Scottoline, Lisa. Mistaken Identity. Harper Paperbacks, 2012.
Reason read: to continue the series started in December in honor of Pennsylvania becoming a state.
Bennie Rosato is a former criminal lawyer who specialized in police misconduct. She spent her career suing the police department.
Confessional: there are so many things I question about this story. A woman jailed for killing a cop reaches out to Bennie because she claims she is Bennie’s twin sister. Bennie just happens to be a criminal defense lawyer. For me, Bennie lost all credibility when she thought it was bizarre to get a DNA test to confirm or deny this claim. Surely Alice, the woman claiming to be her twin, would agree to it immediately if it were true. By doing so would put all doubt to bed. DNA is the irrefutable evidence that all lawyers, prosecutors and defense, love. Bennie claimed that at her core, blood mattered. Family mattered. If it is all that important, why did she consider taking a DNA test bizarre? I have to ask why Bennie is not more skeptical of Alice. Could it be possible that Alice researched Bennie’s life in order to mirror it as a twin? As a lawyer, wouldn’t Bennie be wary of con artists no matter what they look like?
Here is another weird one. Bennie notices Alice’s nails are shaped into neat ovals. If Alice has been in prison for over a year, is she visited by a manicurist? I doubt she would be allowed to have a nail file in her prison cell. And, And. And! I have to ask. Why would Bennie go to victim’s place of residence to cut her hair to look like Alice? How is it that the apartment is not rented to someone else after a year? Why is it that all of the accused belongings are still in the basement? Is Alice still paying rent? Like I said, so many questions!
Pet peeve: the writing tic is still there. Scottoline overuses “like a” simile to describe people an actions: like a riptide, like flames, like the sun, like a storm cloud, like a pinwheel, like a shadow, like an urban, like a kid… I could go on and on. As the saying goes…if I had a dollar for every time Scottoline writes the word like…
Author fact: Scottoline will celebrate a big birthday later this year.
Book trivia: Mary DiNunzio, from Everywhere That Mary Went, is portrayed as a bumbling law clerk in Mistaken Identity.
NEXIS is the go-to database for all Scottoline mysteries. I guess WestLaw wasn’t a thing.
Music: Barry White, Bruce Springsteen, and “Ave Maria.”
BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Philadelphia” (p 179).
~*LunaSea*~ 