Mary, Mary, Never Quite Contrary: DiNunzio gets a New BFF

 Lady Killer - Lisa Scottoline

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 still 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 an hour later, Mary can't help but feel as if she's failed - failed the old neighborhood, if nothing else.

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...

Though it ought to feel like home to have ditzy Mary DiNunzio in my lap once more, it really doesn't. The woman remains as irritatingly irresolute as ever; agonizing over the tiniest decision and making mental notes (just like all of the Rosato associates, for some reason). For a thirty-something widow with a JD and a relatively successful law career, she's surprisingly childlike. Perhaps it's from having remained tied to her mother's apron strings too long... Would that Mama "Veet" DiNunzio had given her daughter a healthy dollop of common sense along with her tomato sauce, eh?

This time out, to tell the truth, readers are treated to a side of Mary they've not seen before, a sort of Catholic school girl walk on the wild side (with subtitles in Latin). Though it doesn't make her any less a ditz - she basically remains a Stephanie Plum clone that's passed the bar exam - the revelations do humanize her a bit., though the constant vacillation over "What to do! What to do!" remains wearing. As with any Scottoline novel, there's a definite pattern: Mary's one of those heroines who will muddle through even if she can't get cell phone reception or the heel breaks on her Blahniks - and trust me, one (or more likely both) of those will happen wherever Mary goes. 

Also like most Scottoline novels, there's little suspense in Lady Killer, not that that's necessarily a bad thing: at least she's not Alex Cooper flitting into every unlit space on Manhattan Island. DiNunzio's danger is more the intellectual kind than the mortal kind. All of which rather makes me wonder: though the series is ostensibly about the women of Rosato and Associates, most of the books are about DiNunzio, with one about Anne Murphy. For my money, however, the best in the series are about the boss, Bennedeta Rosato, who sat first chair in a couple of novels (Legal Tender and Dead Ringer). So, Lisa, here's my request: can we have some more Bennie, please? I for one am getting tired of DiNunzio. I keep expecting to see her reunited with the twin sister from whom she was separated at birth - that Plum gal from Joisey.

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