thrown into turmoil when her secrets are revealed and both her job and her life become threatened in this gripping new thriller by a "New York Times" bestselling author.
About the Author
Lisa Scottoline is the New York Times bestselling author of thirteen novels. She has been given the Fun Fearless Female Award by Cosmopolitan magazine and has also won the Edgar Award for excellence in writing suspense fiction. She serves on the board of the National Italian American Foundation and the Mystery Writers of America. A former trial lawyer, Lisa also teaches Justice and Fiction at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, her alma mater. Her books are published in more than twenty languages, and she remains a lifelong resident of the Philadelphia area.