{"product_id":"9781470853945","title":"Mistaken Identity","description":"   \u003cp\u003eLisa Scottoline continues to enthrall a growing legion of critics and fans  with her superb talent for creating gripping, unpredictable stories that  rival the best of John Grisham, Scott Turow, and Richard North Patterson.  Filled with twisting plots, unforgettable flesh-and-blood characters, and  absorbing dramatic tension, her previous national bestsellers have propelled  her into the top ranks of legal suspense. Now, this acclaimed author is back  with\u003ci\u003eMistaken Identity\u003c\/i\u003e, her most thoughtful, riveting, and richest novel  yet.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLife holds few surprises for Bennie Rosato, head of her own Philadelphia law firm. As a criminal attorney now specializing in police misconduct cases,  she's seen the noblest and most deviant aspects of human nature. But nothing can prepare her for the moment she enters a maximum-security prison to meet her new client, Alice Connolly, face to face. Accused of brutally murdering  her lover, a highly decorated police detective, Connolly claims the police  framed her. A defendant protesting her innocence is not unusual for Bennie.  What shocks her is that Connelly bears an uncanny physical resemblance to  her. \"Pleased to meet you. I'm your twin. Your identical twin,\" Connolly tells the astonished lawyer. But Bennie grew up as an only child, or so she thought. She has a law firm, a handsome young lover, and a golden retriever;  she doesn't have a twin. Or does she? \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Connolly knows too many intimate details about Bennie's life and family for the resemblance to be just coincidental. And there is something about the woman that compels the intrigued attorney to defend her, against her better judgment. Taking the case with the trial only a week away, Bennie plunges into the mystery of the murder, as well as her own identity and her family's dark secrets. Is Connolly innocent? And is she Bennie's unknown sister? It is not until Bennie takes the case to verdict that she will finally learn the truth, which threatens to change her life. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA legal thriller, a courtroom drama, and an exploration of the emotional bonds that define our lives and those we love,\u003ci\u003e Mistaken Identity\u003c\/i\u003e is a masterful achievement that takes the legal thriller to a new level as it resoundingly confirms Lisa Scottoline's place as one of the premier writers of suspense fiction today.  \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Lisa Scottoline has been praised as \"the female John Grisham\" by People Magazine and confirms that honor with her taut new thriller,\u003ci\u003e Mistaken Identity\u003c\/i\u003e. Kirkus, in a starred review, calls it her \"biggest book yet\" and the Coca Cola Company chose \u003ci\u003eMistaken Identity\u003c\/i\u003e to promote the pleasures of reading by putting an excerpt in 10 million packages of Diet Coke.   \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cblockquote\u003e  Interview with Lisa Scottoline   \u003cp\u003e  Q: What first gave you the inspiration to write?   \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e  Scottoline: I don't know, to tell you the truth. I was very happy as a  lawyer, but when my life changed and I had a child, I had to find another  way to earn a living. Basically, I saw that John Grisham and other male  writers were making a lot of really good stories out of being a trial  lawyer. And I thought, why are there no women doing this? I mean, I had  studied English when I was in school at Penn, and I thought, gee, I should  be able to do this. So, the impetus was seeing the genre explode, and  understanding that there was a niche that wasn't being filled.   \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e  Q: How is writing a new novel similar to preparing for a trial?   \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e  Scottoline: That's an interesting question. Actually, it is very similar,  particularly with suspense. My aim is to make the books move fast,  especially with\u003ci\u003e Mistaken Identity\u003c\/i\u003e, which works on a lot of different levels.  As a trial lawyer, you are trained to figure out which sentences matter, and  throw out the ones that don't matter. You get up before a jury and tell them  only the important facts, in exactly the order you want, so that you will  produce in your audience a reaction. And that is exactly what I aim to do on  the page; suspense to me means including only the relevant sentences to  create a book readers won't want to put down. For Bennie Rosato, the  protagonist of\u003ci\u003e Mistaken Identity\u003c\/i\u003e, I ask what are the sentences that will  make people understand her view of the world, understand her.   \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e  Q: Tell me a little of your view of characterization.   \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e  Scottoline: I think characterization matters a lot, particularly in legal  thrillers. I've read quite a few books in this genre, and the stuff that  used to fly--like Earl Stanley Gardner or Perry Mason--just doesn't work any  more. Not to detract from those books, they're wonderful, but people are  much more sophisticated today in their knowledge of law, legal ethics, and  what actually happens in a court room. The O.J. case educated everybody, you  know? For example, in my book\u003ci\u003e Rough Justice\u003c\/i\u003e, which was published pre-O.J., I  had to define what a sidebar was. Now, during the O.J. trial, people were  running around with pins that said \"Too Many Sidebars.\" It was remarkable!  So, for me, that trial saved me a ton of time, because I didn't have to  define things for people anymore. But it also put on extra demands to make  each book even more compelling since readers won't buy that a lawyer can  crack somebody on the witness stand, because that really doesn't happen. In  Perry Mason's day people thought it could, but it doesn't. So today [the  legal thriller] has to be written at a higher level.   \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e  Q: How much \"trial preparation\"--which is to say, firsthand research--do you  like to do before sitting down to write?   \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e  Scottoline: Tons. For instance, I took boxing lessons for\u003ci\u003e Mistaken Identity\u003c\/i\u003e.  It would have been easy to write \"the girl who goes into the gym and doesn't  know what she is doing\" character. But for the plot, I also had to create a  credible boxer, and that is why I had to hang out with some boxers. The  lessons were a great vehicle for that level of credibility. I'm still a  lousy boxer, but now I've got my details down.   \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e  Q: Obviously you don't have be a good boxer to write well about it.   \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e  Scottoline: As Norman Mailer proved, or Joyce Carol Oates! She actually  wrote a nice piece on boxing. But I think I could take her once I got my jab  going.   \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e  Q: Your new book,\u003ci\u003e Mistaken Identity\u003c\/i\u003e, is inspired by something that really  happened to you.   \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e  Scottoline: Not too long ago, I learned that I had a sister I didn't know  about. Ironically, I had always wanted a sister, and it was a little  startling to actually find out, past the age of thirty, that I had one. She  was searching for her birth parents, and that was how she found me. I mean,  I thought I had known my family boundaries, and suddenly, here was this  total stranger who looked a lot like me. So, questions obviously arose like  where does she fit in, and how does it feel to have this person in my life?  When something that cool happens to a writer, you have to use it!   \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e  Q: What was your toughest challenge writing\u003ci\u003e Mistaken Identity\u003c\/i\u003e? What  narrative problem kept you up at night?   \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e  Scottoline: Every single thing. I sweat every single page, every sentence.  And this book was something even more challenging, trying to mix a family  story with a courtroom case with a thriller. I had no interest in simply  writing the Scottoline family saga, but I wanted to use that story of the  sisters in an entertaining book you can't put down. I feel very strongly  about that: for $24 the reader had better be entertained.   \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e  Q: The first chapter of\u003ci\u003e Mistaken Identity\u003c\/i\u003e was posted on your web site and  you invited visitors to give you editorial feedback. What was that like?   \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e  Scottoline: The response was amazing, and very helpful. Like any writer, I'm  alone in a garret, not sure that what I am producing is working. And I  thought it would be interesting to communicate with readers and people who  are interested in writing. It would be a new way of getting feedback. I'm  told that Kurt Vonnegut (and others) used to go around and read his works in  progress. The tradition of reading works in progress made a lot of sense  when you could travel around, but that wasn't convenient for me. So I posted  it on my site. I mean everyone posts a chapter, a teaser, but the innovation  here was to post a work that wasn't yet finished, still in the writing  stage. Thousands of people edited that chapter, and I read every single one  of them. The experiment was very interesting, and I will undoubtedly do it  again.   \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e  Q: What is behind Bennie's law firm, what gave you the idea to make it all  female?   \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e  Scottoline: I just didn't want to write a series character. Some writers of  legal thrillers like them, such as Scott Turow, who has recurring people.  The other example is John Grisham whose books are stand-alones. But I wanted  to have a little of both, so I thought why not do an ensemble, in this case  the law firm. And since I tended to be doing women lawyers--straight out of  the \"write what you know\" school--I decided to put them all in the same firm  to see what would happen. It's fun, because they have quite different  personalities--though they are all, suspiciously, blonde.   \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e  Q: Bennie is a strong character, sufficiently strong, it seems, to carry a  TV or feature film. Is that something you want to pursue?   \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e  Scottoline: Well, yes, [the book] was optioned for a TV series. I think the  development company saw the same continuing possibilities as I did about  these twins, Bennie and Alice.   \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e  Q: From Court TV to Judge Judy, Americans seem obsessed with legal issues.  Why do you think law is such an entertainment commodity to us?   \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e  Scottoline: Because it's very dramatic, life and death stuff.   And more than that it is all about winning and losing. Every day, when I  practiced law, I won or lost two or three things--a motion here, or a trial  decision there. Vast sums of money change hands. Things happen, and the  lawyer is very much a player in that drama. Lawyers can be very interesting,  effective people. And I also get a sense, from the email I receive from  readers, that in addition to the characters, they really enjoy the question  about justice and ethics. You know, what is justice? What is just in a  certain situation? That is constantly fascinating to people, and every day  there is a new compelling legal story on the news. Every case is a great  story: each is personal, emotional, and a tale about justice. How can you  beat that!? You can't!     \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/blockquote\u003e  ","brand":"HarperCollins Publishers","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47062151004400,"sku":"9781470853945","price":44.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781470853945_p0.jpg?v=1763596489","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781470853945","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}