Scottoline’s 13th novel, DIRTY BLONDE, is the first one of hers I’ve read. It’s designed and marketed as a courtroom thriller, but it’s really a comedy of legal manners. The whodunit element is the thread that runs throughout the novel, but the killer is revealed in such an oh-yeah-I-almost-forgot manner, you know the mystery couldn’t have been Scottoline’s main concern.
The protagonist is Cate Fante, newly appointed to a federal judgeship. She’s young, sexy, funny and a rising star. She’s the one who employs the law clerks no other judge in the building would tolerate. Her best friend, a single mom, has an autistic son and the three of them form a close family, the only one Cate has.
But Her Honor has a self-destructive quirk: She likes anonymous sex with scruffy guys she picks up in the sleaziest bars in Philadelphia. Does it seem likely? Not hardly, but it makes for an unusual plot entry point.
When she has to rule against someone she likes in court, murder and suicide are the results. Her private life is uncovered and makes headlines, and then she finds on her tail a rogue cop who thinks she’s responsible for the crimes, her tight-ass stockbroker boyfriend dumps her, and a couple of fellow judges think they can force her to resign.
Some of these paths don’t go anywhere. Much is made of the boyfriend until he plays his big scene and breaks off their relationship, then we never hear from him again. The rogue cop tries to kill Cate in the book’s best action scene, but after that, he turns into a comic figure.
It’s all a lot of fun – Scottoline is quick with a one-liner and Cate is a charming companion. The narrative is third-person, but we never leave her side, and I guess we’re to assume that whatever causes her sexual hang-up doesn’t manifest itself in any other way. But the storytelling feels so loosey-goosey, I can’t imagine ever wanting to reread the book. This is one of the ones libraries were made for. –Doug Bentin
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