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...

"Irreparable Harm" - Lightweight Legal Fluff from Melissa F. Miller, Esq.

Irreparable Harm - Melissa F. Miller

Meet Sasha McCandless, Russo-Irish-American lawyer for what pretty much has to be the only white-shoe firm in Pittsburgh, PA. When one of the firm’s biggest clients, a hometown airline, suffers a major incident; Sasha’s on the case like white on rice. Little does she know that an evil tech guru brought down the company’s airliner with a bit of electronic wizardry and some good old-fashioned chicanery. As Sasha sashays from office to courtroom to suburban DC, along the way she picks up an Asian-American air marshal and a posse of Ukrainian hitters who’ve somehow figured out that she knows too much. Luckily for Sasha, the 5-foot-0 97-pound lawyer found time during all those 80-hour work weeks every lawyer (supposedly) works to become world-class in krav maga, capable of disarming and beating up not just big goons but also trained lawmen. Must be nice…