Legal Tender

Edgar winner Lisa Scottoline returns to the courtroom with a taut and intriguing legal thriller where the search for justice turns into a fight to the death.

Benedetta ‘Bennie’ Rosato may be tall, blonde and built to last, but she’s no sucker for a man in uniform. She’s a maverick lawyer who prosecutes police misconduct and excessive-force cases, and business at her firm of Rosato & Biscardi has never been better.

Bennie’s latest client is Bill Kleeb, an activist roughed up by the police during a demo at Furstman Dunn, a pharmaceutical company. It’s an open-and-shut case of police brutality until Kleeb confesses that the protests are only part of the story. Angered at Furstman Dunn, Kleeb’s group plans a far more violent punishment for the company’s president.

Then, without warning, a savage murder tears Rosato & Biscardi apart. All the evidence points to Bennie, who has motive aplenty and a dubious alibi. Her world turns upside down, as the lawyer becomes the client, and the cops she once prosecuted are now after her — with a vengeance.

To prove her innocence, Bennie must unmask the real killer, but just as she gets close, another murder takes place, and Bennie finds herself indicted for a double homicide — a crime punishable by death… So Bennie runs for her life, armed only with her wits and her courage. She’ll find the real killer. Or die trying.