Over the years, this will be my sixth review of a Lisa Scottoline novel. The last three books, including “Exposed”, which was released on Aug. 15, 2017, have been sent to me before the release date by the publisher. I really appreciate Lisa’s writing. However, to be fair to you, I almost feel like a manager of a sports team who is coaching his young son. Instead of favoring his son, he should be loving, but diagnostic, showing no favoritism so the son improves.
“Exposed” is the latest in the series of “Rosato & DiNunzio Novels”. Each novel has several of the same characters in it, which is fun for me because I like them. They include Bennie Rosato, the original head of the small law firm; Mary DiNunzio, the recently named equal partner of the firm; Mary’s parents; and Mary’s three “uncles” Tony from down the block, Pigeon Tony and Tony two feet. All of these South Philly characters add a huge Italian flair to the story and always emphasize the fact that family comes first and show it by helping one another whether showing their sympathy and love or by trying to solve the case that Mary is working on. Much levity is produced by this older generation. I personally would be pleased to have any of the octogenarian characters as my neighbors.
Mary, having made partner in the law firm, is known as a high achiever among her family and so many of her friends in South Philly. Her “cousin”, Simon (the son of Tony Two Feet), comes to her for help because his plate is overflowing. His wife died four years ago from an aneurysm, leaving him with an infant, Rachel, and Rachel is in Children’s’ Hospital of Philadelphia with leukemia, plus Simon is fired from his job as a salesman for OpenSpace, a company that produces cubicles for offices. Simon always reached his quota of sales for the 12 years he worked for OpenSpace and had good job reviews, except for the last month when his territory was reduced and his sales were down. He was sure his firing was the result of the medical bills he was submitting to his supervisor for Rachel. The company was responsible for the first $250,000 and his boss, Todd Eddington, complained about the expense several times. Simon asked Mary to represent him in a discrimination case under the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prevents discrimination in employment based on disability or illness of the employee or members of his family.
Yes, I know, that’s a rather long introduction. However, I feel I am entitled to it.
As I read the book, which was similar in organization to a previous book of Lisa’s I reviewed, I said to my wife, Barb, “I hope this isn’t like that other book I read of Lisa’s that took 150 pages to pick up steam with the story!” I was almost right. It took 154 pages in “Exposed”. That’s not to say the first half of the book was boring. It still was interesting to hear the character development and relationships of the people, which is where Lisa excels.
The magic to reading (as opposed to film), is that each reader can use his own imagination when picturing the characters in the book. Although there is an age difference, I always picture Lisa Scottoline as Mary DiNunzio.
Sir Walter Scott was so right when he said, “Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!”
All of us have admired the symmetry and beauty of a spider’s web as the sun highlights it. However, they are deadly traps when insects get caught in it. In “Exposed” the scheming villains from the OpenSpace Company and its parent company weave their own web of deceit, initially because of greed, followed by framing Simon, lawsuits and countersuits, a fiery death and a murder. Eventually, these conspirators get caught in their own web and pay the price.
I have one “rap” about the book that reminds me of my mother-in-law. When I was dating Barb all those years ago, since she lived only blocks away from me, I often visited her house for dinner. Her mother’s specialty was macaroni and cheese. She started off making the macaroni with one cheese and progressed to making it with four types of cheese. Not being able to improve it with additional cheese, she added olive oil. Whether it was too much olive oil or what, I can’t tell you. However, I used Barb as my intermediary to tell her mother to forget the olive oil. Likewise, Lisa Scottoline tried to spice things up by adding some sexual references to “Exposed”. My advice to Lisa is to forget the sex. It not only doesn’t improve the book, but damages it. Your writing is good enough without it!
Jeff Hall, Honey Brook, contributes columns for Tri County Record and Berks-Mont Newspapers.
