The Vendetta Defense

You can't read past the first chapter of Lisa Scottoline's newest legal thriller without mentally casting the actor who might play Pigeon Tony, the charming and totally authentic defendant who's on trial for killing the man who raped and murdered his wife, destroyed his son and daughter-in-law in a staged "accident," and has threatened the life of his grandson. Robert De Niro's too threatening, Joe Mantegna's too young, Marlon Brando's too fat, but somewhere there must be a celluloid counterpart to one of the most delightful antiheroes in recent crime fiction. Meanwhile, this wonderful character study of a man of conscience on trial for a crime of passion will divert and entertain fans of Scottoline's previous novels about Bennie Rosato's high-estrogen Philadelphia law firm (Moment of Truth, Mistaken Identity).

When Judy Carrier, one of Bennie's attorneys, takes on Tony's defense, she's faced with a legal and moral dilemma. Tony admits that he killed Angelo Coluzzi, but insists it wasn't murder but vendetta, a justifiable payback for a blood crime committed nearly half a century ago and a continent away. The Coluzzi family knows about vendetta, too--they've got their own payback planned, and the trick for Judy is keeping Pigeon Tony (and herself) alive long enough to get them to trial. There's a complication de coeur when Judy falls in love with Tony's grandson, a hunky stonemason who will do for fences what Robert James Waller did for covered bridges (Clint Eastwood's too old, Brad Pitt's too young, etc.). But all's well that ends well in a tidy little read that will probably earn Scottoline another well-deserved shot at the bestseller list. --Jane Adams