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Fiction. Mystery. Thriller. HTML: Blockbuster author Lisa Scottoline returns to the Rosato & Associates law firm with Betrayed, and maverick lawyer Judy Carrier takes the lead in a case that's more personal than ever. Judy has always championed the underdog, so when Iris, the housekeeper and best friend of Judy's beloved Aunt Barb, is found dead of an apparent heart attack, Judy begins to suspect foul play. The circumstances of the death leave Judy with more questions than answers, and never before has murder struck so close to home. In the meantime, Judy's own life roils with emotional and professional upheaval. She doesn't play well with her boss, Bennie Rosato, which jeopardizes her making partner at the firm. Not only that, her best friend Mary DiNunzio is planning a wedding, leaving Judy feeling left behind, as well as newly unhappy in her relationship with her live-in boyfriend Frank. Judy sets her own drama aside and begins an investigation of Iris's murder, then discovers a shocking truth that confounds her expectations and leads her in a completely different direction. She finds herself plunged into a shadowy world of people who are so desperate that they cannot go to the police, and where others are so ruthless that they prey on vulnerability. Judy finds strength within herself to try to get justice for Iris and her aunt�??but it comes at a terrible price.… (more)
User reviews
The main character Judy Carrier is an attorney working for all woman firm. She was hoping to make partner but got passed over in favor of best friend, Mary DiNunzio. Her boyfriend, Frank De Luca lies with her but there are no plans for marriage. Judy has always had a closer relationship with her Aunt Barb than her own mother. She has not figured out why she is that way with her mother and just what kind of relationship she has with her boyfriend.
Judy and her mother are shocked to learn that Aunt Barb has stage II breast cancer. They are at Aunt Barb’s house when they meet Barb’s new friend, Iris Juarez. Judy is happy for her aunt to have a close friend that she rely but Judy’s mother is shocked and bewildered that Iris is an illegal alien. Iris gets a phone call and rushes off to work and is found dead in her car. It seems like a heart attack to the police.
Money laundering, mushroom growing and a drug cartel make this story pick up speed. Judy’s life is in danger. She sticks to her promise to her Aunt Barb to check out Iris’s death. Was it natural causes or could it have been murder? Also Judy walks into a deep secret that her family has been hiding from her. This book covers a lot of controversial and highly emotional topics.
I highly recommend this exciting mystery to everyone who loves mysteries they can’t stop reading.
I received this Advanced Reading Copy from the publishers as a win from First Reads. That in no way influenced my thoughts or feelings in my review.
Lisa Scottoline November 2014
St. Martin’s Press New York Pages. 352
Copy Courtesy of thereadingroom.com
Reviewed By: tk
When Judy Carrier’s goes to visit her Aunt Barb, and finds her mother is also visiting at the same time holds a little red flag for Judy.
Absolutely a brilliant novel. The twists and turns are unpredictable and amazing. I couldn’t stop turning the pages. Judy is an intelligent, independent strong character. Her life is complicated and represents the level of dedication to family, her career as an attorney, and she just can’t leave things alone. She wants answers. If you like intrigue, murder, love, and unending possibilities this is a fabulous tale that will leave you thinking about it long into the night. 5/5
Replete with unexpected plot twists to ramp up the story, this page-turner won’t disappoint.
Judy has just received some shocking news–her Aunt Barb has breast cancer and is undergoing a mastectomy in two days. She’s kept it a secret from Judy and her mother, Delia. Judy races to her home. Delia has already flown in from the West Coast. When she arrives, she meets Aunt Barb’s best friend, Iris Juarez, an undocumented Mexican who does chores for Barb and gardens with her. Iris is just leaving for another job.
Later that evening, the police knock on Barb’s door with the sad news that Iris had an apparent heart attack while driving and died at the side of the road. Barb is devastated. Avid gardeners both (Iris and Barb), Barb decides to plant a rose in Iris’ memory and asks Judy to go into the garage to find the bush that she and Iris were going to plant that weekend. Ever the curious lawyer, Judy stumbles across two coolers and looking inside one finds a significant amount of money—later determined to be almost $10,000. Of course, Judy thinks/realizes that Iris’s death and the money are related, leading to, in this reader’s humble opinion, a truly unbelievable, unrealistic story.
So, why am I betwixt and between? Because towards the end there were some touching family related scenes between mother and daughter. And those few pages were emotional enough to salvage what otherwise was an average tale.
A side plot concerns new business the firm received–determining settlement amounts for victims of asbestos. Unfortunately, they are on the manufacturer’s side, not the victims’, thus their goal is to minimize damage payments. Since Judy is concerned about her aunt and whether she will survive surgery and possible radiation, determining the ‘value of human life’ is not something Judy wants to do, is totally against the firm taking the business and her actually handling the settlements. While this would have been a more compelling story, it is wrapped up way too easily and totally unsatisfactorily, in my opinion.
As I said when reviewing The Burning Room by Michael Connolly, I think series authors get tired. There’s an expectation of a new book every 12 – 18 months, so they write but their enthusiasm wanes and that’s how I felt about Betrayed. I just didn’t feel any author enthusiasm.
Let me close by saying that if you think I’m getting persnickety in my old age and nothing will please me, I have read some great mysteries in the past year. Gripping stories. Great writing. Endearing characters. They are out there. Maybe just not from the old tried and true authors we’ve been reading for years. (Sermon over.)
Little does she suspect what she will discover. Along with the shocking revelation of Aunt Barbara’s diagnosis with breast cancer and impending surgery, there is the matter of Barbara’s close friend and housekeeper, Iris, an undocumented immigrant, who is found dead in her car later that evening of an apparent heart attack.
Judy, with her nose for investigation, suspects foul play. When things take a dark and violent turn as she digs deeper, it looks less and less like a heart attack was the cause of death. Most of the area’s immigrant workers are in the county illegally: the police know it and are looking the other way . . . perhaps, Judy suspects, because they are paid too. When Judy unearths a connection between Iris’s best friend going missing and more questionable financial dealings at the business where she worked, she is lucky to get out alive.
Determined not to let the grass grow under her feet and fall back into the mundane happenings once she’s able to return to her practice, Judy makes some life decisions that have repercussions for everyone at Rosato & Associates, thus setting up an interesting start for the next novel in this exhilarating series.
Little does she suspect what she will discover. Along with the shocking revelation of Aunt Barbara’s diagnosis with breast cancer and impending surgery, there is the matter of Barbara’s close friend and housekeeper, Iris, an undocumented immigrant, who is found dead in her car later that evening of an apparent heart attack.
Judy, with her nose for investigation, suspects foul play. When things take a dark and violent turn as she digs deeper, it looks less and less like a heart attack was the cause of death. Most of the area’s immigrant workers are in the county illegally: the police know it and are looking the other way . . . perhaps, Judy suspects, because they are paid too. When Judy unearths a connection between Iris’s best friend going missing and more questionable financial dealings at the business where she worked, she is lucky to get out alive.
Determined not to let the grass grow under her feet and fall back into the mundane happenings once she’s able to return to her practice, Judy makes some life decisions that have repercussions for everyone at Rosato & Associates, thus setting up an interesting start for the next novel in this exhilarating series.
Judy Carrier works at the all female law firm, Rosato and Associates. Her one goal is to become partner at the firm. When her aunt's friend, Iris, is found dead, it is believed to have been from heart issues. Judy and her aunt suspect there is much more
I really enjoyed the novel and would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of Lisa Scottoline and the Rosato and Associates series. The plot kept me guessing and on the edge of my seat.
I hate to say it, but I am starting to think of Scottoline's heroines as "smart women who do stupid things even when they should know better" and apparently the police force in and around Philadelphia is too stupid to solve cases without the help of the lawyers in Scottoline's world.
I don't really understand why Judy didn't want to tell her boss what the family emergency was (even on the day that her aunt was having a mastectomy) or why she didn't push harder to have the deposition scheduled for that day postponed.