Mistaken Identity

Lisa 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 Mistaken Identity, her most thoughtful, riveting, and richest novel yet. Life 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?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.A legal thriller, a courtroom drama, and an exploration of the emotional bonds that define our lives and those we love, Mistaken Identity 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.