Rates a solid “good” for me. Not great, not the best ever, but quite good. This is only the second Lisa Scottoline book I’ve read, but so far it confirms that the most interesting part about her books is the character development. In some books, especially in the legal-/mystery-thriller genres, you’re really more interested in the mystery than in the actual characters. The suspense builds as the action moves forward, regardless of whether the characters are well written or not. In Scottoline’s case, it’s the characters that keep you interested. Which is not to say the mystery wasn’t good – I was just as surprised as Mary was at the end to find out the identity of her tormentor. But I enjoyed getting to know Mary and the people around her, and that was as big a part as anything else motivating me to keep turning the pages to find out what happens next?

Quick plot summary: Mary DiNunzio is the South Philly Italian-American girl who made good, went to law school and became a skilled lawyer on the brink of partnership at a Philly power firm. Just when the competition for partnership starts heating up, Mary starts getting some unwelcome attention: she gets hang-up calls at home, chilling anonymous notes at work, and realizes that someone in a big, dark car is following her on the streets. Is the harassment related to the partnership race? Is it someone with a twisted romantic interest in her? Is it both? She’s in danger, her friends are in danger, and there’s plenty of potential suspects in her office alone to keep her on edge.

In the end, the mystery sort of resolves itself, without a lot of sleuthing on anybody’s part, but again, what really moves the story forward is not the mystery’s twists and turns, but the character and the world that Scottoline creates. Mary is smart and likeable, with a couple of top-shelf friends ready to take one on the chin for her, or kick some sense into her, as the situation requires. She’s also got a full and realistic home story, with her parents still cooking age-old Italian recipes and rooting for the home teams back in South Philly, and even a distant twin sister, long ago disappeared into a convent (this is Catholic, Italian South Philly, remember?) but still ever-present in their lives. What gets Mary through the chaos she is living through is not the cops or detectives or legal maneuvering. It’s the people she holds on to, that hold on to her, that get her through the day.