After reading the terrible 1st to Die by James Patterson and being exceedingly disappointed, I picked up another mystery, hoping this one would have good characters and a good mystery.Plot:Anne Murphy is a lawyer for an all-female firm who is defending a CEO friend who is accused of sexual harassment. Anne goes to the coast for a break to study her case when she sees in the newspaper she is dead. She rushes back to Philadelphia to find her murderer before he/she realizes that she didn't die.Good:This was a rather enjoyable book. I liked Anne Murphy, her sense of humor (which frequently had me in stiches, particularly at the beginning), the overall plot line (never have read anything quite like this), and even the scenes with her cat (which I found rather cute, but that is just me).Bad:There were a few problems that keep me from wholeheartedly recommending the book. The first problem I had was that the book was too long. About halfway through, I grew tired and had to force myself to continue reading. By the time I got to the end, I should have been excited. However, I was just glad it was over.Next, Anne's character was a little all over the place. Her infatuation with "I Love Lucy", while good in and of itself, seemed way too obsessive. I have a hard time believing that someone could remember airdate, episode number, and name (maybe episode number or name, but airdate?). I love LOST, but I can't remember the the episode name or number much less the airdate (and most of those episodes aren't even three years old!). But, even assuming that this made sense (it theoretically could for an obsessive freak), I felt that the references were placed into the story inappropriately. What also made Anne's character more than a little annoying was how stupid she was one moment (leaving her underwear at someone's house) and then how clever she was the next minute (stealing Judy's keys and car). I know we all have ditzy moments, but I felt some of her actions were out of character.Every single opportunity, the author wants to make sure we have it memorized (and preferably tattooed) that Anne is absolutely, positively, excrutiatingly gorgeous (even with her scar). Oh, please! We get the picture! Not every man is going to fall all over her for goodness sake! And it made me kinda upset when Mary's parents kept saying (like twice a page) how pretty Anne was. If I was Mary, I would be half tempted to run to my room and cry!Last beef: what is up with the whole Mrs. DiNuzzio scene? What was that for? It had almost nothing to do with the plot!Dialogue/Sexual Situations/Violence:F-word is a favorite, along with typical d***, h***, sh**. Anne sleeps with opposing attorney; a case centers around whether or not her CEO friend forced an employee to sleep with him. We get vivid descriptions of the woman mistaken as Anne after she has been shot and how the room looks like afterward.Overall:This wasn't a bad book. I loved the humor, grew attached to Anne (and her history with her mother), and the plot. However, Anne is not consistent as a character, and many of the things she does are completely off-the-wall. Definitely a funny read, but not for everyone.
Lisa Scottoline’s COURTING TROUBLE is a novel she wrote back in 2002, a continuation of her series about an all-female law firm. It had seemed to me that Scottoline likes to present legal dilemmas, and I said so when I reviewed another of the books in this series. But COURTING TROUBLE doesn’t do that to the extent those other books did. While there is a legal dilemma, a sexual harassment case, that seems to be just a sideline to the real action: one of the law firm’s newer associates’ life is being threatened.Anne has recently moved to Pennsylvania from California, where a man had stalked and attempted to murder her. He has de Clérambault’s syndrome (also called erotomania), the delusional belief that someone (Anne in this case) is in love with him. But he’s in jail now, Anne thought.Surprise, Anne, he’s here!So the other associates, Judy and Mary, and the law firm’s owner, Bennie, join Anne’s search for the escaped convict. And it all takes place over the 4th of July weekend, making for lots of crowds in Philadelphia but easy disguises.This is a book I would have liked when I was young, say high school age, and many other people would enjoy this as I would have then. But I found it to be a bit Nancy Drewish mixed with romance. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. But it all seems silly in a book purported to be a thriller.Therefore, the book hit me the wrong way. I read it, though, because it deals with de Clérambault’s syndrome.I first read about de Clérambault’s syndrome in an Ian McEwan novel, ENDURING LOVE (not a romance novel, in spite of its title, and which I highly recommend). This novel involves a married man who is stalked by another man who has de Clérambault’s syndrome, although, as stated in an appendix to ENDURING LOVE, the “subject” with de Clérambault’s syndrome is usually a woman who has an intense delusional belief that a man, the “object,” usually of higher social standing, is in love with her.COURTING TROUBLE would have been a far better book, certainly more interesting, if de Clérambault’s syndrome had been more central than the activities of the four lawyers (Anne, Bennie, Judy, and Mary), which came off as corny. If the “subject” had been described, maybe even examined, from the beginning of his delusion, if the story included the time before he was imprisoned and after he escaped, I might have taken it seriously.But I did find interesting one paragraph in COURTING TROUBLE: “. . . It was an erotomanic who stalked Madonna and Martina Hingis. And Meg Ryan. The man who killed that TV actress, Rebecca Schaeffer? He had de Clérambault’s.”
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I met Lisa Scottoline several years ago at a signing when I was a bookseller. I hung out with her for a couple of hours, and she was a delight. She was funny, entirely down to earth, and just a nice, warm person. This book was good, my Italian grandmother would have loved it. I hate to say it, because I liked the woman so much, and I really wanted to love her books, but this is just not my cup of tea. I don't want to assign gender roles inappropriately, so suffice it to say that there was entirely too much discussion of shoes for my taste. She gets the law right, and doesn't dumb it down (she was a lawyer, and obviously knows her stuff), and she's funny. But it's very female humour. It's very girls hanging out talking about guys and what it's like to be a woman humor. It's oh my gawd I can't believe she said that, she's so bad! humor. Objectively, I can tell it's good stuff, it's just not my bag. Someday I may try another of her books (I bought 3 or 4 used hardbacks right after I met her and never got around to reading them), but they're not on the top of my list.
—Sean Camoni
I was just sort of "meh" on this one. There was a murder, there was a mistaken identity, there was some crazy stalker action .... but this one wasn't as strong as some of the Scottolines I've read. I did like the friendship aspect, and the Lucille Ball asides were kind of cute, but ... it was basically just a break.In fairness, one of the Goodreads reviews I skimmed when I added this to my list mentioned how this one was brand-crazy, and that reviewer was right. Anywhere the author could place an item, it was branded. Blahniks (not "pumps" or "heels"), VW bug (not just "car"), Shalimar, Reeboks, Ivory soap ... it went on and on. Even Mrs. DiNunzio's olive oil was branded. Not sure if that was all paid product placement, or the author just really wanted to be *that* specific, but it did seem excessive, and was a little distracting. One other odd thing in this book was the "mental notes". I think we were to assume they belonged to Anne Murphy, but they were oddly placed. Some were funny; some were just kind of "duh" commentary -- like the author wanted to make sure we got the joke.As I said, meh. And a shoulder shrug.
—Antof9
Lisa Scottoline might not write great stories, but she writes most entertaining often funny mysteries - unbelievable as they may be, this one, Courting Trouble, is just as entertaining as the others. It is fast pace as promised. In fact so fast paced that if I had done all the heroine, young beautiful attorney, Anne Murphy, did in three days, WOW! I'd be dead like citizens in this book think she is. Anne is the latest hired attorney at tough Bennie Rosato's law firm. The other attorney, all females, aren't very welcoming to her until she is pronounced dead - well, somebody's dead - not Anne though. Over the big Phily Fourth of July celebration the murder and the sluething of it takes place. It's cuddly girlfriend kind of thriller and at the blood is very minimal - which I appreciate more and more in mysteries and thrillers and still I wanted to know - who-done-it? Yes, I will keep reading Ms.. Scottoline's books.
—June Ahern
